If you are a working professional who wants to further his or her career and are wondering about how to get PMP® certification fast, you have clicked on the right article.
In this article, we tell you about some advantages that this certification comes with, how to get your PMP® certification successfully within 6 weeks and provide you with some tips to help you study better. We also talk about wonderful free and paid resources throughout the article, so keep on reading!
Why should you get the PMP® certification?
According to the Project Management Institute (PMI), PMP® certificate holders in the U.S. earn 25 percent more on average than those without the PMP® certification. This by itself is a good reason to get the PMP® certification.
But there are other advantages too, apart from the higher chances of greater remuneration. The PMP® certification is accepted in 80 countries around the globe, which means it is widely accepted.
Getting the PMP® certification also means higher demand for your labor, as companies are always on the lookout for more skilled employees. The certification serves as proof of your dedication to your craft and your vast knowledge and experience in your field. All this leads to you being valued better than your competitors without the PMP® certification in the job market. Thus, it will improve your chances of being employed at your dream companies and getting promoted.
A Guide On How to Get PMP® Certification Fast
Below are 13 steps you can try out in order to ace your PMP® exam and quickly get the PMP® certification.
Make sure you are eligible for the PMP®
Before we get into the details about getting PMP® certification fast, you need to check whether you meet PMI’s set of requirements for eligibility. The first and the most obvious one is that you need to have successful project management experience out in the real world.
Moving on, there are two sets of requirements based on whether or not you have a four-year degree. If you do, you will need to have 36 months of experience leading projects and 35 hours of project management education or training, or the CAPM®® Certification.
On the contrary, if you do not have a four-year degree, you can still sit for the PMP® exam. In that case, you would need to have a high school diploma, or an associate’s degree, or any such global equivalent. On top of that, you would need 60 months of experience leading projects and 35 hours of project management education or training, or the CAPM®® Certification.
If you meet the qualifications, congratulations. You are eligible. If not, try again after gaining more experience and/or training.
Become a Member of the Project Management Institute (PMI)
This will cost you some money, yes, but becoming a member of the PMI in the year that you want to sit for the PMP® exam will help you save some more money. How is that possible?
The exam fee for PMI members is US$405.00, whereas that for non-members is US$555.00. This means that members get a discount of US$150.00 when registering for the PMP® exam. The new membership fee for becoming a member of the PMI is US$139.00, which means even after taking the membership fee into consideration, you will still need to pay US$11.00 less for registering for the exam compared to candidates who are not members of the PMI.
However, membership renewal will cost you US$129.00 annually, which is why we recommend becoming a PMI member in the year that you want to take the PMP® exam.
Plus, you will get to download the PMBOK®® Guide for free, which is related to our next point.
Acquire the Official PMBOK®® Guide
“A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge” (PMBOK®® Guide) is a flagship publication of the PMI and an excellent resource for PMP® test candidates. It focuses on project planning inputs and outputs, techniques, etc., and is generally useful even for people not planning to take the PMP® exam. It is continually updated to reflect any changes made to the PMP® exams.
Seek Motivation
You have probably already heard about how tough passing the PMP® exam is. We are not trying to discourage you, but our research showed that the average passing rate has declined to below 68 percent. Such an extremely low pass rate should indicate how long hours of study you might need. So, if you weren’t feeling particularly enthusiastic about the PMP® certification before, it is high time that you seek motivation. Try talking to other PMP®s to know ways the certification helped them in their professional lives. Think of your ‘why’ – your reason behind pursuing the PMP® certification. Hold on to that why as you undertake this endeavor.
The more motivated you are to pass, the quicker you are likely to do so. Think about it like this- if you can pass it the first time around, you won’t have to go through the arduous journey again!
Register As Soon As Possible
Registering early on can give you the push you need to stop procrastinating. Registering will act as a deadline before which you will need to finish your preparation. It will also help you plan your study schedule as you will know the exact date of the PMP® exam.
After PMI is done checking your application to make sure that you are eligible for the PMP® exam, it will issue a confirmation number.
Enroll in the PMP® Bootcamp from ExamsPM (with a 98 percent Success Rate!)
The PMP® Bootcamp from ExamsPM is equipped to guide you on your journey to acing the PMP® exam. Our experienced instructors teach you the ins and outs of and help you build a solid understanding of the relevant concepts.
The classes are based on the PMBOK® 6th edition. The Bootcamp comprises 49 processes, 10 knowledge, and 5 process groups.
ExamsPM’s live instructor-led PMP® Bootcamp has an average success rate of 98 percent, so you can rest assured that our instructors know what they are doing.
If you enroll in the Bootcamp, you will also acquire lifetime access to all the study materials, recordings, and slides, which means you can revisit your lessons if you want to at any point in your life.
