TOPIC: PMP Exam Update 2020

The Project Management Institute (PMI)® announced that a change is coming to The Project Management Professional (PMP)® exam. To summarize the events: A new PMP® Examination Content outline was published in June of 2019, and this new outline will be the basis for updating the PMP exam. Originally, PMI had planned to implement this change in December 2019, but later on, decided to move/postpone the date to give everyone more time to prepare.

The new dates for the change are as follows:

• 30 June 2020: The last day you can take the current version of the PMP exam
• 1 July 2020: The first day to take the new version of the PMP exam.

For all the details on this change please read the following article:

The PMP Exam is Changing on 1 July 2020

If you have any questions that are not addressed in the article, please ask them here. I will give you an answer and update the article accordingly.

Thanks Cornelius. However, when I checked the PMI website, it still shows that 15th Dec 2019 is the last day to take the exam in the current format. Please see the screenshot attached. Could it be that PMI is yet to update their website?

Pramod,

Yes. At this time, PMI has only informed its Registered Education Providers (R.E.P.s) of the date change. An official, public announcement will be made in the coming days and then they will update all sections of their website.

For now, the announcement is available here www.pmi.org/update-center/certification-changes/pmp

Cornelius, in your video about the updated exam, you mention that the current exam does not include any Agile material. However, in the prepcasts you recommend to read the Agile Practice Guide. Could you clarify if one needs to study it for the exam before July 1, 2020?
The second question: if the content of the exam will greatly change starting July 1, 2020, will there be a new (7th edition) of the PMBOK guide? Or what book should be used to cover additional topics?
Thank you!

Tania,

Regarding Agile, please see this post here www.project-management-prepcast.com/kune...gile-questions#15458 -- In short: Read the Agile Practice Guide once so that you are aware of Agile and can answer 1-3 questions on your exam.

The PMBOK Guide SEVENTH edition will most likely be published on 12/31/2021. Therefore, continue using the SIXTH edition until then. PMI has yet to publish a list of additional resources. At this time, we believe that The PM PrepCast will be sufficient after July 1st 2020.

Would you like to hear straight from PMI what the changes to the PMP exam are going to be like? No problem! Here is an interview with Sierra Hampton-Simmons who works for PMI. She has the overall responsibility for ALL PMI certifications. And she has all the answers:

Click here to listen to the interview:
traffic.libsyn.com/pmpodcast/PM_Podcast_...09_11_PMP_Update.mp3

Click here for the show-notes:
www.project-management-podcast.com/podca...nging-on-1-july-2020

Hi Cornelius,

I wonder if you could help on the following questions

1. Since the PMP will be structured on 50% adaptive and 50% predictive starting June, will PMI cancel PMI-ACP? Otherwise, won't PMI-ACP become redundant?
2. If I want to apply for PMP, can I use experience gained on Agile projects management for my application? Or do I have to stick with predictive?
3. Will PgMP and PfMP get updated as well in June?

Thank you in advance.

Sergiu,

1. No. PMI will not retire the PMI-ACP. The PMP exam is still the "dominant" certification for PROJECT MANAGERS in the world, whereas PMI-ACP is focusing on agile PRACTITIONERS and not specifically the PM.
2. Yes, you can 'mix and match'. PMI requires you to submit experience hours, but they don't worry about the PM approach that was used. So both agile and predictive are OK for your PMP application.
3. No updates for PgMP and PfMP have been announced.

Thanks for the info Cornelius.

Just to clarify on your response to Tania. Is it accurate to say the December date in the exerpt below can be changed to June 2020?

Do I have to read The Agile Practice Guide in order to prepare for the Project Management Professional (PMP)® exam and how many questions on Agile topics should I expect?

The Answer to this question depends on WHEN you are planning to take your exam...

You are taking your exam on or before 15 December 2019
The short answer is: We recommend that you read The Agile Practice Guide at least once but you don't have to go into it deep. You should not expect too many questions on Agile topics on the exam.

