To Pass The PMP Exam, Practice All Question Types
Having 35 Contact Hours and studying the PMBOK Guide is not enough, which anyone who has sat for the Project Management Professional (PMP) exam will tell you. They will tell you when you talk to them that the questions are not as straightforward as one might hope, and that it covers a lot of ground. From the people that have managed to pass the exam, an overwhelming amount of them will tell you that more than one study method was used.
The PMP applicant must learn what to expect when they arrive on game day and the mechanics of taking the exam, just as a golfer must learn to "drive" and "put" before they even think about stepping onto a 18-hole golf course. As well as illuminating what you do and don't know, employing multiple study methods may give you a triangulated understanding of the material.
A crucial point to your exam success is being able to answer PMP exam sample questions. Is this simple? Yes, in concept. The PMP exam only has multiple-choice questions after all. However, there are numerous question styles, which makes knowing how to get the most of each question exponentially crucial, as each has their caveats and purpose.
So now for the PMP exam question types:
FORMULA based questions are more than calculating earned value or just 'solving for the median'. In order to pass the PMP exam there are around 49 PMP exam formulas that you must know inside and out. You will be given the decision making criteria to exclude or include the values in the PMP exam question if you understand them thoroughly, even down to the importance of each element.
To apply theoretical know how to real life project management situations, SITUATIONAL questions test your ability. These questions are often very long winded. In your read life you will be handed both irrelevant and relevant information, which is the idea behind this. Your task is to act upon the real issues and ignore what doesn't matter, and to identify what is relevant. So that you can eliminate the information that is useless, be sure that you read and accurately identify the actual question that is being asked of you.
Two choices which are both reasonably correct will often be offered by situational questions, so it's vital that you identify if the question is the BEST choice, the ONLY answer, the EXCEPTION or the NEXT choice.
KNOWLEDGE based questions require you to understand the facts provided so that you can identify the meaning of the situation. Occasionally these questions will also ask, "What is the exception?"; e.g. 'Group brainstorming encourages all of the following except:'
You may be asked to identify an example graph or chart, such as recognizing a Pareto chart or a RACI chart, with a knowledge based question.
Your ability to deduce a condition or situation from the description or a problem or status will be tested with INTERPRETATIONAL questions. You will need to know how SPI and CPI relate to the project's performance in order to solve the following example question: "If your project has an SPI and a CPI both greater than I, how well is your project performing?"
A snap shot of a situation will be provided by SPECIFIC TECHNIQUE questions, like a network diagram, and will ask you to provide an element in that is inherent in that certain diagram, for example a backward pass or a forward pass.
Your familiarity of specific areas, such as, "What are the inputs to the Create WBS process?" and "Which of these processes are not part of the Initiating Process Group?" will be tested by PMBOK GUIDE KNOWLEDGE questions.
Before you will feel ready to handle the exam, you will need to answer dozens of samples from each question type. But where and how do you find good PMP mock exams to do this?
With just one short Google search, there are many free PMP sample questions available. However, with free mock questions, more often than not the old adage, "You get what you pay for" applies, so you will want to be very careful.
Signing up to an online PMP exam simulator is the best way to practice sample questions. On your schedule and from anywhere you can access the questions over the Internet. These questions should have been created based on the most recent version of the PMBOK Guide, so be sure of this. As well as covering all PMBOK Guide concepts, the question population should be a good mix of all the types.
So, there we are. You need to learn and practice the different type of questions that appear on the exam by using a high-quality online PMP exam simulator, if you want to pass the PMP exam. You will greatly increase the odds of arriving at the correct answer once you know how to identify the real question being asked from each of the question types. You will need to be able to recall and apply all the theoretical knowledge required, which is no small task even if it sounds simplistic. You will also need to combine and relate this with your own project management experience.
The PMP applicant must learn what to expect when they arrive on game day and the mechanics of taking the exam, just as a golfer must learn to "drive" and "put" before they even think about stepping onto a 18-hole golf course. As well as illuminating what you do and don't know, employing multiple study methods may give you a triangulated understanding of the material.
A crucial point to your exam success is being able to answer PMP exam sample questions. Is this simple? Yes, in concept. The PMP exam only has multiple-choice questions after all. However, there are numerous question styles, which makes knowing how to get the most of each question exponentially crucial, as each has their caveats and purpose.
So now for the PMP exam question types:
FORMULA based questions are more than calculating earned value or just 'solving for the median'. In order to pass the PMP exam there are around 49 PMP exam formulas that you must know inside and out. You will be given the decision making criteria to exclude or include the values in the PMP exam question if you understand them thoroughly, even down to the importance of each element.
To apply theoretical know how to real life project management situations, SITUATIONAL questions test your ability. These questions are often very long winded. In your read life you will be handed both irrelevant and relevant information, which is the idea behind this. Your task is to act upon the real issues and ignore what doesn't matter, and to identify what is relevant. So that you can eliminate the information that is useless, be sure that you read and accurately identify the actual question that is being asked of you.
Two choices which are both reasonably correct will often be offered by situational questions, so it's vital that you identify if the question is the BEST choice, the ONLY answer, the EXCEPTION or the NEXT choice.
KNOWLEDGE based questions require you to understand the facts provided so that you can identify the meaning of the situation. Occasionally these questions will also ask, "What is the exception?"; e.g. 'Group brainstorming encourages all of the following except:'
You may be asked to identify an example graph or chart, such as recognizing a Pareto chart or a RACI chart, with a knowledge based question.
Your ability to deduce a condition or situation from the description or a problem or status will be tested with INTERPRETATIONAL questions. You will need to know how SPI and CPI relate to the project's performance in order to solve the following example question: "If your project has an SPI and a CPI both greater than I, how well is your project performing?"
A snap shot of a situation will be provided by SPECIFIC TECHNIQUE questions, like a network diagram, and will ask you to provide an element in that is inherent in that certain diagram, for example a backward pass or a forward pass.
Your familiarity of specific areas, such as, "What are the inputs to the Create WBS process?" and "Which of these processes are not part of the Initiating Process Group?" will be tested by PMBOK GUIDE KNOWLEDGE questions.
Before you will feel ready to handle the exam, you will need to answer dozens of samples from each question type. But where and how do you find good PMP mock exams to do this?
With just one short Google search, there are many free PMP sample questions available. However, with free mock questions, more often than not the old adage, "You get what you pay for" applies, so you will want to be very careful.
Signing up to an online PMP exam simulator is the best way to practice sample questions. On your schedule and from anywhere you can access the questions over the Internet. These questions should have been created based on the most recent version of the PMBOK Guide, so be sure of this. As well as covering all PMBOK Guide concepts, the question population should be a good mix of all the types.
So, there we are. You need to learn and practice the different type of questions that appear on the exam by using a high-quality online PMP exam simulator, if you want to pass the PMP exam. You will greatly increase the odds of arriving at the correct answer once you know how to identify the real question being asked from each of the question types. You will need to be able to recall and apply all the theoretical knowledge required, which is no small task even if it sounds simplistic. You will also need to combine and relate this with your own project management experience.