Direct answer
Check current PMP education, experience, and training pathways, including the 10-year experience window and rules for overlapping project months.
What to know
- A secondary credential requires 60 months of experience; an associate-level or recognized technical credential requires 48 months.
- A bachelor’s degree or higher requires 36 months; a qualifying GAC-accredited degree requires 24 months.
- Experience must fall within the previous 10 years and overlapping months cannot be counted twice.
- Candidates need 35 hours of project-management education or an active CAPM certification.
How to apply it
Create a month-by-month experience log before starting the application. Record the project objective, your leadership responsibility, dates, and outcome without copying job descriptions.
Worked example
Two projects ran from January through March. Those three calendar months count once, not six months, even when responsibilities differed.
Common mistakes
- Counting overlapping projects twice.
- Listing routine operational work without a project objective.
- Relying on third-party eligibility summaries when PMI has changed a pathway.
Exam and practice connection
Eligibility is an application requirement, not an exam topic. Verify your current pathway on PMI before paying or scheduling.