Other features of the PMP® Bootcamp:-
- Comes with the 35 contact hours certificate
- Contains 6 simulation exams
- Is updated for 2021 ECO
- Gives you a 100% Pass Guarantee
- Based on PMBOK® 6th Edition
- Taught by veteran PMP® trainers who teach you all about how to get PMP® certification fast
- More than 10,000 professionals have successfully trained in this Bootcamp
The best part? If you do not pass your PMP® exam within 6 weeks, ExamsPM will give you a full refund on your tuition. Yes, we are that confident in our abilities.
Visualize Your Journey
It is important to know why getting the PMP® certification is important to you. Make a schedule to ensure that you get a good number of hours each week. Make sure to keep some space for work obligations and your personal life.
Familiarize Yourself With the Exam Format
The updated PMP® exam focuses on three areas- people, process, and business environment.
The exam comprises 180 questions. You will get 230 minutes to finish your exam. You will also be granted one extra break for a maximum of two 10-minute-long breaks for the computer-based tests.
There are no scheduled breaks for paper-based exams, though. The exam questions will be a mixture of multiple-choice, multiple responses, matching, hotspot, and limited fill-in-the-blank. Familiarizing yourself with the format is important because it allows you to prepare in a planned and strategic way.
Think of Your Preparation As a Project In Itself
This may sound funny, but it is actually an interesting way to make yourself take accountability for your preparation and take the whole process seriously. Take it as a light project. Use a simple tool like a Gantt chart to map out what tasks need to be done in what order. This will help you track your progress and your speed as you go about your preparation.
Buy Books to Enhance Your Preparation
There are many books out there that all claim to tell you how to get PMP® certification fast. Most of them attempt to explain the content stated in the PMBOK®® Guide. Some contain practical tips to help you learn better. Read our article on the 10 best PMP® certification books to decide which ones seem the most suitable for you.
You retain more information when you use as many of your 5 senses as possible. Thus, subscribe to ExamsPM’s YouTube channel to aid visual learning.
Answer As Many Questions As You Can for Practice
The PMP® exam is not one of those tests where you can just memorize the syllabus content and regurgitate it all on the exam script. You will be given situation-based questions where you need to apply your knowledge to answer. For such questions, it is simply not enough to memorize loads and loads of material. You should practice answering similar questions to familiarize yourself with the necessary thinking patterns and improve your speed of answering.
Use ExamsPM’s PMP® Exam Simulator
You may wonder why you need a PMP® exam simulator. After all, there are hundreds of free questions on the Internet, right?
While that is true, many of these questions are not reflective of the actual exam standard questions. Moreover, many of us tend to slack off when taking practice exams by ourselves at home. There is nothing quite like the exam hall to make us push ourselves to do our level best.
Enter the PMP® exam simulator.
With over 1,500 realistic questions in our database, ExamsPM strives to provide you with a simulation similar to the real PMP® exam as possible. Much like the real PMP® examination, you can mark a question for review, skip a question, and go back to a question in our simulation.
The correct answers, along with explanations, will be provided once you are done answering. This will allow you to pinpoint where you went wrong and help you clarify concepts.
Talk to People Who Have Taken the Exam Before
Aside from motivating you with tales of how the PMP® certification has improved their careers, they can also give you tips they used to perform better.
Some Tips to Help You Study Better
These tips have made the lives of many PMP® candidates a bit easier. Try these out and see if these help you too!
Compile All the Formulas and Concepts in One Place
You will need to memorize many formulas and have a clear, robust understanding of concepts. Making formula sheets and condensing the material to write short notes on the important concepts can really help your revision before the big day. Making such tools make revising faster and more efficient.
Form a Study Group
Publicizing your goal is a good way to push yourself to stick to your routine and get things done in time because we all fear disappointing others. Forming a study group is thus a useful tactic to push yourself while also creating access to peers to reach out to for any study-related problems. It can also help to foster a sense of healthy competition and take practice exams together to get a sense of your relative performance.
Make Sure to Take Enough Breaks
Studying for the PMP® is an arduous task, especially on top of your work life. Remember to schedule breaks in your study routine to let yourself breathe a little.
Use Flashcards
Using flashcards to test yourself is a great quick way to see how much information you retain from your readings. Flashcards can help you learn the inputs, outputs, tools, and techniques included in the syllabus.
You can get physical scraps of paper to make flashcards or make digital ones online.
A Final Word of Advice
Studying for the PMP® exam is already difficult enough. Make your life a little easier with ExamsPM. Not only will we show you how to get PMP® certification fast, but we will also make sure you get enough practice to be able to tackle the exam fully prepared. And we do it all in a very short time.