Chapter News

With the recent launch of the 8th edition of the PMBOK Guide, it´s not a surprise that PMI is gearing up for new and improved training content for the PMP exam. But also new eligibility requirements will be applicable.

What will change?
Some things remain the same, but there will be quite some changes to expect that are handy to know:

1. To be eligible for the PMP exam, instead of 3 there are now 4 educational background levels with each requiring a minimum period of non-overlapping months of professional experience in leading and directing projects:

• EQF level 4 (MBO level-4 diploma): 60 months / 5 years
• EQF level 5 (Associate Degree level-5 diploma): 48 months / 4 years
• EQF level 6 or higher (HBO bachelor or higher): 36 months / 3 years
• Bachelor’s or postgraduate degree awarded by a program accredited by PMI’s Global Accreditation Center: 24 months/2 years

1. Also your professional experience that can be considered will change to within the past 10 years, instead of 8 years.
2. The total exam duration, exclusive two breaks of five minutes, remains four! hours.
   So, you still need to have some sort of strategy for ensuring you keep focused and sufficiently fit.  Advice: during breaks, drink water (your brain needs hydration!) and do the Funky Chicken dance (get the blood stream activated again!)
3. The total of 185 questions remains unchanged. However, now with only 10 instead of 15 so called ´pretest questions´. These do not affect your score and are only used to test the validity of future exam questions.
4. PMI will introduce new question types!

The exam will consist of three sections, with five minute breaks in between.
The first section of the exam will become case based with a detailed scenario, describing a business, a project, a decision-making process, or a combination of these elements, including graphs or charts to provide extra context. Based on the scenario a series of questions will be asked.
After a five minutes break the exam will continue with two sections of independent questions, with again a 5 minute break somewhere midway. Of course you can review responses and start your break but you will not be able to return to the questions from a previous section of the exam.
Also new here will be Graphic-based questions asking you to interpret visual information like charts, graphs, diagrams, or images.

 

What if you still want to take the current PMP exam?
If you already applied and paid for the current PMP exam, then make sure you schedule your exam date as soon as possible. Because in the unfortunate event of failure, you can still plan for a second attempt before current exam opportunities are over. This is risk management in practice! The exact cut-off date of the current exam is formally not yet communicated, but PMI indicates ‘end of June’, so make certain you pass before that moment.

 

You may still want to start studying for the current exam. And this is especially handy when you studied and passed the CAPM based on the current PMBOK Guide edition. In that case make sure you start preparing yourself properly and get your application approved before the end of April. To that respect, as PMI-ATP training organization, we still have some slots open for our last PMP prep training opportunity in March 2026, in Breda.
https://www.threon.com/trainings/pmp-certification-prep-the-netherlands

 

And in case you have questions about the current or new PMP exam, don’t hesitate to contact me: Anton Zandhuis.