Because the PMBOK® Guide contains a subset of the entire body of project management knowledge which refers to processes, and does not teach nor provide practice of tools and techniques, it is not the sole reference for the PMP examination. We recommend that candidates study project management text books in addition to the PMBOK® Guide to provide the knowledge of these tools and techniques. We also require at least three years of experience because knowledge does not replace experience in preparing for the exam
The exam consists of the 200 questions, 25 of which are considered pretest. Pretest questions do not affect your score and are used in examinations as an effective and legitimate way to increase the number of future PMP examination questions. The pretest questions are randomly placed throughout the exam.
There are two levels of information provided on your score report. One is the overall examination results, which tell you whether you passed or failed. The second is a picture of your overall strengths and weaknesses within each domain. This is a diagnostic representation of your proficiency level per domain for PMP and PgMP and by chapter for CAPM. Each domain or chapter reports your level of proficiency—Proficient, Moderately Proficient, or Below Proficient.
PMI applies global best practices in examination administration by reporting your proficiency levels. The proficiency levels serve as an aid in measuring your knowledge in specific areas of study and practice. For example, if your result is Below Proficient in one of the domains/chapters, then you know what you need to study to improve. There are not a minimum or maximum number of domains or chapters in which you need to demonstrate proficiency in order to pass the exam. Your pass/fail rate is determined based on your overall performance, not on how many questions you answered right or wrong in a particular domain or chapter.
Each of the domains or chapters has a different number of questions within them that are relative to each other but not equal to each other. That means it is possible to score Below Proficiency in one of the domains and yet still pass the examination. It all depends on how many items were present in the domains that were failed.
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