PMP Certification Exam
No.
Application for PMP Certification is honor-based, meaning that PMI trusts project management professional (PMP) candidates to submit only truthful information about education and working experiences.
However, in order to ensure the quality of the PMP Certification, PMI does include a random audit process, this is when PMP applicants need to submit the supporting documents for:
- the degree / sub-degree education
- working experience
- 35 Contact Hours of project management education
Therefore, when you submit your PMP application, you will not be asked to attach any supporting documents. Once you receive an audit email / message, you will need to submit copies of the certificate, experience verification forms, etc. through postage to PMI in order to complete your application.
Language aids are a translation service offered by PMI for PMP candidates whose mother tongue is not English. This service is offered for FREE.
The translated question and answers will be displayed below the original English question and answers on the same page for computer based testing (CBT).
Language aids must be requested during:
- online payment for the PMP application; OR
- in the printed PMP application form
Currently, PMI provides language aids for the PMP Exam in the following languages:
- Arabic
- Hebrew
- Brazilian Portuguese
- Italian
- Chinese (Simplified)
- Chinese (Traditional)
- Japanese
- Korean
- French
- Russian
- German
- Spanish
- Turkish
PMI treats candidates equally whether they have made use of language aids or not. There is no indications in the PMP Certificate or on the online registry about when language aids are used.
Therefore, it is advisable to make use of a language aid for your PMP Exam if your mother tongue is not English.
Further reading: Using PMP Exam Language Aids for the PMP Certification
No.
Whether your PMI audit result is successful or not, PMI will not return the audit package to the PMP / PMI-ACP® applicant. Therefore, only photocopies of the certificates are required by PMI instead of the original ones.
PMI will need to retain the audit package according to its internal auditing procedures.
By becoming a member of PMI, you will gain access to a downloadable PDF file of the PMBOK® Guide (6th edition) for FREE. You are also allowed to print out a copy of the PMBOK® Guide for your personal use / exam prep.
PMI takes copyright infringement very seriously (as willful copyright infringement is a violation of the PMI Code of Ethics and Professional Conduct which may result in suspending of the PMI Certificate credentials). The downloaded PMBOK® Guide PDF is password protected and watermarked with the PMI membership number of the one who downloads it. And therefore it is unlikely to find FREELY available PMBOK® Guide PDF files on the internet.
Alternatively, you can also purchase a printed copy of the PMBOK® Guide from Amazon.
First and foremost, the PMP or PMI-ACP® candidate is not able to proceed with the certification application and examination. The certification fee paid will be refunded (with the subtraction of the processing fee).
There may be some follow-up actions by the PMI depending on the cause of failure of the PMI audit:
- if the audit fail is due to incomplete information (including the documents are sent to PMI in more than 1 package), no action may be taken by PMI, but the candidate will only be able to reapply to the certification 1 year later;
- if the fail is due to fraudulent information, PMI may take disciplinary actions (including banning from application to PMI certification for life) to the candidate in question as PMI takes integrity very seriously.
Therefore, when submitting the PMP application / PMI-ACP® application, always make sure you are entering truthful information. Honest is the best policy.
If you decide NOT to proceed with the PMI Audit for whatever reasons, e.g. time clashes, supervisor disagreed with your claimed time, personal issues, etc., you need not do anything. PMI considers it an automatic audit fail if it does not receive your audit package within 90 days of the notice of PMI Audit.
You will be able to apply again for the PMP Certification / PMI-ACP® Certification one year after your original PMP application / PMI-ACP® application submission date. But you should note that your application will be subject to a PMI Audit again.
According to the update history of PMBOK® Guide, PMI would release a new version of the PMBOK® Guide every 4 to 5 years in order to catch up with the changes in project management practices and trend (e.g. Agile project management is becoming much more important).
Currently the most current PMBOK® Guide update was on December 2012 which is several years ago. Thought there are “updates” to the PMBOK® Guide these few years, the majority of them are just correcting typos and logical errors. The PMBOK® Guide is in need of an update.
And PMI has made a lot of groundworks from 2012 in collecting feedback on the PMBOK® Guide 5th edition as well as noting the latest trends of project management.
PMI has announced that the PMBOK® Guide 6 will be released at around the following schedule:
- 1st quarter of 2017 for draft release
- 3rd quarter of 2017 for the final release — that’s around June 2017 (hopefully)
(Click here for a detailed discussion of what have been changed in PMBOK® Guide 6th edition — the changes are not many, unlike the major structural changes from PMBOK® Guide 4 to PMBOK® Guide 5.)
For Aspirants, the most pressing question should be when will the PMP Exam be changed to be based on PMBOK® Guide 6th edition.
