PMI's Certification Program

The Project Management Institute (PMI®) administers a globally recognized, rigorous, education, and/or professional experience and examination-based professional credentialing program that maintains ISO 9001 certification in Quality Management Systems.

PMI professional credentials — available to members of the Institute and nonmembers alike — are widely recognized and accepted throughout the world as evidence of a proven level of education, knowledge and experience in project management.

PMI offers two professional credentials: Certified Associate in Project Management (CAPM®) and the Project Management Professional (PMP®).

For more information about the certification program, please click here to visit PMI's website.

Education Opportunities through the Chapter

The PMI Lakeshore Chapter usually holds two PMP Certification Examination preparatory courses per year - one in the Spring and one in the Fall. The Chapter also holds a number of other educational offerings for our PMP certified members.

If you took a PMP Certification Preparation Course from the Chapter and are completing your PMP Candidate Application, you will need to provide the Chapter Code Number on the application. The Chapter Code Number for the Lakeshore Chapter is C193.

PMP Certification Changes (December 2005)

The examination for the Project Management Professional (PMP®) certification was recently revised. There are a number of changes that you need to understand.

In the previous exam, there were 200 questions and all questions were marked. The new exam also consists of 200 questions (and you still have four hours to answer them) but only 175 of them are marked to assess your project management skills and PMBOK knowledge. The remaining 25 questions are test questions which PMI are evaluating for inclusion in future variations of the exam. Your answers, right or wrong, to these questions are not included in determining if you have the knowledge necessary to earn the PMP designation. Don't spend time trying to spot them. They aren't the first 25 questions nor the last 25; they are scattered throughout the exam.

In the previous exam, the passing mark was 137 out of 200 (68.5%); in the new exam it is 106 out of 175 (60.5%). Initially, it seems that it should be easier to pass the new exam because there is a lower threshold for passing. That is an inaccurate conclusion. Previously, approximately 80% of the candidates writing the exam were able to pass. The new exam has tougher questions so even though the passing mark is lower, it is expected that only 70% of candidates will be successful.

When the new exam was first released, the threshold for passing was around 120 of 175 questions. A large number of candidates were unable to meet this criteria. In the analyses that PMI performed immediately after the new exam was instituted, the passing score was changed to 106 of 175. All of the new exam results were rescored and the score of anyone who had failed was compared against the revised passing score. Everyone who had a mark of 106 or better now shows as a successful candidate.

For more information on PMI's Certification Program

For more information, please contact us at professionaldevelopment@pmi-lakeshore.org