TOPIC: Passing Score

I was wondering what a passing score is on the exam?

Hello,

that was one of the first questions I asked myself when I approached the PMP exam. I thought it would have helped me to set a clear goal for my preparation.
Unfortunately nobody knows the passing score for the exam! In fact, as per the PMP Handbook ,

The passing score for all PMI exams is determined by sound psychometric analysis. PMI uses subject matter experts – project professionals from around the world and many different disciplines – to determine how many questions you must answer correctly to pass the exam. Each scored question on the exam is worth one point; and your final score is calculated by totaling the points you have earned on the exam. The number of questions you answer correctly places you within one of the performance rating categories you see on this report.

I'd recommend also to read this article by Cornelius Fichtner, which provides you with a guide to the PMP exam, including some additional details to your question.

Gabriella

JVD:

Gabriella is correct. If you're a data nerd like I am, here is a simplified answer to PMI's statement:

The "passing score" for professional examinations is a closely guarded secret in the certifying organization. Additionally, with the advent of on-line testing (like Prometric, Sylvan, etc.) the actual passing score will vary somewhat with each exam as it will be linked to the individual questions that you get. Those questions (with the exception of the 25 base questions that everyone gets and nobody knows which they are) will have a statistic assigned to the question and the overall pass for the exam will be some convoluted combination of the statistics for the individual questions.

Harry