Fortunately, PMI will allow current Aspirants to continue taking the PMP Exam based on the current version of the PMBOK® Guide for up to half a year.
That means the new PMP Exam update to be based on PMBOK® Guide 6th edition is in the first quarter of 2018.
Therefore it is safe and recommended to begin your PMP Exam preparation based on PMBOK® Guide 5th Edition as of now. Read here for the reasons.
Aspirants will only have to study for the exam based on PMBOK® Guide 6 if they begin their studies after Nov 2017 (an average PMP Aspirant will need around 2 months’ time to be well prepared for the exam).
Don’t be late for the PMP Exam. Arrive at the PMP Exam center at least 15 minutes earlier than the scheduled time. If you are late, the worst case is that you may be denied entry to the PMP Exam room. In such case, a ‘no-show’ status is implied, resulting in a fail for the PMP Exam. You will need to pay for the re-examination fee and re-schedule another timeslot for the exam.
However, some PMP Exam centers will exercise discretionary power to allow you to sit for the PMP Exam even though you are late (maybe probably for several minutes). But don’t count on that as this is different for different PMP Exam centers. It is therefore advisable to mark down the telephone number of your PMP Exam centre and ask for their policies once you have the feeling that you will be late for the exam.
For each set of 200 PMP Exam questions, only 175 will be counted towards your final score. The rest 25 questions are termed as “pretest questions” according to PMI.
Pretest questions can be considered as “trial” questions which are used to gather statistical information on the “validity” of the question. If the performance of the candidates on a pretest question is in accordance with normal distribution, PMI will consider adding the question to the question bank for the real PMP exam.
Otherwise, should too many or too few candidates are able to answer the pretest question correctly, the quality of the pretest question is in doubt and would probably not to be included in the real exam.
What has “pretest questions” to do with PMP candidates?
PMP candidates are affected by the pretest questions in the following way:
- Since pretest questions are distributed randomly in the set of PMP questions, PMP candidates will have no way to determine whether a question is “real” or “pre-test”.
- If many of the “pre-test” questions are too difficult to answer, this may adversely affect the psychological state and confidence of the candidate. This may directly affect the performance of the candidate in the real exam.
- PMP candidates may be tempted to spend too much time on the pre-test questions since some pre-test questions are not constructed clearly.
In my PMP Exam, the first 10 questions were very difficult that I spent more than expected time on that, I couldn’t but think that “will I fail the exam?”. Luckily, the rest questions were similar to what are on the sample question papers that I had tried before. I managed to get a pass in the first try.
My recommendation is to prepare well for the PMP Exam and ignore those “out-of-syllabus” questions by guessing the answer and move forward. Don’t be discouraged if many “out-of-syllabus” questions appear in a row or at the beginning of the exam. Remember to keep your cool and move on!
I have also shared other psychological preparation for you to ace the exam:
The ITTO (inputs, tools and techniques, outputs) of the PMBOK® Guide is by far one of the most “dreaded” question types of the PMP Exam. It really takes a great memory to remember all the 600+ ITTOs from the PMBOK® Guide in the PMP Exam preparation.
Many PMP aspirants would surely ask themselves: should I remember all the ITTOs?
In my PMP Exam, there are less than 4 questions about ITTOs (though as the PMP Exam questions sets are different for different PMP candidates, you may get more or fewer questions on ITTOs) – which is only 2% of all the PMP Exam questions. Among those 4 ITTO questions I encountered, only one was asking directly about which is the ITTO for the process. The other three were just kind of related to ITTO, e.g. what would you use for a process at hand. The other questions on my PMP Exam were mainly situational questions.
As a reference, I passed the PMP Exam with ‘Proficient’ in Initiation, Planning, Executing, Monitoring & Controlling and ‘Moderately Proficient’ in Closing domain.
As you can see, the PMP Exam is more about than asking you to apply the project management concepts than to memorize all the facts from the PMP Exam.
Further reading: PMP ITTO mindmap (not yet updated) – it is far more efficient to make use of mindmap to remember discrete facts such as ITTOs, this PMP ITTO mindmap can be downloaded free!
In additional to the ITTO questions, PMP Maths formulas questions are generally considered to be the more difficult questions.
In my PMP Exam question set, I got around 10 PMP calculation questions in total (that is around 5% of all the questions). 5% is definitely not a significant number of questions for the PMP Exam which has 200 questions.
If you are not comfortable with the PMP Maths questions, it is advisable to just guess the answer, flag it for review and move on to the next question. Don’t spend more than the allocated time (around 2 minutes for each question) to the PMP calculation questions as the Maths questions carry equal marks with other PMP questions. When you still have time at the end of the PMP Exam, you may spend more time with the Maths questions.
