First PMI raises the "bar" in September, 2005 to a "well researched and demanding standard" and recently reduces the bar once again to "enable more candidates to be certified".  Why did they raise the bar in the first place? 

It seems to me that they realized they weren't going to make as much money with fewer applicants being certified!

Great question, Gary.

I believe there is a lot of debate going on at the PMI Standards Committee...higher entrance standards versus a breadth of PM  gene pool input.

And I believe they are doing trial and error to find the right balance.  Who knows what kind of politics is behind this trial and error strategy...

I am just surprised that PMI was not able to get it right the first time. 

I tried to get tested before the cutoff in August and had problems with their computer not recording me and they would not accept the screenshot of my accepted application.  I wisely decided to wait and see if there was any fallout from the new testing, and of course there was much.  Now, I wonder if they will relax the standard even more.

Anybody have any thoughts on whether PMI will change their required test scores... again?

PMI has stated that the revised pass mark (106 out of 175) will not be changed again until at least the next major review - late 2007 I think.  PMI is saying that they are looking for a first time pass rate somewhere in the low 70% range, and based on the first few months of the revised standard they are actually around 69% pass rate at the revised total of 106.

PMI is very reluctant to reveal the % of people who passed for the short period of time that the pass mark was 141, but I have it on good authority that it was less than 10%!!!!!  There was clearly a very serious disconnect between the comittee that approved the questions and the pass mark and the real situation.

PMI is also coming in for some criticism for the subject matter that is being tested in the new exam.  They state that questions may be based on a number of sources, not just PMBoK, but there are reports of questions being asked around definitions of words that have nothing to do with project management, human behavior models and even accounting.