Earn 60 Free PDUs and Maintain PMP Credential

Congratulations! After having spent your evenings and weekends studying and having sat through an arduous 4 hour exam you are now a certified Project Manager, a PMP!!!
But is this certificaton for life? Unfortunately, the answer is NO. PMP certification is valid only for 3 years. OMG!!!
Now what? do i need to again retake this tough exam every 3 years?  dont panic, there is an easy way out.
PMI needs us to earn 60 PDUs in every cycle (3 years) and maintain our PMP certification.
So now, its time to start earning PDUs.
PDU categories fall into two divisions—Education and Giving Back to the Profession—as illustrated here.

Education	Giving back to the Profession
Courses offered by PMI’s R.E.P., chapters or communities (Category A)	Creating New Project Management Knowledge (Category D)
Continuing Education (Category B)	Volunteer Service (Category E)
Self-Directed Learning (Category C)	Work as a Professional in Project Management (Category F)

In this blog, i will help you in getting your 60 PDUs free of cost!!!

This is your One Stop Shop for PDUs - Absolutely free! free!free!

Prodevia Learning Inc.

Course : Project Search and Rescue

Link : http://www.prodevia.com/

PMI Provider No : 1945

Activity ID : 51003

This course will get you "5 Category A PDUs" and its free!!!

Six Sigma Certification - Aveta Business Institute

This course will give you an hindsight into what six sigma is all about. A good introductory course into Quality Process. You hit two birds with one stone - get PDUs and get Six sigma certified, Now, how about that.

Course : Six Sigma Certification - White Belt

Link : http://www.sixsigmaonline.org/six-sigma-white-belt-training/

This course will get you "5 Category B PDUs" and its free!!!

PDUs2GO.com Inc.

Enroll yourself in their site. There will be courses available for free. 

Download these short courses and complete.

Fill out the course completion form online and earn your PDUs.

Link : https://www.pdus2go.com/

Provider No : 1637

There are a total of  "7 Category A PDUs" for free!!!

Project Management BookStore

This is a fantastic site for you to listen to both live and recorded webinars. Just 

register yourself on the site and get started.

If you are unable to watch live webinars, no problem, just listen to the recorded 

ones and still get your PDUs.

Link : http://www.projectmanagementbookstore.com/webinars/author-webinar-series.html

There are a total of  "28 Category C PDUs" for free!!!

Do Your Job

Don't do anything . Yes, you heard it right. 

Just don't do anything - except your Job.

You can claim a total of 15 PDUs per CCR cycle or simply put, 5 PDUs per year for doing your project management job in office.

Its as simple as that.

Claim these "15 PDUs under Category F" for free!!!

So friends, hope this blog would have put a full stop to your search for free 60 PDUs.

Another 12 PDUs gift

Link : http://www.pmtrainingonline.com/try_for_free
12 hours/PDUs Category A (REP #1008)

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Steps, Tips & Tricks for PMP Certification

Hi Friends , as assured, i am back again with my 2nd part of the PMP Trilogy Series. This post will serve as a step-by-step guide en-route to your PMP certification.

Steps for applying for PMP exam

1. Check your Eligibility Criteria    

 A secondary degree (high school diploma,Associate's degree or the global equivalent) with at least 5 years of Project Management Experience, with 7500 hours leading and directing Projects
(or)
A four-year degree (bachelors degree or the global equivalent) with at least 3 years of Project Management Experience, with 4500 hours leading and directing projects

2. Thirty Five (35) hours of Project Management Education

Once you are eligible as per Step 1, this is the most important barrier you need to cross for applying to write the exam. Select a good, reputed and convenient PMI R.E.P institute for obtaining
formal training of 35 hrs of project management education. This will be a 4-day course, mostly during the weekends. This is your entry to PMP and hence concentrate on this course. I was fortunate enough to get trained under a good mentor. Obtain training completion certificate.
Now, we are all set for applying for the exam.

