Good morning, I'm Lao Yuan.
Last week, I saw an article introducing research, and I saw the PMP certificate in the hot review.
We have to admit that the popularity of PMP certificates has exceeded our imagination. A few years ago, I chose to take the PMP exam, just to have multiple advantages when applying for a job.
But now, almost all Internet practitioners around me either have PMP or are on the way to take the PMP exam.
As more and more people take the PMP exam, PMI is also constantly updating and revising the exam.
This does not mean that the PMP exam in August this year will add a "PMBOK 7th Edition" as a reference textbook.
Many fans came to private message me, whether to sign up for the PMP exam in August, or wait and see, and take the next exam. Some fans even said that they regretted signing up too early, and asked me if I needed to apply for a deferment of the exam because of this.
Just in the middle of March, Lao Yuan and I went to Hangzhou to attend the PMI annual conference. At the meeting, the revision and the basis of the PMP were introduced.
Today, Lao Yuan will analyze with you whether the PMP exam in August is worth taking.
1. Are all those taking the PMP exam in August "guinea pigs"?
Lao Yuan, I can understand the thoughts of many fans. After all, August is the first time to take the seventh edition of the textbook. The content of the exam has increased, and the difficulty may also increase. If you take the exam in August, you will become a "guinea pig" in the laboratory.
However, from the interpretation and analysis of experts at the conference, I think that the difficulty of the PMP exam in August will not increase.
01 Changing the teaching materials does not change the syllabus
Speaking of the last revision of the PMP exam, it dates back to the exam when the exam syllabus was changed in June last year, and it even rushed to the Weibo topic list.
Compared with the old syllabus, the new syllabus examines areas ranging from initiation, planning, execution, monitoring, and closing to personnel, process, and business environment. In addition, more than half of the content of the exam questions is related to agile.
Because of the huge changes, many candidates were confused in the examination room and failed the examination.
In the end, the foundation also opened up a free re-examination opportunity for candidates who failed. You should know that under normal circumstances, if you fail the PMP exam, you will have to pay a supplementary exam fee of 2,500 yuan.
But this revision is completely different from last year's. This time, for the exam, a reference textbook was added, and the syllabus was still the original one.
At this PMI conference, experts also emphasized that the PMP questions are based on the exam outline , and the exam focuses on the application level, and the purpose is not to examine everyone's mastery of the "PMBOK Guide".
Therefore, Lao Yuan thinks that everyone can rest assured that a "little white mouse" has experienced the syllabus for everyone as early as a year ago. The PMP training mode on the market has also been adjusted according to the new version of the exam syllabus.
As long as you listen to the class carefully and brush up the questions carefully, you will not be unsuitable for the questions.
02 Examination format remains unchanged
Many people don't know that the PMP exam overseas is completely online. The types of questions are also different. In addition to multiple choice questions, there are also connecting questions and matching questions.
Moreover, the overseas PMP exam has adopted the new exam syllabus early on, which is a step behind them in our mainland.
Therefore, many people predict that in the future, the mainland may add new test forms just like overseas.
But at least the exam in August is still the same as before, all of which are multiple-choice questions.
All multiple-choice questions are relatively simple for candidates.
There are only four options for single-choice questions, and the questions for multiple-choice questions will also mark how many options to choose, and then use the method of elimination and comparison. If you don’t understand, you can guess with experience and luck, and it is relatively easy to pass the exam.
2. PMI official secret: PMP question basis
The difficulty of the exam depends largely on the variation of the exam questions. So before, many friends were curious about what the PMP exam questions were based on.
It just so happened that the PMI conference also focused on the basis of the PMP exam and the purpose of the exam.
01 Question basis and test purpose
Each question of the PMP exam is first written by a PMP expert, and an academic literature is provided as a reference source for the question. It is then reviewed by another PMP expert with a second source of reference.
In addition, it was also emphasized earlier that the PMP questions must be based on the exam syllabus. As for whether to refer to the "PMBOK Guide" for the questions, it is not a mandatory requirement.
From this point of view, the questions of the PMP exam are relatively rigorous, and each question is well-founded, and it can also reflect the real work and situation of a project manager.
It also shows that the purpose of the PMP exam is to measure the professionalism of everyone in the actual working environment. Therefore, if you want to pass the exam, it is useless to memorize the reference books.
As Lao Yuan, a PMP teacher I know who has taught for ten years, said, PMP is a course that comes from practice to actual combat.
No matter how many reference books and reference materials there are, they are only at the theoretical level. Our goal is to apply the knowledge we have learned.
02 The PMP value in August is not worth considering
There are also many fans complaining to me that one more book means learning more content, and I don’t understand why PMI makes it so difficult for candidates.
In fact, PMP is a qualification examination, its purpose is to assess the knowledge and skills of project managers. If it is difficult for candidates, this certainly does not exist.
The official also explained that the main reason for adding the seventh edition is because the sixth edition of PMBOK is relatively too dogmatic.
As mentioned earlier, the PMP exam focuses on application, so teaching materials that are too dogmatic are not very useful for our actual project management work.
In addition, different from the predictive project management method of the sixth edition, the seventh edition takes into account various project management methods of predictive, iterative, incremental, adaptive and other types. Closer to project practice.
To put it bluntly, the seventh edition is universal, applicable to any project type or delivery method.
So from a practical point of view, the latest seventh edition is more conducive to our project management work than the previous sixth edition.
So you want to say whether the PMP exam in August is worth it? I think it's definitely worth it.
Compared with the previous exams in August, I can learn more and newer project management knowledge; compared with the subsequent exams, I can also master the latest knowledge one step faster than others.
3. How to deal with PMP in August?
Now that there are more reference materials for the exam, some adjustments must be made to the learning mode.
For example, the 12 principles of project management and 8 project performance domains proposed in the seventh edition of the textbook, should we focus on this area?
There is also the agile part emphasized in the syllabus, how should we learn this?
01 Simplify learning
The PMP exam has only 180 multiple-choice questions, but the sixth edition textbook has more than 700 pages, the seventh edition textbook has more than 300 pages, and the agile practice guide has more than 100 pages. In addition to reading thousands of pages of textbooks, you also need to write questions.
With so much content, it is definitely impossible to absorb it all. And the exam is not based on textbooks.
Therefore, the most important thing is to grasp the main points, locate the test sites, and streamline the learning.
02Find a reliable agency
With the increasing recognition of the PMP certificate in China in recent years, the number of people applying for the PMP exam is increasing every year. There are mixed training institutions on the market. Many institutions do not have professional teachers. For recording and broadcasting classes, follow-up services are not guaranteed at all.
In addition to the current revision of the exam, most institutions have no countermeasures and continue to teach according to the original model. Definitely not good for exam preparation.
Finally, Lao Yuan would like to say that the PMP exam in August is the first time to use the seventh edition of textbooks, and coupled with the lessons learned from the revision of the exam syllabus in June last year, the content and difficulty of the exam questions will not change much.
Follow the progress of teachers from professional institutions, so everyone can prepare for the exam with peace of mind.
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I am Lao Yuan, welcome to follow my official account [ Project Manager Lao Yuan], every day there will be dry goods sharing of project management cases .