PMP Online – 5 Steps to Get PMP® Certification Online

Are you one of those passionate project management aspirants who want to pursue their career in Project Management? Are you interested to acquire global accreditation in project management? If your answer is “yes” then you are reading the right article. In this article, we will share the 5 steps to get PMP certification online. In short, you can refer to this article about PMP online if you want to get PMP certified.

Passion makes the key difference as it plays a vital role in determining whether or not one can succeed in their endeavors. If you are passionate about something, you will definitely go ahead and do your best to get it. The best thing about PMP, it brings to the passionate project managers is that they get global recognition of what they are doing.

No doubt that the challenging demands of the dynamic global market always pose pressure on the organizations to compete and win whether they are product-oriented or service-oriented. They always strive to be the best through the innovation of technology, processes, or products. That’s the key area where huge demand is generated for the passionate project managers who can make the difference by working on complex projects to meet the agility within the organizations and their environments. So the project managers are the front line task force for any company.

PMP is provided by the Project Management Institute (PMI) and it is a globally known professional certification. It is also globally realized as an endorsement of project management knowledge and experience of the accreditation holder. With the repute PMP carries, it is the best option for the project management aspirants to obtain PMP credentials. A PMP certification acknowledges your passion for achieving your goals. Your PMP credentials display your abilities, efforts, knowledge, experience, and consistency.

Project Management – Opportunities and Benefits

Project Management is essential for any company where time, scope, budget, and quality are of extreme importance as everything has an associated cost. So project managers have to bring the best possible output within the set of constraints. This complex demanding responsibility towards the project managers brings rewards as well.

Project management is one of the most rapidly growing professions. This growing demand for project managers motivates the aspirants to choose a project management career. According to the recent trends, the project management demand is continuously increasing at a much faster rate as compared to the other fields.

Project managers are given higher salaries due to the high responsibility to bring success within complex and challenging projects. Also as per the project management surveys, the PMP certification holders get 20% higher salaries as compared to their non-PMP peers.

Furthermore, the recruiting agencies and hiring departments look for the best-fits when hiring. The PMP certification helps them to validate the endorsement of the knowledge and experience of the incumbent. This validation becomes quite prominent with the accreditation of PMP certification. Also, many companies mention PMP as a must-have requirement for the available positions they are hiring for. So with the PMP certification, the chances to grab better opportunities increase for project management professionals.

The 5 Steps For Getting PMP Online

You can apply online for PMP certification, But before that, you should fulfill the PMP certification requirements. These requirements are defined by PMI, hence you can sit in the PMP exam only if your application is approved by PMI. So you must satisfy the PMP exam requirements first. Once you meet these PMP certification requirements, you need to fill in your PMP online application form along with the relevant information. The successful evaluation of the PMP application form makes the applicant eligible to sit in the PMP exam. Then, you will be able to proceed further with the online scheduling of the PMP Exam.

1- Satisfy the PMP exam requirements

The PMP criteria assess the knowledge, skills, and experience of the PMP aspirants. Their eligibility criteria mentioned below cover various aspects. These very well defined criteria, help filter the best candidates in terms of these aspects. These aspects include:

• Education
• Experience
• Training

Being extensive enough, these criteria are used to assess the knowledge, skills, experience, and approach required to manage the projects.

You can consider CAPM certification if you do not qualify for PMP certification.

Education

Education is one of the main requirements of PMI for PMP certification. According to the PMI’s requirements, one should have at least a high school diploma or associate’s degree or global equivalent. Then you will be able to appear in the PMP online exam. If you are a graduate you get the advantage of this degree within your experience.

Experience

Experience is another requirement that must be fulfilled by the candidate to appear in the PMP Exam. PMI has set the requirement and experience to complement each other. In other words, the tenure of experience requirement is subject to your education.

For Graduate Level Education:

If you have a bachelor’s degree, the required experience is 3 years (36 months). These 36 months can be interpreted as 4,500 hours. This can be further translated as 1,500 hours per year and 125 hours per month for 3 years. So you must have experience of at least 4,500 hours if you are planning to sit in the PMP exam provided you have a bachelor’s degree.

For High School diploma Level Education

If you have a high school diploma or associate’s degree or global equivalent the required experience is 5 years (60 months). These 60 months can be interpreted as 7,000 hours. This can be further translated as 1,400 hours per year and approximately 120 hours per month. So you must have experience of at least 7,000 hours if you are planning to sit in the PMP exam provided you have an associate’s degree or equivalent. One can say that the requirement of an additional two years’ experience is to compensate for the graduation level in case one does not have a graduation degree.

Training

PMP training is another PMP certification requirement. This is also a must-have requirement to sit in the PMP exam. PMI associates 35 contact hours of training for the PMP Examination. That means the training should grant 35 contact hours of project management training.

2- Prepare for PMP Online

As we have shared with you the PMP exam requirements now we should move one step forward. You must ensure which criteria are already fulfilled or which requires to be filled in. So you get onto the preparation track now. Usually, aspirants have the education requirement fulfilled. Even some of the candidates have also fulfilled the experience requirement whereas others might still working on their experience fulfillment. In either case, one can start for the training requirement if they do not have already obtained the 35 PDUs.

