If you are planning to earn your PMP® certification, then I’m sure you are aware that PMI® changed the PMP® Exam in a very significant way on January 2, 2021 to make the test align better with the new ECO (Examination Content Outline). (See https://www.pmi.org/certifications/project-management-pmp/earn-the-pmp/pmp-exam-preparation/pmp-exam-updates for more details about this change.)
The main change affecting students preparing for the exam is that a lot more work is going to be required to prepare than in the past! I would estimate that the new test covers at least 30% to 50% more material than the 2020 test. The main thing that has happened is that PMI is including much more on Agile concepts. PMI is saying for the new test, 50% of the questions will be based on Agile or Hybrid approaches, and 50% on the traditional predictive-planning approaches. The bottom line is that all the new Agile material, plus some other new concepts mostly involving Human Resource Management and Team Development, have caused this huge increase.
The ATP (Authorized Training Partner) student materials that have been blessed by PMI contain 646 slides to cover in the four days, but there are really 760 slides when you count all the “activities” slides. The ATP instructors tell their students that after class, the students need to take another 3 weeks or more to go through all these extra slides, and also read the 404 page PMI Authorized PMP Exam Prep Student Manual after class. So, a much higher level of commitment is needed by the students to prepare for the 2021 exam.
We are working diligently on updating our LMS (Learning Management System), and all the other supporting training materials, including slides, videos, exercises and quizzes for the new test. We will update our progress on this webpage for recreating the LMS and the videos. We hope to have these course materials ready sometime in the spring.
In the meantime, we are partnering with Edwel Programs – http://www.edwel.com – and we have created course materials (PowerPoint Slides and end-of-unit quizzes) so that Edwel can host “live” instructor led virtual classes. When our updates to the LMS are complete, we will start providing “Flipped PMP Prep classes” (or “Blended classes”), and “on-demand” virtual classes too.
We promise you that our program will be much less of an ordeal to handle than the ATP program, and it will also be much easier for students to follow and understand. We will provide guarantees that if you follow all the steps in the program, you will pass the PMP Exam!
Mark Tolbert, PMP, PMI-ACP
