Paul Naybour
There are various routes to the APMP exam: you might have done a distance learning course to balance work, home and study in the way that suited you best, you may have attended an in-house training course offered by your employer or you may have attended a public training course at your own or your employer’s expense. Whatever course of study you took the APMP exam is the same but no matter how hard you have studied or how well you know your subject it is still vital that you fully understand what the exam consists of and that you are well prepared for what to expect.
The exam is a written 3-hour paper – it is a closed book exam so no textbooks are allowed (unlike other exams such as the PRINCE2 Practitioner). The exam will be overseen by an Association for Project Management (APM) invigilator or one from an APM accredited training provider such as Parallel Project Training.
The only items you are allowed to take into the exam are stationery items such as pens, pencils, ruler, calculator etc. and you are not allowed to remove anything from the exam room (eg the exam paper).
Because the APMP is such a highly-regarded, internationally recognised qualification that will help you develop your career as a project manager, you will be asked to provide some form of photo ID to prove you are who you say you are.
The APMP exam will test your knowledge of the subjects covered in the APMP syllabus. It is not designed to test your current competence in applying that knowledge in a real project environment. However, you will have been expected to read around the subject and the APM BOK provides a recommended reading list, which actually is an essential part of your preparation for the exam.
Details of the Exam Scoring
- The APMP exam itself will consist of 16 questions, of which you need to answer 10. It should go without saying that you should select the 10 topics that you are most confident with and on which you can display the most in-depth knowledge. Because you will not know which topics the questions will be based on you must learn all of the topics in the syllabus.
- Each question is worth a potential 50 points so the maximum number of points you could obtain would be 500 for the 10 questions you have to answer.
- The overall pass mark is 55%
- So the total score you need to obtain to pass is 275 across the 10 questions you answer
It is important to understand that the examiner will assess your answers based on the inclusion of certain terms, phrases and keywords so it is important to include these wherever appropriate (more on that in future posts).
The APM is committed to helping people with disabilities or medical conditions that do not allow them to sit the APMP exam under standard conditions so that no one is excluded from taking the exam. More information can be found about these arrangements by contacting the APM (www.apm.org.uk)