Last updated on March-2024 by Nilotpal Ray, PMP
What score do you need to pass the PMP Certification Exam?
When you are beginning your PMP exam preparation, it’s very natural for you to ask: How much do I need to score in the PMP exam to pass?
It is a very common FAQ for PMP aspirants in the early stages of their preparation, and not having this information right off the bat can feel a bit unfulfilling.
This article will discuss all you need to know about the PMP Certification Exam passing score and how you should build a strategy around it.
So make sure you don’t skip any part of this blog since we will discuss many things that will be critical for your PMP exam.
How much is the PMP Exam passing score?
Okay, so the first thing you need to know is that PMI never discloses the pass rate of the PMP Exam.
So, you’ll never find an official document or notification from PMI that talks about the passing score or the pass rate % of the PMP exam.
However, based on studies of the PMP exam scorecard with pass/fail results of students, experts guesstimate that the past rate of the PMP exam lies somewhere within the range of 60% to 80%.
Now that’s quite a broad range, and unfortunately, that’s the best we have now regarding the passing score of the PMP Exam.
Note that the PMP Exam provides you results as per the following empirical chart (it does not provide you an actual % of how much you have scored)
| Score | Result |
|---|---|
|
AT (Above Target) |
Pass |
|
T (Target) |
Pass |
|
BT (Below Target) |
Fail |
|
NI (Needs Improvement)
|
Fail |
| NI (0-25%) | BT (25-50%) | T (50-75%) | AT (75-100%) |
|---|
Also, there are individual sectional results (AT/T/BT/NI) as well. So for each of the 3 domains of the PMP Exam (People, Process, and Business Environment), you will get a score as per the scale above. Your total score is a function of your individual sectional scores.
Following are a few scenarios of a scorecard and what it can mean w.r.t. the overall result. Note that these are indicative scenarios because nobody knows how the PMI scoring algorithm works when it scores a candidate on performance for each of the 3 domains.
| Candidate | People | Process | Business Environment | Overall Result |
|---|---|---|---|---|
|
1 |
AT |
AT |
AT |
AT (Pass) |
|
2 |
T |
T |
T |
T (Pass) |
|
3 |
AT |
T |
T |
T (Pass) |
|
4 |
T |
BT |
NI |
BT (Fail) |
|
5 |
AT |
T |
NI |
BT (Fail) |
|
6 |
BT |
BT |
NI |
NI (Fail) |
How to prepare for the PMP Exam, keeping the passing score in mind?
So as you see, it’s pretty empirical rather than mathematical how PMI reports the results of PMP exam candidates.
Hence, the following would provide a few essential pointers from my side when you plan your exam preparation, keeping the passing scores in mind:
- Always plan for an AT/AT/AT. That’s the best you can aim for and poses the least risk in case you score low in one of the domains. The PMP Exam is an expensive exam and you do want to ace it on your first attempt itself. Check this article which talks about the cost and retake fees for the PMP Exam
- You can’t plan like: I will try to score AT in People and I am OK with a T in Process and a BT in Business Environment because I still have the chance to pass with an overall T…right? Planning like that is setting yourself up for failure. Hence, planning your prep while keeping the sectional cut-offs in mind does not work. So, always give your best for each section and get as many questions correct as possible.
- The PMP exam is a standardized exam. That means each set of 180-Qs is different for different exam takers BUT, at the same difficulty level. Hence, your performance in a section (AT/T/BT/NI) is always relative to other exam takers and not an absolute number. This is what makes it difficult to calculate the actual passing score of the exam. You might also want to check this article that talks about why candidates find the PMP Exam difficult.
- The Exam has 180-Qs in total, with 175 scored and 5 test questions. All of these questions are of varying difficulty levels, and you will be scored based on your performance on the 175 scored questions.
For all these reasons, while it’s important for you to know the basic format of how PMI evaluates your AT/T/BT/NI, it’s more important that you do not focus too much on the passing rate of the PMP exam but focus more on your preparation, theory and practical questions, and try to write as many mocks as possible and then, analyze those mocks thoroughly. These steps will automatically result in passing the PMP exam with flying colors.
Hope you enjoyed reading the article. If you are preparing for your PMP Exam, don’t forget to check out my Udemy Courses and PMP Masterclass Sessions as below:
The last one is the best if you are struggling to learn EVM during your PMP and CAPM preparation.
Cheers and I will talk to you soon!
Ray