Plus, it is highly advisable to write down all the PMP formulas at the beginning of the PMP Exam as your PMP Exam brain dump in order to offload your brain.
Further reading: PMP Maths / Formulas Guide
If your PMP certification is in good standing (i.e. you have passed the PMP exam and follow the PDU requirements for the re-certification), your name will be included in the online certification registry of PMI certification holders at the following URL:
http://www.pmi.org/Certification/Credential-Registry.aspx
You can then click the “Search the PMI Online Certification Registry” and type in your last name (or plus full name, country and credential) to search for your certification status.
This Registry will be updated to include your name in one day after you have successfully passed the PMP Exam. I am sure most Aspirants will search for their name on the Registry after the exam. Yes, passing the exam will immediately make you a PMP (you can immediately add the credential to your namecard after receiving your exam report card), but PMI will take time to get and verify your exam results and update your status on the Registry. Note that if you take the exam on Friday evening, it may take two days to have your name appeared in the search results. Don’t worry.
Likewise, you will be able to search for the certification information of other PMI certification holders by knowing their last name. This is the way to validate to authenticity of their certification status.
Another useful way to utilize the Registry is to know how many PMI Certification holders are in your current city / country (the figure is just approximate, please note the point below).
However, since the disclosure of information on the online registry is on a permission base (certification holders are asked whether they would like to have their information published on the Registry). If the certification holders indicate unwillingness to share the information, you will not be able to find the information by searching for the names of the PMI certification holders.
ITIL® v3 Foundation and PMP are two of the most popular project management certifications in the world. Every year, thousands of exam aspirants would prepare and sit for the ITIL® and PMP exams. Some holders of PMP would study for the ITIL® 4 Foundation Exam while some ITIL® holders would aspire for the PMP credential. Below we will outline the similarities and differences between ITIL® and PMP.
Similarities of ITIL® v3 Foundation and PMP
- You will need to pass an exam consisting of multiple choice questions in order to be certified.
- ITIL® and PMP provide best practices to implement projects (though ITIL® focuses on projects in the Information Technology field).
Differences between ITIL® v3 Foundation and PMP
- PMP exam is about general project management knowledge while ITIL® is about information technology service management (i.e. for people working in the field of information technology).
- There are no pre-requisites for sitting the ITIL® 4 Foundation Exam while PMP exam will require the aspirants to have 35 Contact Hours and at least 4500 hours of working experience in project management over a period of at least 3 years.
- The PMP Exam is much longer and consists of more questions, it is generally considered that the PMP Exam is much more difficult than the ITIL® 4 Foundation Exam.
- ITIL® 4 Foundation Certification will never expire while PMP certification holders will need to re-certify every three years by accumulating enough PDUs.
- PMP Certification holders will need to earn at least 60 PDU during every 3-year re-certification cycle in order to be able to renew their PMP Certification status. Holders of ITIL® 4 Foundation Certification will not need any mandatory continuous education.
ITIL® v3 Foundation and PMP: Recommendation
If you have not begun your journey on getting ITIL® 4 Foundation Certification and PMP Certification, it is highly recommended you study for and pass the PMP Exam first. Afterwards, you will be able to claim the time spent on studying and preparing for the ITIL® 4 Foundation Exam as PDU for your PMP re-certification in either Category A or Category B PDU (by taking courses provided by accredited training institutes) or Category C PDU (by self-study). In this way, one can kill two birds with a stone!
Perhaps, this is the question every PMP aspirants would probably have during their course of PMP Exam preparation, especially while they are reading the PMBOK® Guide. Most PMP candidates would agree that the PMBOK® Guide is way too boring for reading or studying. But since the PMBOK® Guide is published by the Project Management Institute (PMI) which is the authority behind the PMP Exam, it is logical to consider the PMBOK® Guide as one of the most important reference book for the PMP Exam.
It would be a great help if some authoritative voices would assure that they can pass the PMP Exam in first try without having to even read the PMBOK® Guide once. Unfortunately, there is no definite answer to this question.
A survey of 100 PMP Exam candidates (who successfully pass the PMP Exam) has found out that only 5% of them did not read the PMBOK® Guide during their study. That means 95% of the PMP candidates did read the PMBOK® Guide at least once during their PMP exam prep. Though it can be safely said that all of the most popular PMP Exam reference books (like Andy Crowe, Headfirst and Rita) do cover most of the materials in the PMBOK® Guide, the emphases and organisation of the material would be quite different. In particular, since the PMP Exam tests not about your project management knowledge, experience nor skills but how deep you understand project management from PMI’s perspectives, the PMBOK® Guide is the only place where you can fully understand PMI’s viewpoint in an organised and systematic way. All other PMP Exam prep books would include the personal viewpoints of the authors.
