Applicants for the PMP exam who hold a bachelor's degree must have 4,500 hours of direct experience in project management spanning three years. Bachelor's degree applicants must also complete 35 hours of project management education classes. Applicants for the PMP exam who hold a high school diploma must have 7,500 hours of direct experience in project management spanning over five years, and they must also complete 35 hours worth of classes in project management.
The cost of the computer administered project management professional exam was $405 for members of the Project Management Institute, as of March 2010. Nonmembers paid a fee of $555, as of March 2010. Applicants who were members of the Project Management Institute and chose to take the exam on paper paid an exam fee of $250 while nonmembers who chose to take the paper exam paid an exam fee of $400, as of March 2010.
The PMP exam consists of 200 questions requiring multiple choice answers. The exam includes 25 non-scored pre-test questions contained within the total question count. Subjects the questions cover include the initiation, planning, executing, monitoring, controlling and closing stages involved with project management. Questions also cover professional and social responsibility standards associated with project management.
Participants who take the computer-based PMP exam have a total offour hours to complete all 200 questions. Participants may elect to take part in a tutorial before the exam begins and a survey after testing period finishes. These optional segments may take 15 minutes each for participants to complete, but the time spent completing them does not deduct from the four-hour testing period.
After completing the PMP, a participant who engaged in computer-based testing will receive a copy of his score from the testing center on the same day he completes the testing process. Participants who engaged in paper testing can access scoring results through an online portal six to eight weeks after completing the testing process. The PMP exam scoring report contains an overall pass or fail designation and also provides designations of proficient, moderately proficient or below proficient for all the project management areas the exam covered.