Obtaining 35 PDUs may sound like an easier one to fulfill as compared to the other PMP requirements.  But as a matter of fact, this is the most tricky one. Because the readiness in terms of applicability of your skills, knowledge, and coverage of the PMP exam material is the key objective of these training programs. These PMP training programs will help you set a foundation based on PMBOK and also align your skills and knowledge with respect to the standard.

How to choose your PMP training?

There are many training providers in the market who offer PMP training programs. You should choose the one that suits you with respect to your schedule. Most of the candidates are on a job and have to acquire the training which does not impact their busy schedules. Considering these constraints, many training providers offer PMP exam training in various formats. Furthermore, to ensure that the candidates are well prepared for the PMP exam, they offer other training materials that the candidates can study after the completion of the training. Likewise, they offer practice questions, quizzes, etc. that can help the candidate to assess their readiness for the exam.

As you are going to spend your financial resources for the sake of these trainings, therefore, you must be considerate to assess which training provider to choose for your PMP exam preparation. So while you are assessing the options of PMP preparation courses, you should consider factors like class formats, training fees, training material, practice tests, and quizzes. On top of all these factors, you must remember that you should earn 35 PDUs on the completion of the training program which will fulfill the PMP Exam requirement. Furthermore, you should be considerate about the reputation and success ratios of the training providers. Such as what people say about the training programs offered by the training provider.

 What are the PMP training formats?

Now we will look at certain factors that help candidates to choose the training programs and training providers to enhance their outreach across the globe. Training providers offer various training formats. These training formats are:

PMP Training – Instructor-Led On-Premises Classroom

In this format, an instructor-led classroom training session is offered by the training provider. The students have to be physically available on the premises to join the session. These are full-day training programs and take 4 to 5 days of training camps. The candidates have to search for the nearest training event based on the schedule and location. Students have to ensure that they are available for the classes.

You will get opportunities to have in-person meetings with trainers as well as other candidates. But you are bound in terms of time and premises as you have to be in the class to attend the session. This might be difficult for most candidates.

PMP Online Training –  Instructor-Led Live

In this format of PMP online training, the instructor-led training session is offered by the provider but there is no constraint of the location. It means the teacher, as well as the students, can join a virtual classroom live session. All you need to attend these sessions is to register for the course, have a computer and internet. Even you can join the sessions from any portable device. Generally, these are full-day training programs and take 4 to 5 days of training camps. Due to the freedom from location and commute constraints, these sessions are also more easily planned for partial days and weekends as well.

You do not have to be location bound as you do not need to reach any specific premises to attend the classroom-based sessions. So it frees the hassle of commute as well. You still have the opportunity to talk to your trainer and peers during the sessions. Generally, the cost of these PMP online formats is less than the classroom-based training formats.

PMP Online Training – Self Paced

Another PMP online format for training that is getting popular is self-paced PMP online courses. These are online programs. In this format, the training providers grant online access to the training material for a specific time period. It is up to the student how they want to manage the pace.

Furthermore, you are not bound in terms of schedule and premises to attend this type of PMP online training. All you need to do is to register for the course and access to the PMP online training portal. So all you need an internet connection and a computer. The most important considerations for this format include:

• The PMP online training material should be extensive enough that it is helpful to grasp the concepts and practice.
• It must include videos, audios, practice sessions, and guides.
• You should be able to monitor and track your progress through the online portal.

Another advantage of these PMP online courses is that you save your bucks without compromising the quality and objectives of the training program. With this format, you get better cost-saving as well as much flexibility. Therefore we recommend this PMP online training format for your PMP Exam preparation.

3- Apply for PMP Online

Once you satisfy all these requirements, you are ready to apply for the PMP certification. PMI recommends applying for PMP certification online. You can apply for PMP online as this is the fastest and comfortable method.

You need to register with PMI and you can do this using the PMI website. For this sake, you need to visit www.pmi.org where you can become a registered user of PMI. Once you become a registered user of PMI.org you can fill in your PMP online application form. On this form you will submit your information regarding the following:

• Contact details
• Education details
• Experience details
• Project Management training contact hours details

The successful evaluation of the PMP application form makes the applicant eligible to sit in the PMP certification exam.

Once you complete your application and submit, there is a probability that your application is randomly selected for the audit by the PMI. There is nothing to worry about, all you need to do is to maintain the evidence of all the details you have specified within the PMP online application. In case your application is selected for audit, you can send all the artifacts as evidence to PMI for all these aforementioned aspects.

PMP Online Application – Education

Providing details of your education within the PMP online application is a very easy task. All you have to do is to declare the education information based on your degree. As you already have the degree, you already have the evidence. If required for the audit, you can get a copy of your degree and include it in the audit response package.

PMP Online Application –  Contact hours

By this time you should have the details of PMP training that you acquired to earn 35 PDUs. Hence you should have a training completion certificate from your service provider that endorses 35 contact hours. You just fill in the training detail within the PMP online application form. If required to respond to the audit, you can get a copy of your training certificate and include it in the audit response package.

