I have both a B.S. and M.S. degree in Business Administration, concentrating in Management Information Systems. I have 25 years of experience in IT, but I’ve been working in real estate development and investments for the past 4 years.

I’m interested in returning to IT Management. I was formerly an IT Project Manager.

Is the PMP certification program right for me?

Is the PMI (Project Management Institute) the best (or only) route to earning a PMP certification?

What are your thoughts on:

…Online exam preparation courses? Recommendations?

…Classroom exam prepartion courses? Recommendations?

…Individual book study courses? Recommendations?

I would appreciate professional responses from experienced professionals only. Thank you.

if you have been working in real estate in the last 4 years and not as project manager – try to establish the hours you work in "project"

You need at least 4,500 hours to qualify for PMP exam

If you have enough "project hours" of >4,500 – then you also need 35 contact hours. This contact hours is gained from attending a class in Project Mgmt or studying a formally recognised on-line course. You might to try "mastering the PMBOK" from this site www.pmhub.net. It will give you 40 contact hour and anyway you need to know PMBOK to pass the exam

PMI’s PMP is the most recognised PM certification in the world

Online prep /Classroom course etc course: there are many – : but my suggestion is for you to read and learn from the successful PMP’s Lessons Learned.

They are archived in http://forums.pmhub.net in the LL Forum (register first and then reply to confrimation mail)

You might want to consider also the CAPM qualification, also from PMI for those who do not have that 4,500 project hours experience. The CAPM Forum in the same PMHUB Forums has info on CAPM and a good blog