PMP Certification: Cost and difficulty

Certification: PMI PMP - Project Management Professional

PMP certification being one of the credentials that is high on demand also comes with its commitments in order for one to obtain the certificate. They have to be ready to incur different costs right from registration, attending classes, sitting for the exams to attaining the certificate and also maintaining the credential. In addition to this, the candidates also face different challenges and this can be classed as the difficulties one has to undergo. All in all one has to face difficulties mainly because of the costs that may be too high to some of the candidates who are not well off.

Cost

In this case, the costs can be classified into two they can either be direct costs or indirect costs but before this one always has an option of registering as a member of PMI and this will cost them a total of US $129 after which they have to pay the same amount annually as an activation fee. This is quite expensive but also comes along with lots of benefits. One is able to get a free copy of the guide book and many more project management books.

The direct cost mainly consists of the PMIs fee for the certification and this is divided into two sections, for those who are members and those who are non members. For members the PMP certification will cost them US $405 and for the non members the PMP certification will cost them US $555 which is more expensive. There is also an additional cost when it comes to reexamination for the candidates who do not pass on their first attempt and the cost will depend on which version of exams that an individual takes. For instance, the computer based testing will cost the candidates registered as PMI members US $275 and for non members it will cost them $375. For the paper based version reexamination will cost the members US $250 and for the non members it will cost them US $400.

On the other hand there is the category of indirect costs. These are costs that are generally associated with the gaining of the knowledge and the proper skills of becoming a good project manager in terms of being highly competent and bringing all the projects into successful completion. One can attain the necessary knowledge by either attending offline training that is commonly known as boot camps or traditional classroom and this will cost an individual between US $250 to US $1000 and something else is that the fee varies in different countries since it is well known that this is used to pay the lecturers as salaries.

PMI also allows an individual to attain this accreditation online where the most common method is the PMP PrepCast which can be referred as an online training; it also comes with its cost since one has to purchase it before being allowed to download its contents it will cost an individually approximately US $100 to US $500 depending on the bulk that one wants to have. The advantage of this method is that it costs one the same amount no matter where they come from. Others may opt to directly be taught live online using Skype and other methods and the cost to pay will depend on the issuers of the trainings and this may vary from US $500 to US $1000.

In addition to the above costs one may opt to obtain other resources to have comprehensive information and in the preparation of the exams. For instance those who are non members may obtain the guide book at a cost of US $48.98, the PMP exam reference book costs approximately US $99 and other miscellaneous costs may add up to approximately US $180 .Lastly one has to maintain their accreditation after a three years cycle and this is mainly through acquisition of 60 PDUs that are known to be expensive to obtain. There are a lot of difficulties incurred before obtaining the PMP certificate apart from the accreditation being very expensive.

PMP Certificate: Difficulty.

One of the challenges experienced by most of the individuals is passing the exams at their first attempt this is because one has to invest most of their time when it comes to the exam preparation and in this era it is clear that most of the persons who opt to have this PMP accreditation already have other commitments like jobs and other engagements hence they tend to locate less time in this area. Another difficulty is the process to be followed before being allowed to sit for the exams for instance the process to be followed before being allowed to book a computer based examination is demanding in that an individual their fees have to be first received by the PMI before any other process begins and this can take quite sometimes hence regarded as time wasting to some individuals especially those who use the postal means to go about with their application.

Some of the individuals may require a refund due to unavoidable circumstances and this has also proven to be a challenge for instance one is not entitled to the whole amount since US $100 is withheld by the PMI and an extra US $100 retained and considered as processing fee. In this case some of the individuals may fail to get even a single penny since whatever they regard as their refund is consumed in all of the above process.

Lastly, one has to hustle in order to get the 35 hours contact certificate and the PDUs which can be obtained online and with this many of the persons are not complacent with the internet hence finding it a challenge and opt for other means that are quite expensive.