In order to fully prepare for the PMP Exam, it can be said that the PMBOK® Guide is indispensable. If you have the time, do read through the PMBOK® Guide at least once. There is no need to read it from cover to cover in one attempt. You can read the PMBOK® Guide together with your PMP Exam prep book chapter by chapter. Most PMP Exam prep book would organise the materials according to the sequence as used in the PMBOK® Guide. By reading the PMBOK® Guide and your PMP Exam prep book in parallel, you can compare the two literatures to understand what are the differences between them in order to have a more comprehensive coverage of the materials required for the PMP Exam.
Though the PMBOK® Guide is boring (according to most PMP aspirants), it is a worthwhile read for the PMP Exam!
The Project Management Institute provides an online registry to verify one’s certification status: PMI Online Credential Registry at https://certification.pmi.org/registry.aspx
You can fill in the name and other information and check to see if the person is among the list of PMPs or other PMI Certification holders. There maybe several people with the same name holding PMP Certification, you will have to also look for the country, etc.
But any PMI Certification holders will have the option of opting out their certification status on the PMI Online Credential Registry. Therefore, if the name does not yield a result in the registry search, it is not an absolute proof that the person is not a PMP. You will have to check directly with PMI in case of suspecting misuse of the PMP title.
However, it is generally recommended that PMP holders should allow showing their profile at the PMI Online Credential Registry which gives stakeholders the certainty that your claim that you are a PMP credential holder is true to increase the trustworthiness of your skills, etc.
What is the most realistic mock PMP Exam one can take? It is to take the mock PMP Exam at the same centre as one would take the real PMP Exam.
Prometric, the organisation that runs the PMP Exam for the computer based test around the world, has launched a new service for test driving the PMP Exam for PMP aspirants. The “Test drive” all PMP aspirants to take a mock PMP Exam at the Prometric center for 30 minutes for the cost of US$30.
As long as there is a free place in the test centre and you are willing to pay the mock exam fee, you will be able to take the mock exam in real conditions as part of your PMP Exam prep.
More details on PMP Exam Test Drive can be found on the Prometric website.
No. This is one of the popular misconception about contact hour requirements for the PMP Certification. The PMP Handbook states that to be eligible for the PMP Exam, one has to fulfil the 35 educational hours requirement. However, it does not require that you earn all the 35 contact hours from one course only.
There is also no requirement that the course material should be about the PMBOK® Guide or other PMI approved project management knowledge. You can earn the 35 contact hours from courses not related to the PMP Exam syllabus or materials, e.g. Agile project management, etc.
In fact, you can earn 4 contact hours here and 5 contact hours there as long as the total number of hours spent on project management is 35 hours or more. There is not an upper limit for the number of courses you used to accumulate the contact hours as long as you have the proof for each individual course (e.g. attendance certificate, etc.).
But of course it is much more structured to learn all the project management knowledge from a course that focuses on the PMBOK® Guide framework. And such course will help you tremendously in your PMP Certification exam prep study. If you have the budget and the time to spend on a quality PMP Exam prep course, do take the PMP Exam prep course which will help you to pass the PMP Exam more easily!
PM PrepCast™ Executive has a price tag of US$1199.99, which is way much expensive than the PM PrepCast™ Standard and the PM PrepCast™ Elite. Though there is a 28% discount applied to the sum of all products included in the PM PrepCast™ Executive, many would wonder is it worth to invested almost 3 times more than the PM PrepCast™ Elite which is already a great PMP Exam Prep course and question bank.
What are included in PM PrepCast™ Executive
The PM PrepCast™ Executive is the package of the PM PrepCast™ Elite plus a few more:
- PM PrepCast™ – the highly acclaimed online PMP Exam Prep course providing 35 contact hours to qualify for the PMP Exam (US$199.99)
- PM Exam Simulator – access to 1800 PMP mock exam questions to be written in an environment that resembles the real PMP Exam interface
- 12 hours of live personal (one-to-one) coaching (US$89.99 per hour * 12 = US$1079.88)
- 5 hours of live group coaching sessions (US$49.99 per hour * 5 = US$249.95)
- PMP Formula Study Guide – which includes the Formula study guide, Formula brain dump / cheat sheet and 105 formula sample questions (US$29.99 value)
- Premium eBook Bundle – which includes the PMP Essentials Study Guide, ITTO Memory Jogger and PMI Exam Audit Kit) (US$29.97)
What are the PMP Live Coaching?
