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Have you ever felt scared of your PMP exam application getting selected for an audit?

If yes, this article is for you. Here, I will explain to you what the PMP certification audit is all about, and what you should do in order to clear it successfully.

In order to start, you should first know as to when you may expect your application to get selected for an audit. Remember that it is a completely random process, and that only a small percentage of submitted applications are selected for an audit.

Daily PMP Guide
Application, audit, and study tips/resources for the PMP exam.

You first submit your PMP examination application, which is reviewed for accuracy and completeness by PMI. Once that is done, you receive an e-mail from them stating that your application has been reviewed and that you may go ahead and pay the PMP examination fees. You should do as advised.

Now, here comes the deciding part. Within a couple of minutes of your having paid the fees, you should receive an e-mail from PMI which lets you know your candidate ID for the PMP exam. You may use this ID in order to schedule the PMP exam on a chosen date and time at a Prometric center located close to you. Once you do this, you will receive an e-mail from Prometric confirming your selected PMP examination schedule.

However, if your application gets selected for an audit, you will not receive a mail containing your candidate ID for the PMP exam (after you have paid the fees). Instead, you will receive another e-mail from PMI, which tells you that your application has been selected for an audit, and advises you about the steps to be taken next.

If this happens, the first thing that you should do is that you should not panic. It is just an audit, and not a bomb shell. The worst thing that can happen is that you will not be able to get past the audit process, and will have to apply for the PMP exam again. In the latter case, PMI will refund your PMP examination fees less a $100 processing fees. So, the sky is not going to fall.

You will be required to send to PMI hard copies of your educational, training, and experience certificates through snail mail (regular mail or express courier service). You can select the PMI center nearest to your place of residence for dispatching your documents. (The details of documents requested, along with postal addresses of all available PMI centers, where you can send in your documents, will be sent to you in the audit notification mail). Just send PMI the requested documents and wait for their feedback.

Upon receipt of your documents, PMI will verify them and let you know if they are satisfied with them. If your documents seem fine to them, you will receive another e-mail informing you of successful audit completion, along with your candidate ID for the PMP exam. You may then proceed and schedule your PMP exam. However, if PMI is not satisfied with the documents sent by you, you may receive another mail with request for more information (or supporting documents). You should send them the requested documents. Finally, PMI will either issue you a candidate ID or else, inform you of your failure in having completed the audit successfully. If the latter happens, you should consider applying for the PMP exam afresh.

One of my close friends got selected for an audit recently, and was through with it in less than 10 working days. If you possess documented evidence of your experience in directing and managing project activities as well as your educational and training qualifications, you have nothing to fear.

So, go ahead in your pursuit of your PMP certification, and do not let the fear of audit hold you back!

Photo by joebeone

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Flickr Attribution - worak

So, you have been hearing of the advantages of being a PMP and have finally decided to appear in the exam!

Great! Before you get set to prepare for this exam, you need to spend a moment verifying whether you are eligible to appear in it. Through this article, I will help you do exactly this.

So, what is it that you need to be eligible?

(1) You should be able to show a minimum of 4500 hours of project management experience, if you possess a Bachelor’s degree (or a global equivalent), or a minimum of 7500 hours of experience otherwise. Also, this experience should span across all the 5 process groups. So, you should specify your experience in Initiating, Planning, Executing, Monitoring and Controlling, as well as Closing process groups. However, relax! You do not need to have experience in every process group in every project that you have worked on. You might have joined some project in the middle of the execution phase and thus, might not have been involved in Initiating and Planning phases for the same. Or, you might have moved out of some project midway after initiating and planning for it. In this case, you would not have participated in any ‘Closing’ activity for this project. All this is fine, and perfectly acceptable, provided you have experience on all of these process groups in at least one of your projects.

(2) You must have completed at least 35 hours of Project Management education. You will be required to put in the start date, end date, name of the course provider as well as the name of the training course when filling in the application form. You can go in for training classes conducted by your employer or you may want to attend some online courses. You may also attend some classroom based sessions organized by different training institutes. Only, you should make sure that the course deals with Project Management topics only. Another option to earn your 35 contact hours with this audio training course.

Remember, you do not need to submit any proofs of your experience or educational qualifications at the time of submitting your application for the exam. In fact, you might not have to submit these documents at all. The only time you will have to produce documentary proof of your education and experience is if your application gets selected for an audit. But it is always advisable to have documentary proof of your experience and educational qualifications in place, just in case they are needed.

Another important thing to remember is that you should fill in your examination form only after you have attained PMI membership. This makes sense not only because you get access to additional study materials but also financially. If you apply for the exam without becoming a PMI member, you need to pay USD 555. However, if you become a PMI member and then apply for the exam, you pay $129 for the membership, in addition to the USD 405 examination fees. The latter amounts to a total of USD 534. So, which option would you go in for? I would prefer becoming a PMP member first, any day. However, make sure that you apply for your exam within one year of becoming a PMI member, otherwise your membership would lapse and you would again have to pay the whole amount of USD 555 for apearing in the exam.

So, get set and be ready to appear in your PMP exam!

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Audit of PMP Exam applications

Are you eligible to appear in the PMP exam?