Best PMI-ACP Exam Prep Courses for 2025

Note: The PMI-ACP Exam changed last year (November 8, 2024). Check out the updated Exam Content Outline and make sure any study materials you buy are aligned to the latest edition.

Are you aiming to achieve your PMI Agile Certified Professional (PMI-ACP)®? Then you’ll be looking for a course that will give you exam confidence and fits the way you want to study.

I’ve rounded up the best PMI-ACP training courses below based on my knowledge of the industry and working with providers and students as a project manager and trainer.

(Note: I’m not an agile trainer, but I am a Fellow of the Association for Project Management and I’ve got a lot of experience reviewing training courses – and I’ve taken plenty of them myself too!)

Keep reading for my analysis and reviews of the best PMI-ACP online training that will help you earn your agile certification and pass the test on your first attempt!

The courses

1. Agile PrepCast
2. Velociteach – as at 25 December 2024 this course is no longer offered.
3. Joseph Phillips

I’ve prepared a summary comparison table for the study materials below, with detailed product reviews afterwards, so read on for all the info!

Comparison table

Course	Agile PrepCast	Velociteach	Joseph Phillips
Rating	#1	#2	#3
Website	Agile PrepCast	Velociteach	Udemy
Price	$229	$1,597	$149.99
Guarantee	90-day	exam pass	30-day
Hours of instruction	21 hours of video lessons	2 days live training	none
Approved contact hours	Yes	Yes	Yes
Student support	Email and forum	1:1 support until you pass the exam	none stated
Access duration	1 year	6 months	Lifetime
Sample exam questions	Yes, if you buy the Elite or Elite Plus which includes an exam simulator	Yes	Yes
Suitable for PMI PDUs	Yes	Yes	Yes
Suitable for study groups?	Yes	Yes	Yes

Alternative option: Brain Sensei

What to look for in a course

If you are considering this training, you probably work on agile projects already (you’ll need to be able to evidence your agile experience when you apply to the Project Management Institute). That might mean some of the course topics sound quite basic as you’ve already got experience in them.

When you are looking for PMI Agile Certified Practitioner Exam course, you’ll want to make sure it covers:

• Agile methodologies
• Agile principles
• Agile practices
• Agile frameworks
• Continuous improvement
• Agile teams, team performance and stakeholder engagement.

And everything else mentioned in the Exam Content Outline which you can find on the PMI website.

In addition to covering the syllabus, look for courses that will also support you through the application process, beyond providing the contact hours certification as part of the eligibility requirements.

For example, some providers include modules on how to apply and prep mentally for the test, as well as offering practice questions and case studies to help you get into the agile mindset required to do well on the exam.

Note that none of the courses below include your exam fee. You will still need to pay for and book your exam. I recommend that you become a PMI member to get a cheaper exam fee.

1. Agile PrepCast

The Agile PrepCast is a tried-and-tested online training course that I’ve used in the past and been impressed with. It’s a robust, engaging online course, although my personal opinion is that the slide formats and colours are dated.

I liked the real-world examples. Presented by Cornelius Fichtner, the course is straight to the point with no fluff.

This course takes the top spot for me because I can personally vouch for it. It’s a good price, it’s comprehensive, and you really will leave it understanding the world of agile as well as how to pass the exam. You’ll feel like one of the pro agile practitioners after taking this course!

However, you should know that the course has not been updated since the latest changes to the PMI-ACP exam in November 2024. The provider is (still) in the process of deciding how well the content aligns to the new syllabus and exam content outline.

The current course will continue to be offered until end of February 2025 and PMI will accept the training up until the end of March. So do check back before you purchase to see if the materials have been refreshed.

Pros

It’s really comprehensive with 16 modules. You don’t need an extra study guide (beyond the required reading of the PMBOK® Guide and the Agile Practice Guide) or to wade through all the recommended agile reference books that PMI suggests.

Other advantages include:

• There are 21 hours of video instruction (at least) so you can easily feel confident you meet the requirements.
• You get a certificate for the 21 contact hours, so no worries if your application gets audited.
• There are 3 versions depending on what you need: Basic, Elite and Elite Plus. The Basic course includes the training materials. Elite comes with four practice exams via their test simulator and Elite Plus has some study guidebooks that literally form your study plan.
• There’s a really active student online forum where you can ask and answer questions as well as learn from other people’s experiences, as students regularly come back and share their exam prep journey.

Cons

If you aren’t self-motivated, you won’t get through this training! You do have to make a study schedule and dedicate the time to getting through the content (if you upgrade to the Elite PLUS package, it comes with a week-by-week study guide).

