Crush the PM Exam Review Policy

Project management is a technical and highly specialized field, so it takes a specific skillset to truly succeed in the industry. In order to help as many readers as possible gain the necessary experience, we recommend some online prep courses with our reviews and comparison charts.

In order to understand what makes our reviews trustworthy and well-informed, check out our review policy and see the thought process that goes into all of our reviews and recommendations:

Content

When reviewing a specific project management prep course and comparing it to others on the market, we thoroughly study and test its content. These are some of the different aspects we consider when rating each one:

Lectures

One of the most effective ways that an online course can teach project management methodologies is through lecture content. 

Generally, our picks for the top review courses have several hours of video lectures with informative and engaging content. We’ll rank a company’s video content higher than others if they’re easily accessible on different devices, they adequately cover important exam concepts, and/or if they also provide audio-only versions for students who like to multitask.

Practice Questions and Tests

Other than lecture content, students are best able to prepare for their certification exams by answering practice questions.

A course that’s good at preparing students for PMP, CAPM, PMI-ACP, or Six Sigma certification will provide hundreds of multiple-choice questions that are similar in structure, difficulty, and subject matter to their respective certification exams. High-ranking courses will also provide students the ability to test themselves in realistic exam-like conditions, and they’ll allow students to take a large quantity of customizable quizzes.

Extra Materials

While these are the two most important criteria when reviewing a course’s content, we look to see if they also provide supplementary material.

A well-reviewed prep course will provide some extra content to students like textbooks or flashcards. The highest-ranked courses will offer these and more in digital and physical format, as well as other helpful resources like cram sheets and companion apps.

Company

Aside from the materials included in each course, the individual or organization that made these courses are very important. To ensure that the companies whose content we cover are legitimate, we consider the following criteria:

Staff

The people who write the practice questions and teach the lecture content for a prep course need a strong background in two industries: education and project management. If they lack one or the other, you would be wasting your time and money enrolling in one of their test prep courses.

If a staff is made up of accomplished professionals, holders of multiple project management certifications, and/or published nonfiction authors related to their chosen industry, they will earn higher rankings in our course comparisons.

Technology

While a low-tech course can help students pass their exams, online study resources that make the most of modern technology will often earn high rankings and receive positive reviews on our site.

The courses with the best rankings due to technology will offer adaptive learning, customizable study plans and/or support for mobile devices and tablets.

Support

You shouldn’t need any extra support when working with a well-made project management review course. But it’s important that each company has a support team capable of resolving any issues that might arise.

At the bare minimum, courses that we cover in our reviews provide students with the ability to contact an email address or social media account for support concerns. However, the best companies will also provide a phone number with a real person on the other end, chatrooms for support issues, and additional academic support with tutoring and office hours.

Cost

The price of a project management course doesn’t affect its quality, so we don’t consider it very heavily when writing individual product reviews. However, there are some aspects of a course’s cost that we consider when making our comparisons:

Discounts

It’s helpful for cash-strapped students to know about courses that offer discounts— or discounted versions of their full courses. We try to highlight courses that offer student discounts, allow customers to buy smaller parts of their full courses, or who can provide exclusive discounts for our readers.

Financing

If a well-made course has a high asking price, they will sometimes offer the ability for students to pay for their fees in installments. Most of the top-rated courses will offer financing plans over a period of 3 to 12 months with the help of companies like Affirm.

Guarantees

In order to inspire confidence in students that their study materials will actually help them pass their exams, many of the top-rated project management review courses will offer guarantees. The best ones on our lists will usually have a pass guarantee that promises a full refund if you don’t pass your exam on your first try after using their course.