Good morning,

I have decided to take the PM Precast course to prepare for my exam, but I will not be ready to sit for the exam until after the new edition of the test is released. I would like to begin studying as soon as possible, but I want to make sure I am studying material appropriate for the new version of the exam. Should I buy my course now, or should I wait for updates to be rolled out?


Thank you,

Rhiannon Kelly

Rhiannon,

I'm under the impression that the July exam will be substantially different than the current version (very heavily into Agile). Also, to my knowledge, no course provider has yet rolled out new study material.

If it were my money, I would not pay for a prep course that does not prepare me for the exam that I will be taking.

Harry

Rhiannon,

We have done a comparison of the current PrepCast course with the new requirements (for after July 1st) and found that we cover about 70%. I would, therefore, wait until all the new products are ready. (Probably after March).

thanks Cornelius Fichtner

Hi Cornelius,

I have already bought the Prepcast premium course.
I wont be able to take exams before 1st of July 2020.
I will take exam with the new test version.
I am currently using video lessons to prepare for the exam.
Should I continue using the video lessons or wait until the new product (according to new PMP test version) is available
in the end of march ?
Will I have to purchase again ?

Best Regards
Awais

I have similar question as well. I have PMP exam simulator but I am planning to take the new exam.
Would that content of simulator be changed? Please reply.

Hi Cornelius,

How do we study the Domain 1 - People 42%, do you have any books, blog etc that i could read?

Thanks

thanks for the information

In reading the article you published "The PMP Exam is Changing July 1, 2020 I came across the following statement: "The update will be free of charge for customers who purchased a license of The PM PrepCast Sixth Edition after 2018-03-01 and who have not yet passed their PMP exam."

I acted on the "February Special" and purchased the Elite package 2 weeks ago. I didn't realize that the test changed on July 1st when I purchased PM Prepcast Elite package and that changes to the product would only be available to those who purchased the Elite package after March 1, 2020.

My concern is, if for some reason I can't take the exam before June 30, 2020, will I have to re-purchase the Elite (Prepcast and Exam Simulator) package so that I can prepare for taking the exam post July 1, 2020?

Can you let me know?

Thank you,

John Rosa

John,

This won't answer your specific question because your question is a business question for PM Prepcast and the boards are not intended to answer business or account questions. But you may find this helpful in making some decisions:

First, don't feel like you're on an island. You're not. Every PMP aspirant preparing for a June/July exam is in the same boat as you.

Next, only you can make the decision regarding which way to break regarding the exam. There are a lot of "what-ifs" in the scenarios in your situation and you'll have to weigh risk vs. reward for each. Cornelius has mentioned that the training material wrt the July 1 PMP Exam will not be ready until March-ish. There are a few certainties though.

1. The PMP exam WILL change on 1 July 2020, and it will be substantially different from the current version.
2. The current Prepcast material is about 70% in line with the new exam (according to Cornelius' previous posts).
3. The current Prepcast and exam simulator is very effective for the current PMI PMP exam.
4. There are about 16 weeks between now (1 Mar) and the exam change date (1 July).
5. Not a certainty but a very good bet: PMI will probably not give special dispensation regarding the exam date as they already moved it once from Dec 2019 to Jul 2020.

I recognize that there are a bunch of unknowns in the equation as well, but I think there's enough information for you to make the best decision for you on which way to break.

I can only speak for myself here: I set aside 12 weeks of dedicated study and cleared my calendar from all but the most serious client work to study for the exam. I was confident (peak understanding) at about 11 weeks and spent the last week gently looking at the material. I did well.

Time to prepare for the exam will vary greatly with available study time and learning styles, and you will want to coordinate peak understanding with the exam date.

Good luck!

Harry

Harry,

Thanks for laying that out and providing the details to help make the June / July decision.