PMP live coaching will offer you the chance to work with a PMP coach during your PMP Exam preparation through an internet connection in order to maximize your opportunity to pass the PMP Exam in first try. PMP live coaching is also the most time-efficient way to prepare for your PMP Exam as you can get immediate advices from an experience PMP Exam Coach who will help you to formulate a tailor-made study plan that suit your schedule and style of learning. I still remember I have to “google” hundreds of blogs and webpages in order to understand how to plan for my PMP Exam and carry out the study.
You will work with the PMP Exam Coach during your PMP Exam Prep journey, usually once a week or at a schedule that suits you, all the way from the very beginning of planning the study plan, answer your queries, assess your knowledge gaps and help you to determine whether you are ready for the real PMP Exam.
Since the PMP Exam Coach has profound experience in helping PMP aspirants to study and pass the PMP Exam, he can offer you valuable tips and tricks to help you attain the PMP Certification in the shortest time possible.
As the name implies, “Personal Coaching” will allow you to meet one on one with the Coach, all the time is dedicated for you. You can present your case and the Coach will give you personalized advices. You can book the timeslots that are most convenient to you.
On the other hand, in “Group Coaching”, you will join other PMP aspirants every week at the same time to discuss the common PMP Exam topics such as:
- Project management framework
- Earned Value calculation / PMP Formulas
- PMP practice questions / sample questions review
You will gain the benefits of peer discussion.
Other than the fact that the Coach will meet you through an internet connection instead of meeting you face to face, the PMP Live Coaching service will offer you all the benefits of PMP Exam bootcamps.
Who is the PMP Coach?
The coach is Dan Ryan, MBA, PMP, who has over 20 years experience in the IT and project management industry. Dan has been delivering face-to-face and virtual PMP Exam prep courses since 2011. He has pioneered a unique, blended learning solution to tailor to the needs of every individual PMP aspirant. Dan currently lives in the United States.
Is the PM PrepCast™ Executive Worth the High Price Tag?
Online learning, just like the PM PrepCast™ Standard, offers a cost-effective way to prepare for studying and preparing for the PMP Exam. However, online courses require you to have excellent disciplines and probably more time as you will need to do researches into the difficult topics yourself. You may also have to waste some time to search for accurate information on the internet. If that describes you, then you are an ideal candidate for the PM PrepCast™ Standard/Elite.
But, if you flourish with the help of an instructor or if you are too busy to do researches on your own, the PM PrepCast™ Executive is the most suitable PMP Exam prep for your among the different PM PrepCast™ products. The PMP Coach will assist you all the way from your planning to tackling PMP practice questions to confirming your readiness to attempt the real PMP Exam. Try to think of the time saved and the possibility of not having to re-take the PMP Exam owing to failed attempt, the high price tag is not really that expensive.
In addition, normal PMP bootcamps will have dozens of PMP aspirants studying together with you. This means that the course instructor will have to divide his/her attention among all the students in the class. For the Live Personal Coach, you will have the FULL attention of the PMP Exam Coach for 12 hours! The time should be enough to answer your every questions about the PMP Exam!
Summary
Below is a simple chart to help you understand the various PM PrepCast™ products on sale in the market:
- PM PrepCast™ Standard = PM PrepCast™
- PM PrepCast™ Elite = PM PrepCast™ Standard + PM Exam Simulator
- PM PrepCast™ Executive = PM PrepCast™ Elite + Coaching + Formula Study Guide + Premium eBook Bundle
The PM PrepCast™ Elite is the most popular PMP Exam Prep package providing both the required 35 contact hours certificate and lots of good PMP Exam practice questions.
If you have the time to navigation through the planning processes for your PMP study through trial and error and discipline to stick to your study plan, I would highly recommend the PM PrepCast™ Elite which is both cost effective and high in quality.
I would like the interactive nature of PMP Exam Study bootcamps (where you can talk directly to the instructor on any queries you have and have the instructor assist you to plan your study) but there is none around you or you are too busy to take 5 days off to attend the bootcamp, the PM PrepCast™ Executive would be perfect for you as you can prepare for the PMP Exam at the comfort of your room or office without the need to travel a lot.
Wish you PMP success!
Following the announcement of updating the syllabus of the PMP Exam in Nov 2015, every publisher of PMP Exam Prep book are working extremely hard to get the updated version of the book out to help fellow PMP aspirants to begin preparing for the new PMP Exam.
Rita’s PMP Exam Prep book 8th Edition updated
The publisher of Rita’s PMP Exam Prep book, RMC Learning Solutions, has just announced the updated eighth edition of Rita’s PMP book will be published by end of July 2015 has been published, has been published: take a look at the preview of the Rita’s PMP Exam prep book here. The new edition of the PMP Book includes new tasks and modified knowledge and skills as mentioned in the PMI Role Delineation Study 2015 as well as the new PMP Exam Content Outline.
