ChPP
APM Chartered Project Professional
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How do I prepare for APM ChPP?
ChPP (Chartered Project Professional) isn't a multiple-choice exam — APM assesses it through a portfolio of evidence (Project Overviews and Competence Statements against APM's Competence Framework) plus a professional review interview, with some pathways including a recognised assessment of technical knowledge. PassNova's free overview covers how the assessment works and who it's for; PassNova Premium (£4.99/month, 7-day free trial) unlocks a deeper preparation guide — mapping your evidence to the Competence Framework, writing strong Competence Statements, and getting ready for the professional review interview.
How ChPP is actually assessed
ChPP (Chartered Project Professional) is the highest standard in the profession, awarded by APM — the only chartered body for project management in the world. It isn't a sit-down, multiple-choice exam. Instead, APM assesses your existing practice against its Competence Framework.
The assessment routes
APM offers four pathways depending on qualifications you already hold — from a fully evidence-based route through to routes that recognise a prior APM PMQ or an approved qualification for part of the assessment. Across every pathway, the core of ChPP is the same: you submit a portfolio (Project Overviews and Competence Statements) evidencing your experience against a set of mandatory and elective competences, then attend a professional review interview with two assessors.
Who it's for
- You're actively delivering projects, programmes or portfolios that show real complexity
- You have breadth of experience against APM's competence requirements
- You have advanced technical knowledge to evaluate current practice, not just follow it
- You're committed to ongoing professional development
There's no fixed minimum years of experience or APM membership requirement stated by APM — what matters is the depth and complexity of what you can evidence.
Get ready to apply
A deeper walkthrough of the real assessment — evidence, portfolio and interview prep — unlocked with Premium.
Mapping your evidence to the Competence Framework
APM's application asks for advanced technical knowledge and professional practice across 7 mandatory competences plus 5 electives you choose from APM's list. Before you write a word, list every competence down one side of a page and, against each, jot the single strongest example from your recent work — a governance decision, a stakeholder conflict you resolved, a risk you re-shaped the plan around. If a competence has no strong example, that's a gap to address (a different project, a different angle, or an elective swap) before you draft anything formally.
Assessors are looking for judgement, not just activity — evidence that you decided, weighed trade-offs and owned the outcome, not that you simply followed a process.
Writing a strong Competence Statement
A Competence Statement that scores well follows a simple shape: the situation (brief — one or two sentences of context), your specific role and decision (not the team's, not the project's — yours), the complexity you navigated (conflicting priorities, ambiguity, politics, scale), and the outcome and what you'd do differently. Reviewers read dozens of these — the ones that stand out are concrete and specific (names of techniques, real numbers, real constraints) rather than generic project-management language.
Keep each statement tightly scoped to ONE competence. A statement that tries to evidence five competences at once usually ends up proving none of them convincingly.
Preparing for the professional review interview
The interview isn't a re-reading of your portfolio — assessors probe the reasoning behind it. Expect questions like "why that approach, and not the alternative?", "what would you do differently with hindsight?", and hypothetical variations on your own examples ("if the sponsor had disagreed, what then?"). Prepare by re-reading your own statements a week before the interview and asking yourself those exact questions — out loud, ideally with a colleague or mentor pushing back.
APM also runs free online clinics for ChPP candidates — genuinely useful for a live practice run before the real interview. (Paid mentoring programmes are also available from third-party training providers, though these aren't run or endorsed by APM.)
Your readiness checklist
- Every mandatory competence has at least one strong, specific example
- Your 5 electives are chosen and evidenced, not just picked by default
- Each Competence Statement follows situation → your role → complexity → outcome
- A peer or mentor has reviewed your portfolio for gaps or vague claims
- You've rehearsed defending your own evidence under follow-up questioning
- You've checked which of the four assessment pathways actually applies to you, on APM's site, before you apply
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Where the real assessment comes from
PassNova's guide is independent preparation. You apply for and complete the official ChPP assessment directly with the body that runs it.
External official sites — fees and booking are handled by the provider, not PassNova.
ChPP: your questions answered
ChPP isn't assessed with a multiple-choice exam, so there's no question bank to practise here. Instead, PassNova has a Premium preparation guide covering how the assessment actually works, evidence and portfolio guidance, and assessment-day prep.
Premium unlocks every professional-certification course in full, the ChPP preparation guide, Nova (the AI study tutor), a study planner and downloadable PDF study guides — for £4.99/month or £39.99/year. Cancel anytime.
No — PassNova's guide is independent preparation content. You apply for and complete the official ChPP assessment directly with the awarding body, linked below.
Get ready for your ChPP application.
A deeper prep guide — evidence, portfolio and interview tips — unlocks with Premium.