Is PMP Exam Open Book ?

Is PMP Exam Open Book?

Learning Mudra, Category - PMP

Before going into details of the PMP exam pattern, let’s briefly define what PMP is. PMP is one of the most valuable and industry-wide-recognized certifications for professionals in the project management field. PMP certification gives you a higher salary than non-PMP certified. PMP certification helps you understand and communicate with other professionals in the global language of project management. It also allows you to connect with the community of professionals, organizations, and experts worldwide. PMI, Professional Management Institute, a USA based organization, authorizes the PMP exam. It is a not-for-profit organization working on conducting researches, publications, and issuing certifications in the Project Management field.

PMP aspirants should satisfy prerequisites to sit for the exam. Compared to other certifications, PMP is harder to pass, so you have to prepare more. The passing score for all PMI examinations is determined by sound psychometric analysis. PMI defines how many questions you need to answer correctly to pass the exam with the help of subject matter experts.

Exam Paper Pattern

In the new exam content, the five domains of the previous exam content, initiating, planning, executing, monitoring & planning, and closing, have been reduced to three domains. The tasks have been reduced from 42 to 35 in the new format, in addition to the three domains. In addition, the outline has been updated to include a new concept of enablers. Let's take a closer look at each of them.

Domains

In the field of project management, a domain is nothing more than a high-level knowledge area. Three new domains have been added as a result of the new exam changes.

• People (42 percent)

The skills and activities that involve people in the organisation fall under the people domain. The people domain includes tasks such as managing conflict, mentoring stakeholders, forming teams, and so on. The people domain accounts for 42 percent of the questions on the PMP certification exam.

• Process (50 percent)

The process domain accounts for 50% of the PMP certification exam's weighting and includes all activities and best practises associated with all project life cycle process groups. Communication management, stakeholder engagement, and other tasks fall under this domain.

• Business Environment (8 percent)

The business environment domain holds 8% weightage in the PMP certification exam and is associated with the organization structure and environment. The tasks in this domain include organizational change management, compliance evaluation, and impact assessment, etc.

Tasks

In each of the domains, a task outlines the project manager's roles and responsibilities. Consider the following scenario to better understand this. Let's say we have the people domain; the task in that domain will be related to how the project manager will handle the responsibilities associated with the organization's people, conflict resolution, resource allocation, and so on.

Enablers

Enablers, a new concept introduced to the format, are nothing more than a scenario that clarifies the task. In short, the enablers can be used to quickly summarise any task. Managing Conflict is an example of a task in the People domain. As a result, the enablers are as follows:

• Recognize the source of the conflict and who is involved.
• Analyze the situation in light of the available information.
• Depending on the situation, take necessary actions or hold the responsible person accountable.

Is the PMP exam an Open book?

No, PMP is a closed book exam, which means you cannot use or refer to any material during the exam.

What is the Pass mark?

If you wonder what the pass marks are, there is no official PMP passing score from PMI. It is impossible to state a fixed passing score because scores will change based on the difficulty level. An exam with easy questions will have a higher passing score than an exam with relatively more difficult problems. Thus it becomes difficult to estimate how much you need to score to become PMP certified.

Once you complete the exam, the next question is when you will get the examination report. For the Computer-Base test, you will get the result instantly once you complete the exam. The Pearson VUE test center where you are likely to take the exam will give you an official seal copy of your test result. The report contains the overall pass or fails status, along with important diagnostic information of your performance is provided for each domain. For the Paper-Based test, you will not receive the report on the day of the exam. It will take around six to eight weeks to get access to your info online. But there is no clear information on what combination of proficiency levels required for an overall pass result. But never the less you can analyze by observing various test result reports.

Historic pass rate

PMBOK Guide, 3rd edition introduced in 2004. In July 2005, the exam pattern was changed and aligned with PMBOK Guide, 3rd edition. Later on, PMI increased the passing percentage to 81% during the same period. With the increase in the PMP exam passing rate, the candidates clearing the PMP exam in the first attempt decreased drastically. PMI reacted quickly and reduced the pass percentage to 61% in December 2005. Until 2006, the PMP handbook mentioned 61% as passing exam rate, but afterward, PMI stopped revealing the PMP passing rate. But they continued to provide the domain wise percentage on score reports.

The next significant change happened at the end of 2007. PMI changed diagnostic results provided in the PMP exam score reports. Instead of percentages related to the domains, PMI started using global best practices in examination, proficiency levels. So even now, PMI provides proficiency levels categorized into Below Proficient, Moderately Proficient, and Proficient by domain, instead of numerical percentage scored in each field.

I am sure you understood the PMP examination pattern, domains tested by PMI, and proficiency levels in the exam report. Now, I would like to end with the note by adding, “PMP exam is not an open book exam.”