This latest version (8th edition) of the Rita’s PMP Exam preparation book is updated to align with the PMBOK® Guide 5th edition as well as the PMP Exam Content Outline released in June 2015. PMP aspirants aiming to take the PMP Exam on or after 2nd Nov, 2015 are advised to purchase the Rita’s PMP Book updated 8th edition instead of the original 8th edition.
But as the changes are not considered drastic, PMP aspirants preparing for the PMP Exam based on the original 8th edition will still get a pretty good coverage of the new PMP Exam syllabus as the PMBOK® Guide is still the 5th edition.
Note: If you own the original 8th edition of the Rita’s PMP Exam Prep and would like to sit for the PMP Exam after 1st Nov 2015, you are advised to download an update document issued by RMC which covers a few changes to the Rita’s book so that you are good for the new PMP Exam!
RMC Learning Solutions is now shipping the updated eighth edition of Rita’s PMP book (note: if you are buying a new exam prep book, you should look for the “updated 8th edition” not the “8th edition”).
The new edition of the PMP Book includes the updated tasks and modified knowledge and skills outlined in the new PMP Exam Content Outline (for PMP Exam in 2017) so that the book will have full coverage of the exam syllabus.
However, does this mean that the original 8th edition of Rita’s book is no longer useful?
The good news is that the original 8th edition of Rita’s PMP book is still valid for the new PMP Exam, in RMC’s words:
Comparing each line of the 2015 PMP Examination Content Outline to the previous version published in 2011, RMC has determined the changes were mostly minor, and/or already consistent with our interpretation of the project manager’s role in the existing edition of the book.
Since the changes in the PMP Exam syllabus nor the contents of Rita’s book are NOT dramatic, RMC has actually issued an additional “update” for owners of the Rita’s PMP book 8th edition which can be downloaded here (as you will see, there are just several changes only).
In fact, a recent PMP exam taker has read both the 8th Edition and the 8th Updated Edition from cover to cover and find that basically the Rita’s PMP 8th Edition = Rita’s PMP 8th Edition Updated. He passed the PMP Exam in first try.
Therefore if you get hold of the original 8th edition of Rita’s book, you can still rely on it to ace your PMP Exam. There is no need to purchase the updated 8th edition.
Note: I passed the PMP Exam with 4 Proficient and 1 Moderately Proficient, click here for my study notes, resources and tips (can be downloaded for free).
Below is the step-by-step instruction on how to input the discount offer codes for GreyCampus online courses to get the discounted prices for the ITIL® Foundation, PMP Certification, PMI-ACP® Certification and PRINCE2® Foundation Certification online courses. Many Certification Aspirants have asked me to show them how to apply the coupon codes as they cannot find the location to enter them. This step-by-step illustrated guide is made to help fellow Aspirants to enjoy the discounted course fee with ease.
Step 1: Go to go to GreyCampus online course website
Please go to the related GreyCampus pages through the webpage: the most updated GreyCampus discount offer codes (remember to make use of the coupon codes there to get heavy discounts off the retail prices of the certification prep courses)
- PMP Certification Online Self Learning
- ITIL® Foundation Certification Online Self Learning (Official ITIL® Exam included)
- PRINCE2® Foundation Certification Online Self Learning (Official PRINCE2® Foundation Exam)
Step 2: Click the yellow “Enroll” button to go to the payment page
Just take the GreyCampus ITIL® Foundation Certification Training as an example. Below is the landing page of ITIL® online training courses for GreyCampus. Just click the blue “Enroll Now” button.
You will be presented with a choice of several different delivery modes for the ITIL® Foundation Courses (i.e. online, online live, classroom, etc.). Just chose the left one which is the online ITIL® course option.
Step 3: Check the “I have an offer code” box
After clicking the red “Enroll” button, you will be redirected to the course order page. Do not worry, the price given there is the original list price before discount.
On the right-hand side, under the payment details, you will find the “Have an offer code to redeem?” box- click on it. Enter the coupon code in the box that appears and click “Apply”.
Step 4: Apply the Coupon Code/Offer Code
After you input the coupon code in the box, make sure to click the “Apply” button beside it. The final price of the course will only change after you click on the “Apply” button. Make sure you do this before you pay for the course.
Step 5: Check the updated price on the left before submitting the payment details
Once the coupon is applied successfully, the green text will appear below the coupon code box; it will read- “Coupon applied successfully, you will get USD 41.00 discount”. Please also check for the discounted price details on the right side of the page.
After you have ensured that the correct discounted course fee is listed on the right-hand column of the order page, you can then enter your payment information including name, card number, expiry date and CVV. Then click the red button “Pay Now” to make the purchase.