The other thing to note is that the training is longer than strictly necessary for the exam requirements. You’ll get a full understanding of the different agile approaches and how to apply them, but be aware other courses are shorter. You’ll have to decide if you want a comprehensive overview of the material to boost your confidence and give you real skills, or a course that might be ‘thinner’ but would still do the job.

Other disadvantages are:

• There are no captions on the videos. This could be an issue if you routinely switch on subtitles, for example if you are studying in a noisy area without headphones.
• You can’t download the slides – I understand the intellectual property implications here and that the company are protecting their assets. Not being able to download the slides doesn’t matter to me. I take my own notes, which is a better learning approach for me anyway as it helps me remember.

Best for

Project managers who are motivated and can create their own study plan (or who are happy to use the StudyCoach guidebooks as their plan – but you have to be able to stick to the plan!). If you don’t think you have the commitment to self-study, then the next course is going to be a better fit for you.

2. Velociteach

At the time of writing, Velociteach have retired their PMI-ACP course, but I’ve left this placeholder in as I hope they are reconsidering the decision. Next time I update this article, maybe I’ll be writing that the training is back in their course prospectus.

They have a range of other agile training available and a PMI-ACP practice test which is worth a look.

3. Joseph Phillips on Udemy

All of Joseph Phillips’ courses on Udemy get good student reviews. I confess to not having taken any myself, but I think I’ve seen enough feedback from project managers I have spoken to and reviews to be able to comment, in comparison to the courses above. Over 47,000 students have taken the course at the time of writing!

Pros

Joseph Phillip’s PMI-ACP Exam Prep Success course is an on-demand course with 13 hours of video instruction split over 8 sections.

• It’s cheap. Udemy nearly always has special offers so if you time it right, you can get this course at a low cost.
• It offers the 21 contact hours required to apply for the exam (but see below for more thoughts on that).
• It includes support on how to apply for the exam.
• The videos have captions in 5 languages! Great if English is not your first language or if you prefer to have subtitles on.
• It includes a practice test.
• You can gift the course to someone else – perfect if you already have an account on Udemy and are providing training resources for your team.

Cons

Given that the course is advertised as having only 13 hours of video instruction, I don’t see how you can claim 21 contact hours. You’ll have to judge for yourself whether you’ve got enough contact time to make up the rest of the 21 hours yourself using the practice test and other materials.

Take notes of what you learn and be prepared to evidence your contact hours if necessary, for example, if your application is audited.

• If you find the pace too slow, you’ll have to speed it up. I played the preview materials at 1.25x speed to get through the material at a fast pace.
• The slides don’t look hugely inspiring from the course preview materials I reviewed. They are text-heavy. However, Joseph Phillips is an engaging presenter. You could easily play the videos without watching them for the most part and use them more like an audio course, diving into the materials when there were concepts you wanted to review.

Additionally, there is no information to say whether the course aligns to the latest PMI Exam Content Outline and frankly it looks identical to when I last looked at the training. I wouldn’t be able to say confidentally that it has been updated.

Best for

Project managers on a budget, who are prepared to self-study and put in the hours themselves. You may find that you need additional materials like an exam simulator in order to feel fully confident for the exam, although many students in the Udemy reviews are very happy with what they have learned and Joseph is known in the industry for the quality of his teaching.

Final thoughts

If you have already taken the Project Management Professional (PMP)® exam, then you might find the content of any of these courses a bit repetitive. Some of the basics overlap between the PMP and PMI-ACP content, as you would expect. That’s not really a big problem; simply use any parts that feel overly familiar to you as an experienced project manager as a refresher.

Frankly, that’s a good thing, as there is a shortage of good quality PMI-ACP training materials out there. PMI also offers training materials and I would recommend looking at their offerings too.

You can also count your PMI-ACP studies towards the PDU requirements for your PMP recertification – double win!

If you are a Scrum Master, then you’ll probably find these courses easy because you live and breathe agile project management every day. There might be some PMI-specific things to revise to help you get through the exam, but the agile methodology stuff and basic principles will not be new to you.

Other essential PMI-ACP exam prep materials

Once you’ve chosen a course, you will also want to look at a few other resources to help you get exam confidence.

Successful students tend to use an exam simulator for test practice and study guides (books) to help reinforce what their course has covered.

Go here next:

• Best PMI-ACP exam prep books
• Best PMI-ACP study guides
• Best PMI-ACP exam simulators (coming soon!)

Whichever materials you choose, good luck with your studies!