Importance of Test Simulators in Passing PMP Exam

By Makarand Vinod Hardas, MBA, PMP

PMP Test simulators are one of the important and unavoidable milestones in the PMP preparation. By and large most of aspirants touch this milestone en-route to the final destination. Looking at various forum posts and mock test scores, it seems candidates preparing for exam using simulator gains more confidence after 2-3 mock exams.  

The matter of fact is, the time, money and energy involved in passing the PMP exam is substantial. The project which has high value at stake must be pragmatically and systematically planned for the success. As part of the prep process to pass the exam , there are various steps which need to be considered . The PMP prep is like any other project, it also has various types of risks which certainly warrants prioritization and what-if analysis by the aspirant -

• What if, I fail ?
• What if,  I can not complete all 200 questions?
• What if, I could not maintain the momentum
• What if, I do not get the time to review questions, which were marked for review
• Breaks during exam will help to improve the efficiency or will lose the momentum.  
• In spite of reading the PMBOK and other books few times, one cannot figure out the type of questions would you face during your PMP exam?
• How will be the look and feel of final exam software?
• How I will be able to manage to answer 200 questions in 240 minutes?
• Will I able to handle the long tough situational, time consuming and confusingly wordy questions?

Responses to the Risk

The good news is all above risk can be mitigated or managed by opting for a  good question bank and PMP exam simulators. Now to address above risks that an aspirant may face before appearing for the PMP exam the simulator comes very handy. PMP simulators is the software which keeps close proximity to user interface, functionality and user experience which is available at Prometric centre while writing the PMP exam. There are many vendors who offers and claim to have same kind of user experience like an aspirant get at Prometric entre. Though there are many software which have very close experience to Prometric centre but no one has exactly same. The bottom line here is, the very purpose of any simulator should be to prepare aspirant for the final exam by throwing the toughest possible questions on all knowledge areas. That invokes  the deep analytical and logical thinking to answer the questions while keeping the time constraints in the hindsight.

Now to put names brainbok, pmzilla are few among several others good simulators with quality questions. As mentioned earlier, simulators will benefit you in preparing well for the final exam and there is no downside only upside. PMFastrack from RMC is another good software which works offline. 

The smart and hard study with the effective usage of test simulators along with feedback loop in place could work wonders for aspirant. Good preparation for 8 to 9 weeks followed by around 4 to 6 tests from different sources within 2 to 3 weeks time could give you the required confidence to pass the final exam in first attempt with the caveat that aspirant score consistently around 80% in each test. 


Caveat Emptor
Please note that this is a generalize statement and observation based on LL's from various candidates who has passed the PMP in first attempt and does not necessarily hold true for every individual due to various environmental factors and unique traits and personalities. I would  advice aspirant to effectively use this information for reference / guidance only and form your own plan for the final exam.

Happy Preparation!

When to Take The First Mock Exam?

By Makarand V Hardas, MBA, PMP

 Mock exam plays vital role and one of the key element while preparing for PMP. There are several benefits in taking mock exams and most of the times test scores act as a confidence boosters, if taken at right time. Yes it’s very important when you take the mock exam.

I know few people who have passed the PMP exam without taking any mock exam, well that’s not really a point of discussion here.  In my opinion, it’s an essential ingredient and would like to be in the favor of taking mock exam as part of the preparation.
There are several mock exams available with varied quality and standard. It’s better to take mock exam from multiple sources.

Being human there is a natural tendency to see where one stand as of now during the study and its natural to look back how much distance is covered and how much more to travel and mock exams acts as milestones in this journey.

The preparation process starts with training to earn 35 PDU to become eligible for PMP. Most of the times there is a gap of few months to a year between training and actual exam. Thus in order to get prepared, it becomes apparently important to refresh the concepts, knowledge and solve few mock exams.
Many times PMP aspirants go for mock exams quite early in the preparation and it’s kind of mistake because though by experience we know many things but when it comes to answering the questions one need to be in different mode and follow the PMBOK’ism to answer the question. Poor score due to non-preparation or premature attempts to mock exam could make you feel frustrated and could make you disoriented as well. Upside is you will realize where you stand and how far you need to go.






In my opinion before taking any mock exam one has to read the PMBOK (All Chapters + Appendix) at least once and one more book. There are several PM concepts which are not being practiced in day to day work, which has to be understood well and visualized. Example : Per PMBOK, there are several conflict resolution techniques which a PM needs to apply based on the given situation. Most of the PM’s though follow some/all of them but when answering questions one must know the formal terms. Such holes can be easily plugged with the formal study.

The first round of reading sets the base for entire journey toward PMP, second reading (may be from other book) makes the concepts concrete.
 
List of things to do before taking First full mock exam: 

• Make the prep plan
• Have at least one round of reading of PMBOK and one more book
• Ensure you have good insight into PMBOK page 43
• Read and understand ITTO’s thoroughly, until you see the logical connection or process interactions
• There are several resources available like quiz, flashcards for ITTO’s. Go for them, it works 
• Develop the good fundamentals around numerical problems from
 knowledge areas like Time, Cost, Quality, Communication, Procurement, Risk
• Try solving minimum 15-20 numerical on each type. This will help to acquire you the required speed in number crunching.
• Many times we don’t need to derive the final answer with practice you will able to identify the right answer without going till the end.
• Take knowledge area wise
 practice questions and then go for process group level
• Steps 1-9, will bring you to the logical conclusion of preparation. You are now ready for FIRST mock exam.

Its good practice to review questions you got wrong and do some power reading around those before appearing for the next mock exam. This iterative approach will set your mind frame in the right tone and with every next set of exam questions, your natural instinct will help to reach out to the best answer.

All the Best!