Congratulations! You have just applied the GreyCampus offer code successfully. You should now be able to access the online training course (including the lecture videos, mock exams as well as many downloadable study resources) instantly.
Wish you Certification success!
FAQ on GreyCampus Coupon Codes
- After pasting the coupon code and clicking the “Apply Now” button, a red sentence reads “The coupon code is invalid” show up. Now what?
- Please check carefully if you have entered the correct coupon code (note: without spaces at the beginning and end of the coupon code). The best way to ensure the correctness of your coupon code is to copy directly from the coupon code page and paste it there.
- Please check the validity period of the coupon code, in most cases, an invalid coupon code means that it is expired. Usually the validity period between the first and last day of a month. And the coupon code and discount percentage may vary from month to month.
- Under the rare case of the GreyCampus website having some technical errors, please let me know so that I can communicate with GreyCampus to resolve the problem.
- What to do if I have purchased the training course at the original list price instead of the discounted price?
- I am sorry to learn that you cannot enjoy the discount successfully. But there is hope. GreyCampus online courses offer money back guarantee for several days depending on the types of course.
- You can just write to GreyCampus to cancel your order first. And your payment will be refunded to you as soon as possible.
- Then you can come back to the enrolment page to enrol again. Remember to follow the steps outlined above as close as possible and verify that the discount has already been applied to your order before hitting the “Pay Now” button.
- Where to find the latest GreyCampus Coupon Codes?
- As I have a working relationship with GreyCampus team, every time when a new coupon code is published, they will let me know at once. I will have the most current GreyCampus coupon code published at this page.
- If the code for the online course you are looking for is not there, don’t worry, you can still try the coupon codes listed there to see if they are valid.
- Will I get a better discount later?
- May or may not. That depends on GreyCampus. However, I would highly suggest you to strike the iron while it is hot. If you have already make up your mind to go for the certification and if your budget allows, why not go ahead and purchase the online course at the current discount and begin your certification right away? Time is the most precious element for all of us.
- Also, the certification cost may go up year by year owing to inflation and rising costs etc. The training costs may actually become more expensive later on.
For those who would like to get PMP certified, one of the major roadblock should be worrying about the level of difficulties of the real PMP Exam.
PMI has published a PDF file containing 3 official sample PMP questions to help PMP aspirants to get a taste of the level of difficulty as well as the wording of the real PMP Exam questions:
As you will see, in order to correctly answer the PMP Exam questions, you must get to know the exact meaning of the terms used by PMI. The good news is that all the terms can be found in the PMBOK® Guide. However, the questions also require you (as the project manager) to exercise expert judgement to understand what actions to take next (which is one of the most difficult type of PMP Exam questions).
You would definitely like to attempt more PMP Exam practice questions (best of all many quality sample PMP Exam questions are FREE).
Yes. This is very important.
At the time of pressing the submit button on the PMP application form, you should have already finished the project management course providing you with the required 35 contact hours. You would need to enter the course details together with the date of completion on the PMP application form before submitting.
This is often a commonly confused item for the PMP application. Many Aspirants would plan to have their PMP application approved before going through a PMP Exam prep course either in person or online. Some PMP bootcamps would even gather Aspirants to attend the course for 4 days and take the PMP Exam at the 5th day. But aspirants need to understand that PMI would not approve your application before you have got the 35 Contact Hour certificate.
However, since you are able to store your partially filled online PMP application form on PMI server, it makes no harms to fill the form while you are still studying the project management course. But you should make sure you have finished the course before eventually submitting the application form.
And in case of a PMI audit, you will need to submit a copy of your Contact Hour certificate. If your course is not delivered by a PMI Authorized Training Partner, you will also need to send the course outline and descriptions in order to allow PMI to judge whether your course satisfies the project management education requirement.
Since the PMP is one of the most recognized and rigorous industry certification, PMI takes every application very seriously. PMI will need to inspect every PMP application individually for completeness by a dedicated staff member. Therefore the timeframe for processing the PMP application differs for different channels of submission:
- online submission through PMI website: 5 days (applicants will receive emails from PMI regarding their submission)
- paper submission: 10 days for individuals; 20 days for corporate submission
If the application is not complete in PMI’s eyes, they will contact the applicants through email or mail to request them to re-submit the whole or parts of the application package (the part that mostly likely required to be rewritten is the descriptions for working experience). The re-submission may be through email or mail.
Tips: There are guidelines for Aspirants to follow on how to compose the experience descriptions that PMI would love to approve (from the experience of Aspirants who were requested to re-submit that part). Details can be found here.
