Types of questions on the PMP exam

PMP Questions construction

The construction of the PMP exam questions is identical for all 200 questions: there is the introduction with a question (or a question only) and four answers.

When you start doing tests you will quickly discover that there are a few types of questions on the PMP exam. Generally there is a rule of thumb that says that in most questions, if you are prepared, you will instantly know which two answers can be discarded. The problem is that the other two will often seem to be both ok while only one can be chosen.

The types of questions on the exam are as follows:
a) what should a PM do in this situation - these questions are pretty lenghty giving you necessary and distracting details. All too often I have found that actually the last sencence in the whole passage was enough to read and answer the question properly

b) 'puzzled eyes' questions - this type of questions, in my opinion, does not test any knowledge but your stress resistance. They are usually very long, with many details and options. Also, the possible answers are lenghty so the reading alone takes you 3 or 4 minutes. It is phrased in such a way that if you trully want to understand what the question is about, you have to read it again and in this way you loose time. During the actual exam I skip this type of questions and approach them again when I have answered all the easier ones.

c) short definition or input/output questions - these questions are usually simple to answer if you have studied the PMBOK and processes. These questions are also short but may be tricky. In many cases 2 or 3 answers seem appropriate but only one is trully good.

d) questions for analysis - these questions are normally not lengthy but require some time to think. These questions may combine a situation with what you know from the PMBOK and the answers test you how you can apply theory with practice.

I do not claim that I have put here all sorts of questions because there are so many of them. However, I think these are the most popular and it helped me during the preparation to better understand what I can expect.

How the PMP exam is organised?

PMI and your practice
First of all it is worth remembering during the entire exam preparation period that the PMP exam is based on practice. It means that most of the questions will be based on situtations and your task in choosing the right answer is to know which behaviour is suggested by the PMI to be followed. However, you should not base your answers only on your real-projects experience. It is of course valuable but you might have gained some approach which is deemed by the PMI as unappropriate. Studying for the exam will help you to see your current practices in a different light and that is one of many benefits this exam offers. At the same time you should not forget, that the exam situations are described with terms and processes that taken from the PMBOK Guide (pronounced as the 'pimbock'). Therefore there will not be many questions testing how you memorised definitions but rather how you can use these terms and processes in real situations.

PMP exam structure
The PMP exam is based on answering 200 question. These questions consist of four possible answers out of which only one is correct. You have 4 hours altogether to complete the exam what gives you slightly over 1 minute for each question. What is interesting, 25 questions are not marked at all because they are released for testing purposes only. The database of exam questions is constantly changing and new questions have to be tested before they are allowed into the official pool of questions. This means that answers to only 175 questions are actually influencing the final score. The bad news is that you do not know which questions are these 'testing questions'.

Passing level
If you reply correctly to only 106 questions which is 61% you pass the exam. So, as you can see, you have to answer correctly to a little bit more than 50% of all questions but still, it is a big challenge.
It is also worth mentioning that no question should be left unanswered. There is no negative points for wrong answers so it is always a good thing to answer even the questions which seem to be quite unfamiliar. There is 25% chance that you hit correctly!

Project domains that are tested
The framework of the exam stems directly from the PMBOK Guide. This means that there is a certain number of questions for each project management process group. The PMP exam handbook states in percents how many questions you should expect in each group:
1. Initiation, 11%
2. Planning, 23%
3. Executing, 27%
4. Monitoring and Control 21%
5. Closing, 9%
6. Professional and Social Responsibility, 9%

If you take the percentage of questions from each domain, which is stated in the PMP exam handbook, you can roughly calculate how many questions there will be.

1. Initiation, 22 questions
2. Planning, 46 questions
3. Executing, 54 questions
4. Monitoring and Control 42 questions
5. Closing, 18 questions
6. Professional and Social Responsibility, 18 questions

I would assume that in each of these groups there will be a few pre-test questions that will not be counted for the final results. There are 25 of them.

Is it worth the effort to take the PMP® exam?

We live in the world where there is an affluence of many things, also skills. I you want to hire a specialist in the field of project management how to tell instantly the ones with little experience from these who are experienced. Also what can you do if you need a project manager but you yourself do not know a lot about it? It is best to let somebody to certify that the thing you need is of good quality. And that is how the brand marketing starts.

In my opinion there are two aspects of the PMI certification that are worth the effort:

1. personal brand marketing
There can be many people who claim to be experienced project managers. You will not be able to easily and quickly ascertain these claims without a critical review of the candidate resume. As we all know this requires some preparation, time and is a tiresome exercise. It is much easier to review a short list of those who are certified by the renowned institution. This simple fact decreased my risk of wasting my time interviewing somebody with little experience.
2. personal development
Approaching any of the PMI® exams helps in the professional development in an organized way. Of course we can read books about project management but their authors sometimes unintentionally focus on one or other area. Books preparing for the exam have to be comprehensive in all PMBOK® areas. So, for example, you may not be normally involved in the procurement processes during your projects preparation but according to the PMI® you have to be aware of them and understand them. That is the added value to a your general project management development.

Practicality
Many people argue that tests tend to be artificial and not really helpful in determining the real knowledge that somebody has. The PMP® exam is a little different. There is a focus on the practical side of the knowledge you, as a Project Manager, need to have. Obviously there are questions that test how much you are accustomed with the PMBOK® but most questions ask you what would you do in a given situation. That is how you teach yourself proper appraoch to different problems by practicing tests. In my case that was a real value of the exam.