John Rosa

A PMP Exam simulatorr is known to be very helpful in preparing for the exam. These simulators are in the form of practice tests, sample questions, quizzes and much more. As they help a person to get familiarized with an environment that is exactly similar to an actual exam, the chances of exam freight are thus reduced to a great extent. Not only exam freight is reduced, but a person also gets to solve real-world questions to get a hint as to how the real exam will be like PMP Exam simulator

Hi Cornelius,

1. Regarding there will be a big change for PMP Exam in 1 Jul, 2020, is current version of PM Precast training and the related simulator covering the changes of 1 Jul, 2020 while I will take the exam after 1 Jul, 2020. If not, when the new version of PM Precast training and the related simulator will be available to cover this 1 Jul, 2020 change?
2. Would you suggest how many hours (minimum) I (full-time study) should spend to preparing before taking exam?

Best regards

Hi Cornelius,
The PMP website now says the new exam will be pushed to Jan 2021 due to covid-19. If I purchase the elite package will the information in the course material and exam simulator be for the current exam or has it already switched to the new test?

Greeting Sir.

I just received an email from PMI which contains new updates..
They are going to extending access to the current PMP® exam until 31 December 2020 and postponing the launch of the new PMP exam until 2 January 2021.

Is this information correct?

Thank you

Yes. This is correct. PMI announced about 8 weeks ago that they are moving the change to 2021-Jan-02.

Hi Cornelius,
The PMP website now says the new exam will be pushed to Jan 2021 due to covid-19. If I purchase the elite package will the information in the course material and exam simulator be for the current exam or has it already switched to the new test?

Kelly,

The products you can buy on our website at this time (PrepCast Basic, PrepCast Elite, PMP Exam Simulator) all all for the current exam. We do not yet offer anything for the new exam starting in January. It's too early for that.

Thank you for the information.
I suppose it implies that the dates in the "Question: Do I need to read The Agile Practice Guide for the Exam?" were not yet updated and should be 2 January 2021 instead of 1 July 2020.

PMI Changed the date for the new PMP exam 3 or 4 times in the past 15 months. How is anyone supposed to keep things updated...

Hi Cornelius,

I really enjoyed the Prepcasts!

I'm considering Six Sigma next. From what I can tell, you don't offer training - is that right?

If not, do you have any recommendationns?

Thanks,

Carl

I would like to know if the plan is still the same especially after coronavirus and the lockdown of some countries that we can’t do the test any time soon.
Will you extend the period of having the current version test later than june 30th of this year??

Abeer... please review this page here. It is the official announcement from PMI:

www.pmi.org/certifications/types/project...mp/exam-prep/changes

In short: The PMP exam changes on 2021-Jan-02. Until then there are no changes.

Has the format of the Exam changed? Is it now in two parts with a break in between?

Hi, I am also preparing for the exam, and I found some Tutorial Guide for our exam preparation, this tutorial guides 100% will support in preparation .there is much information like- PMP Training, PMP Tutorial Guide for Beginners
, PMP certification and exam. if you need this you can also read there.

Yes. Ther is a 10 minute scheduled break after 100 questions. This is optional. The system will give you the option to review your answers if you have any time left from the first 2 hours. Once you start your 101st question; the system will not let you to go back to the first 100 questions you completed. I did the PMP exam yesterday at one of the test Centers. I think I lost 10 minutes from the overall exam time. You may want to reconfirm this with PMI. Wish you all the best with you exam.

Hello, Akash.
Indeed now the exam has a scheduled built-in break of 10 minutes, which is extra time with respect to the 4 hours allowed for the exam. Once you submit the first part of the exam (I strongly recommend to review them before submission, because after that you won't be able to access them anymore!) you will be given the option to start the break or proceed to the second part of the exam. The break is optional, you can skip it, but this won't give you access to the first part of the questions anyway.
Please, notice that the first and the second part of the exam are entirely based on the number of questions, while the timing is up to you: whenever you submit the first time, the count-down timer pauses until you begin the second part. For example, say you complete the first part in 1.5 hour, you will get 2.5 hours for the second part.
I would recommend to read some posts from the lessons learned forum, where you would find additional details on the experience many had with the new exam, both online and onsite.
Hope this helps,

Gabriella

Yes, the break comes after Question number 89!