Only after PMI has received and reviewed the supplementary info the PMP application would be approved. This may take another several days. Then you will receive an email from PMI asking you to settle the exam fee.
However, the confirmation from PMI for PMP application is not an indication of not requiring a PMI audit. PMI will notify candidates for PMP audit once the payment for the PMP exam has been made.
In the unfortunate event of being requested an audit, Aspirants will need to take several weeks or even months to have PMI to give a go to the audit (PMI has placed a limit of 90 days for Aspirants to respond to the audit. It really takes time to ask your former or current supervisors to sign the experience verification forms for you and you need to mail the audit package back to PMI.
Once the audit is approved, Aspirants will then be able to actually schedule their PMP Exam dates.
So, the short answer is that it takes around 5 days for PMI to approve PMP applications.
However, for the worst case scenario, it may take up to 3 months to clear the application process.
I passed the PMP Certification Exam with 4 Above Target and 1 Target, click here for my free study notes, tips and resources for Aspirants.
Though PMI impose a 8-year restriction on the project management working experience to be accepted for PMP application, there is NO restrictions on when you get your project management education.
In other words, the 35 contact hours of project management education is valid for life.
You can literally get the 35 contact hours based on your university coursework or a training course provided by your employer years ago.
There are many cases that a PMP aspirant took the PMP exam prep course for the previous edition of PMBOK® Guide and then got busy and abandoned the certification efforts. Years later, they would want to get PMP certified again and there is no need for them to get the contact hour education again.
However, it is necessary for you to check with PMI on the eligibility of your contact hour certification for the PMP certification before applying. When in doubt, always bet on the safe side by attending an additional course provided by PMI Authorized Training Partner which will also help you best prepared for the actual PMP exam.
For the working experience verification forms, PMI requires the supervisors / managers to sign on the forms and put the forms in ‘sealed and signed envelopes‘. The following is the instruction on the PMI audit:
A manager, supervisor, or colleague who is intimately familiar with the experience on your application is required to review your Experience Record and then complete the Experience Verification Form. After they verify, they will put the completed Experience Verification Form and Experience Record in an envelope, sign his/her name over the sealed flap of the envelope, and return the envelope to you via in person or by mail. If one person is verifying multiple projects for the same company, they can fill out one form and initial or highlight on the Experience Record the projects that they are verifying. Faxed or scanned forms will not be accepted as the forms need to be placed in a sealed and signed envelope for security purposes. No substitutions will be accepted.
This paragraph essentially means the following:
- Download and print the experience verification forms
- Send the printed verification forms, each with an empty envelop, to your managers / supervisors named on your application form accordingly*
- Ask the managers / supervisors to write the details on the form and sign, put the signed form into the envelope, glue the flap and sign again across the flap (this makes the ‘sealed and signed envelope’)
- Ask them to return the ‘sealed envelop’ to you to be mailed to PMI together with other documentations
* If your manager / supervisor is responsible for more than one experience verification forms, he/she will need to enter the details and signs on one form only and write his/her initials on other forms without filling the details. He/She will then need to put all the experience verification forms into a single envelope and seal it with a signature as usual.
Not a problem. You just need to write a short notice on the envelope that your manager / supervisor forgot to sign on the envelope for the PMI audit.
Though PMI asks you to request your manager / supervisor to seal and sign across the flap of the sealed envelop in order to properly accomplish the PMI audit, it is possible (or even likely) that your manager / supervisor mails / hands the envelope back to you without the signature on the flap. PMI understands that it might be difficult, if not possible, to return the envelope to get the signature again. It is acceptable to have the experience verification envelope without signature provided that you:
make a note on the back of the envelope in question that the signature was omitted
Could not find the manager / supervisor named in the PMP application to sign the experience verification form is the greatest problem PMP candidates would face.
Don’t panic. Don’t just give up and ask for refund of your PMP application fee.
Though PMI prefers PMP candidates to get signatures from the named manager / supervisor, in case this is not possible, PMI does allow:
a colleague from the project can verify, or a current manager or supervisor, who has intimate knowledge of the project, can verify.
Even though you are not able to find your manager / supervisor to sign the experience verification form, you can actually find some others who are close to the project to sign it. That’s why PMI leaves blank on the form the information of the one to verify your experience.
If you are the manager for the organization, then you may ask your senior management, if possible, to sign your project management experience verification form for you. Other than senior management, you may ask
a colleague, peer, client or sponsor who has intimate knowledge of the project [to] verify.
PMI does NOT require managers / supervisors to be the only persons to sign the experience verification forms. As long as the signee who are intimately familiar with the project you have submitted, it is okay for them to sign the form. PMI will accept the experience verification in such cases.