3. Become a PMI member

http://marketplace.pmi.org/Pages/ProductDetail.aspx?GMProduct=00100147500     

Its advisable to become a PMI member. This will save you easily atleast a couple of hundred dollars in due
course as the examination fees and several other things are at a reduced cost for PMI members. So, act smart, and become one today.

4. Submit your application to PMI

Download the application from the below mentioned link and submit the application to PMI.

http://www.pmi.org/Certification/~/media/PDF/Certifications/PMP%20Application%20Form.ashx

PMI will send you an email to submit the exam fee. PMI typically takes about 1 week for application approval. Your application approval is valid for one-year from the date you receive the approval email. If selected for audit, this may take a couple of more weeks and you will
be asked to submit all the necessary documents like your education credentials, official proof of employment and project handling, etc.

5. Actual Preparation for the Exam

Refer to Tips for Exam section

6. Payment and Scheduling of PMP Exam

Once you are thorough and confident in your preparation for the exam, go ahead and make a payment of $405 through online(www.pmi.org). After receiving the confirmation of payment from PMI, schedule your appointment through Prometric.

https://www.prometric.com/en-us/for-test-takers/Pages/schedule.aspx?Type=schedule

Thats it, you are all set for writing the PMP exam.

Tips for PMP Exam Preparation 

Your PMP exam preparation starts the day when you finalize the PMI R.E.P.(Registered Education Provider) for obtaining 35 hours of formal education. That's why i insisted on carefully selecting a reputed institute. Concentrate on the class hard and be interactive and clear most of your doubts over there. Once you are done with that, i suggest you to study the below mentioned books compulsorily(i studied and passed in 1st attempt. If i can , so can you ).
1. Head First PMP from O'Reilly Media, Inc
 http://www.4shared.com/office/ZAxZAu87/head_first_pmp.htm
2. PMBoK Guide (You get a free copy if you are a PMI member) http://marketplace.pmi.org/Pages/ProductDetail.aspx?GMProduct=00101388701
3. Rita Mulcahy's PMP Exam Prep
http://www.4shared.com/office/ChPfHTvc/PMP_Exam_Prep_7th_Edition_-_Ri.html
Also, there are several wonderful youtube videos for PMP exam notably, by Cornelius Fichtner (http://www.youtube.com/user/CorneliusFichtner) and
Vinai Prakash   (http://www.youtube.com/user/PMChamp).

PMP exam questions will be divided as mentioned below.

Answer each question as per PMI mindset, not yours.

Mock Exams : The best way to practice

You can try these free mock examinations. This are good tests to see if you can sit in one place for 4 hours, and do a complete 200 question test without losing your sanity. You should check your score. Most such tests provide you with a detailed analysis of your marks – by domain, and by knowledge area. Once you begin to score 80-85% in such mock tests, you can consider yourself ready to take the final PMP test.

Head First PMP Exam : http://www.headfirstlabs.com/PMP/pmp_exam/v2/quiz.html
PM Study : http://www.pmstudy.com/PMP-Exam-Resources/freeSimulatedTest.asp
Oliver Lehmann : http://www.oliverlehmann.com/contents/free-downloads/175_PMP_Sample_Questions.pdf
PM Exam Simulator : http://free.pm-exam-simulator.com

Trick during PMP Examination

You are seriously mistaken if you are expecting something unethical here :)
The trick is to use the 15 minutes before the exam which is give to you for understanding the Prometric Tutorial. Being regular online users, you can complete that in 3 minutes and use the next 12 minutes to write down the formulas or other important things to remember in the blank sheet provided. this is your Brain dump. watch this Youtube video for reference. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ax7holrJdvs

That is all my friends. You are now all set to clear the PMP exam in the 1st attempt.
                                             All the best.

If you found this post useful, I would really love it if you share it with your Facebook fans or Twitter followers or Google+ circles today. All it takes is a simple click on the  “share”, “tweet,” or Google+ buttons below the post. It will keep me motivated. Thank you!