PMP Online Application – Project Management Experience

Like other requirements, you must have completed the requirement of project management experience. You may have worked on several projects during the required time period. So it is important to prepare the details of the projects you have worked on. You can do it in a simple sheet first. Then you can submit the details within the application. For each project, you should have the information ready which will include the purpose of the project, what is the duration you have worked on this project? And who was your supervisor on that project? There are several important points to note:

• It is not mandatory for you to have the designation of the project manager for the sake of relevant experience.
• Moreover, you may have worked on projects in different capacities.
• You may not necessarily have worked on the projects for the whole project life cycle.
• There should be no two parallel projects. For instance, if you worked on multiple projects that overlapped in a single month, only one of those projects can count toward your experience requirement.

You should maintain the homework for the later part. Just in case when PMI selects PMP application for the audit, the history you have maintained for the details is important. You will require to get your project details and work endorsed by your supervisors. They will send you the verified documents that you will add in the audit response package.

Once all the audit responses are ready, you can send them to PMI at the specified address. This is only required in case your PMP application is selected for the audit.

4- Schedule your PMP exam date

You can schedule your PMP exam date from Pearson VUE test centers through your PMI profile online once your PMP online application qualifies. In the case of audit selection, your audit response should fulfill the audit requirements.

Then PMI will share with you a notification to request the payment. So you should go back into the online certification system to complete the required steps. You will choose your examination delivery method and PMI will provide you various ways to make the payment. You can pay through credit card online or you can send postal mail to PMI. But the online payment will enable PMI to process your payment more quickly. However, you can also mail a check, money order, credit card information, or wire payment information to PMI. Payment is required to be issued with your application if you submit it via postal mail.

After your payment submission, you can choose one of the Pearson VUE test centers that is convenient for you. You will have to schedule your test as per the availability of the slot in the test center of your choice. Based on the available slots, you can book one for your PMI Exam. So you can set the date and time of the PMP Exam you want to sit in.

PMP Online Examination

Once you have scheduled your exam at a Pearson VUE test center of your choice, you will visit this test center to sit in the PMP online exam. This is a computer-based online exam of 4 hours of duration. In the exam, you have to attempt 200 multiple-choice questions. Every question in the PMP exam has four options and you need to pick one correct answer. There is no negative marking but the positive responses count towards the passing scores.

You may avail short breaks within these 4 hours, however, you need to focus on the time management so that you can fully avail these 4 hours. That means you should avoid any unnecessary breaks. The PMP online exam ends when the 4 hours duration lapses or you press the submit button.

On completion of your PMP online test, you will receive your score immediately. What could be better than a  “Congratulation” message on the screen? Wow! Your PMP online mission is accomplished!

5- Renew Your PMP Online

Once you have passed the PMP exam, your accreditation is valid for the next 3 years. Then, after 3 years, you have to renew your PMP credentials. PMI has also set criteria for renewal. According to the criteria, you must earn 60 Professional Development Units (PDUs) during every cycle. Hence you need to renew your PMP certification after each cycle.

In order to renew the PMP certification, you should have obtained and reported 60 PMP PDU and then submit the PMP renewal fee. You can earn the PDUs and claim them via the PMP online portal at any time during the 3 years cycle. So you do not have to worry about maintaining the records somewhere else.

PMI allows you to submit the PDUs on their portal. PMI displays the PDUs you have earned as well as the remaining PDUs within the current cycle so you can plan your PDUs. On completion of the renewal cycle, PMI notifies you to renew your PMP credential. So you need to complete the 60 PDUs as well as you have to pay the fees. On submission of PMP PDU hours and renewal fees, PMI will renew your PMP certification for the next three years cycle.

There are more than 10 categories you can choose to earn PMP PDUs. You can earn PDUs through various methods. For instance, you can acquire training, or you can also conduct training, or you can participate in PMI activities and events. One of the most convenient and affordable way to earn PDUs is taking other PMP online courses.

Summary: PMP Online

In this article, we have shared with you the information required for your PMP online journey. First, we shared with you the PMP requirements. Once you know the requirements, you should fulfill these PMP certification requirements with respect to education, experience, and training. For PMP exam formal training, you need to attend a training program that can satisfy the 35 contact hours requirement.

We recommend the PMP online training format as the PMP online programs are highly cost-effective. They also provide you the flexibility to manage the pace of the program. So you can manage the pace of the PMP online training as per your suitability.

Once you meet the PMP criteria it means you are eligible to apply. You can pursue the PMP online application. In case PMI selects your application for the audit, you need to respond to the audit requirements by providing the evidence of the information you have provided in the PMP online application. Once PMI approved your PMP online application, you will have to pay the fees and then you can book the PMP exam in your nearest Pearson VUE Test center.

And finally, on your PMP exam day, you will appear for your PMP online exam. This exam is of 4 hours duration. After you pass the PMP online exam, you will maintain your accreditation for 3 years. In this cycle, you need to earn 60 PDUs. You can earn them through various online continuing education programs.

We hope this article is helpful for your PMP online journey. We wish you all the best for your PMP exam!