APM PMQ Updates 2024

A few years ago, if you’d told me that the APM would change their approach to the PMQ I’d have laughed. However, as of September 2024 they are doing just that, and I’m actually quite excited for it.

The current version of the exam, over three hours and all typed, has a reputation for being a tough exam, and to an extent I’d say it’s tough for the wrong reasons. Typing frantically for three-plus hours is hardly going to be a pleasant experience. To add to that, people sitting it are expected to write fifty marks worth of detail across ten questions… essentially ten separate essays all in the space of three hours. I mean… it’s a lot, and always has been quite a commitment.

The fact that I with the current PMQ, I feel I need to spend the first few hours of a course just talking about how to structure an answer for the different command verbs has always been a bugbear of mine, an exam shouldn’t be so obtuse that you must be extensively taught how to answer questions before we even look at the content of the syllabus.

As someone delivering AMP PMQ training, I’m thrilled to see the direction they are taking with this exam, as PMQ has always been a great standard, and credible qualification for project professionals to attain, I am pleased that they are keeping the content and quality of material but are moving to a more accessible and modern format for how they assess people’s understanding of it.

So today, I thought I’d look at the five changes made to PMQ that I am most happy about.

1. Timing – They are moving to a much more realistic timing. Reducing the exam from three hours and fifteen minutes to two-and-a-half hours. But not just that, they are also including a non-mandatory break that you can take between part one of the exam and part two!
2. Questions – They are moving to a blend of question types, which are much clearer in what they are asking from delegates than the current version. In fact, they are using a mix of multiple choice and written. With the multiple choice taking the form of dropdowns as well as the traditional multi-choice, but the written ones only requiring a maximum of one paragraph from the candidate… hopefully this means no more hand-cramps at the very least!
3. Less time practicing answers, more time revising content – Because the questions are structured as a blend of multiple-choice and single-paragraph answers for written, this will mean less time can be spent practicing how you format an answer, and how to write enough in a short space of time to get enough detail, and more time can be spent revising the content of the syllabus! Test your knowledge, not your typing speed.
4. Aligned to competency framework rather than Body of Knowledge – Every PMQ up until this one has been aligned to the BoK, currently version seven. The new format is lining up with the APM’s competency framework, giving you a clear list of things that you’ll need to ensure that you understand. This has the additional bonus of – when a new BoK is released, it acts as supplementary material rather than a whole plethora of new content, question types, and models, as the competency framework will remain the same!
5. It will remain a credible qualification – Something I’ve always respected and have liked about the PMQ is how valuable it can be as part of a pathway for career development, and the recognition that it gets in business. I think part of the reason the APM has always been cautious with updating their exam format has been they don’t want to lose the credibility that comes with the exam being “hard”. However, with this new approach I genuinely believe they’ve struck a great balance between it being a tough exam but being fair and modern. I think it’ll be “hard” for the right reasons – that their material is dense, applicable, effective and well defined, and can genuinely help deliver better projects – instead of it being a hard exam because the timing and amount of typing is tough.

The fact they are moving to using the “Angoff” method, where each paper has its own pass mark based on difficulty rather than a blanket “55%” pass mark tells me how seriously they are taking these changes and that they want a more dynamic, modern approach to the PMQ than what, really, has been a fairly old-fashioned way to test people’s knowledge with the current PMQ.

Just thought I’d share my initial thoughts with you, as someone who teaches this professionally, I am genuinely somewhat relieved that we are seeing this level of change for PMQ, it’ll mean more time in courses spent teaching the material, more time to provide examples and exercises rather than practicing questions and using my evenings reviewing delegate’s sample answers to give them feedback. It’ll be so good to spend more time saying, “here’s the content, and how it works” and not “lets practice how to structure a ‘differentiate’ question within eighteen minutes.”

If you couldn’t tell… I wasn’t joking earlier when I said I was excited about these changes!

If you’re interested in becoming certified for the APM Project Management Qualification (PMQ), you can view our APM Project management Qualification (PMQ) courses here.