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How to Get PMP Certified (Step-by-Step Guide)
How do I get PMP certified?
Five things stand between you and the credential: qualify on experience, complete 35 contact hours of training, get your application approved, pass a 180-question exam, then renew it every three years.
With a four-year degree you need 36 months of project experience. Without one you need 60 months. All of it must fall inside the last eight years.
Most candidates take three to six months from the day they start training to the day they pass.
36 months
Experience, with a degree
60 months without one. Inside the last eight years.
35 hours
Project management training
Before you apply. Waived if you hold an active CAPM.
180 questions
The exam
230 minutes, with two 10-minute breaks.
60 PDUs
To keep it
Every three years, plus a renewal fee.
What are the steps, in order?
Nine steps. Each one links to the page that explains it in full.
1
Check that you qualify
Count your project months against your education. Check your eligibility.
2
Complete 35 contact hours
Formal project management training, finished before you apply. What counts as a contact hour.
3
Write and submit the application
Project by project, in months. PMI processes online applications in about five days.
4
Clear the audit, if you are selected
Degree copy, signed project verifications, training certificate. How the audit works.
5
Pay the exam fee
Join PMI first if you are going to. The member rate applies only on the day you pay. Fees in dollars · Fees in India.
6
Book your date
Schedule with Pearson VUE, at a test centre or online. You have one year and three attempts.
7
Prepare properly
Study the exam content outline, then work through timed mock exams until your scores stop moving.
8
Sit the exam
180 questions in 230 minutes, with two 10-minute breaks. You get a preliminary result the same day.
9
Keep it alive
60 PDUs every three years, plus a renewal fee. How renewal works.
Do I qualify for the PMP?
Find your education row. That decides how many months of project experience you need.
| Your education | Project experience needed | Training needed |
|---|---|---|
| Secondary school diploma, associate degree or global equivalent | 60 months | 35 contact hours |
| Four-year degree or global equivalent | 36 months | 35 contact hours |
| Bachelor’s or postgraduate degree from a GAC accredited programme | 24 months | Your GAC coursework can cover it |
Three rules decide whether your months count. The experience must fall inside the last eight years. It must be work where you led and directed a project. And overlapping projects count once, because PMI counts months, not projects.
An active CAPM removes the 35 contact hours requirement completely.
What does the application actually ask for?
Each project is entered on its own, with your role, the dates and a short description of what you led. Then your education hours, entered exactly as your certificate states them.
Three things save you time later.
- Use real dates. Stretching them to reach the required months is what a verifier notices at audit.
- Name a verifier you can reach. For each project, note their current email and phone before you submit.
- Save your certificates first. Your degree copy and your training certificate belong in one folder from day one.
What is the exam like?
| What | Detail |
|---|---|
| Questions | 180, of which 175 are scored |
| Time | 230 minutes |
| Breaks | Two 10-minute breaks, after question 60 and after question 120 |
| Content | People 42%, Process 50%, Business Environment 8% |
| Approach | About half predictive, about half agile or hybrid |
| Where | A test centre, or online with a proctor |
| Result | Preliminary the same day; the full report within ten working days |
Once you review your answers and start a break, you cannot go back to that section. Finish each block before you stand up.
Exam structure, eligibility and application rules taken from the PMP Examination Content Outline and the PMI Certification Handbook, checked on 10 September 2026.
How should I prepare?
Three months of steady study suits most working candidates. What matters is the order.
- Learn the content first, using the exam content outline as your checklist.
- Then move to questions, and read the explanation for every one you get wrong.
- Then sit full-length timed mocks, so 230 minutes is familiar before exam day.
- Book the date only when your mock scores stop moving.
A course that gives you the 35 contact hours and the practice in one place removes a purchase and a decision.
See the PMP classWhat do candidates get wrong?
These are the five that cost the most time, in the applications I review.
- Counting the same months twice across overlapping projects.
- Describing team work instead of what they led and decided.
- Applying before the training certificate exists, then scrambling at audit.
- Paying the exam fee before joining PMI, and losing the member rate.
- Booking the exam early to force discipline, then rescheduling and paying the fee.
Questions people ask about getting PMP certified
Three to six months for most working candidates. Training takes weeks, the application takes days once your records are ready, PMI approves in about five days, and study takes as long as your evenings allow.
No. Without a four-year degree you need 60 months of project experience instead of 36.
No. It has to be work where you led and directed a project. Many candidates qualify from roles never called project manager, as long as they can describe what they led.
About five calendar days for online applications, unless you are selected for audit.
Three inside your one-year eligibility period. After three, you wait a year before reapplying.
Yes. PMI offers an online proctored option as well as test centres. Check the technical requirements before choosing it.
No, but it usually costs less overall. Membership discounts the exam and every renewal, so most candidates join before they pay.
You hold the PMP for three years. To keep it you earn 60 PDUs and pay a renewal fee before your cycle ends.
Not sure whether your experience qualifies?Message me →
Who wrote this
Kavita Sharma is a PMI Authorized Training Partner. She teaches the PMP, issues the 35 contact hours certificate for her own candidates, and reviews their applications before they are submitted.
- Significant Contributor to the PMBOK® Guide Sixth Edition and Contributor to the Eighth Edition
- Author of Pass PMP in 21 Days – Study Guide and Pass PgMP in 21 Days
- Holds PMP and PgMP
- Sixteen years delivering projects and programmes, and the last ten coaching candidates through PMI credentials
Check your eligibility · The 35 contact hours · The audit · Fees · Renewal
Every requirement on this page follows PMI’s published PMP guidance, checked on 10 September 2026. PMI can change its rules, so confirm anything time-critical in your own PMI account.
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