The break came after question #100. But, when I started after the 10-minute break; It went back to Question #99.

Is there a new PMP Exam Content Outline available? I have only found the EOC dated 2015 . www.pmi.org/-/media/pmi/documents/public...nal-exam-outline.pdf

Hi Marcus,

that is the latest document associated to the current exam; you may want to double check that with PMI, but to the best of my knowledge that is the document to refer to until the exam changes next year.

Gabriella

Dear Cornelius,
I passed my exame 27 june 2020 got same time congrutulation but till now I don't received the email nor result from PMI.I chat t in customer care several times even they while chatting they send me my exams score report and keep saying that I will take this high aleart your issue but nothing comes up yet.

Please advise .
Thanks,
Saiuma

Hello Saiuma

PMI is VERY SLOW at the moment. They are saying that they are receiving more emails, phonecalls and chats than ever before.

But I have one idea for you: Please visit cert.pmi.org/registry.aspx and search for your name.

Can you find yourself?

Hello,

as I have heard there are already questions regarding agile methods in the PMP test. Is that correct? If so, do they count?
Even if these questions do not count, they will at least kill your time or even worse kick you out of concept.

Till

Dear Cornelius Fichtner,

When will the new exam simulator be available for the exams after Jan 2, 2021?

Kind regards,
Anna

i dont think so ,,all questions counted towards the total evaluation

Interested to hear how the "brain dump" was handled by anyone that has taken the new on-line format. I have been hearing that scrap paper is not allowed for this format. I'm ready to schedule my exam, but would like to know specifics on what I should expect. I don't want to be caught off guard and find out some my expected tools will not be available to me. Thank you.

Hello Edward,

you're right: no scrap paper is allowed during the online proctored exam. You will have access to a built-in whiteboard, that you can use any time you need in both parts of the exam. Here you can find some additional details on the tools available in it.

In my experience, the whiteboard was not responding promptly to my inputs (you can practice it yourself and check this out on this brand new feature that PearsonVUE has just added to get familiar with the whiteboard before the exam; just follow the link above). So it would have taken me forever to do a brain dump. Instead, I decided to use it only when I couldn't do otherwise; i.e., for anything related to network analysis.
Still, I know that some people were able to use the whiteboard for their brain dump; for more focused recommendations, I would suggest you to browse through the posts in the Lessons Learned Forum, maybe searching for "brain dump" as keywords, or anything you would consider relevant to your point.

Gabriella

Yes I took the exam on my first try online and it was a bit of nightmare. The short answer to your question is, no. You are not allowed to have scratch paper on the exam. Make sure that you go to the onVue website with the laptop you intend to use and make sure it works with the selected software. Second, the brain dump is more like using a text editing application. If you have taken any masters level courses it is similar to what is on Blackboard. I did not pass the exam but I felt that my technical issues played a huge role in how I tested. Either way, I am rescheduling to take on line and prepared for what is to come. Good luck.

Hello,

I failed my PMP exam which i gave on Aug 22 2020. Two Domain portions (Initiating and Monitoring & Controlling were Below Target).
When i received my assessment, it can clearly be seen that i did Monitoring and Controlling better than other Domains and it really doesn't make any sense how can i get below target in Monitoring and Controlling ?

According to PMI assessment, out of 7 tasks (monitoring and controlling) my score was - 3 HIGH , 3 MEDIUM , JUST 1 LOW (still i got below target in Monitoring and Controlling) this score is better than executing part where i got TARGET as result.

I have already emailed my concern to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. but not sure that is it worth fighting for ? Is it even possible to change my result ? If Monitoring and Controlling changes to TARGET than i am sure my result will be PASSED.

Any input will be much appreciated.

Thanks
Shahrukh

Hi, I have a question. Does your whiteboard content disappear after you return from your 10-minute break?
I am asking with regards to the memory dump I am interested in creating.

Thank you for your reply in advance!!