Hello Khatereh and Anand,
You are asking good and timely questions, and you both have valid points.
Let me start with the ITTO's exam. You are correct; no memorization of ITTOs is required to answer the PMP exam questions correctly. What is needed is the understanding of how the various ITTOs are used in the different project management scenarios. We keep the ITTO exam available because many of our customers want to practice this exam for various reasons. One of the reasons is that the PMBOK® Guide, Sixth Edition, is still among the references used by PMI to support their questions. Since the PMBOK® Guide's structure heavily relies on the ITTOs, some students believe that memorizing ITTOs would benefit their preparations. Others tell us that they feel better after practicing those questions as this reduces their stress levels and anxiety before the exam. However, every time we remove the ITTO exam from our PMP Exam Simulator, we receive hundreds of requests from our customers to bring it back. Therefore, we have decided to keep the ITTO exam available and leave it up to the student to determine the benefit of practicing it.
The second point, which refers to the questions' explanations based on the 49 processes, is also connected to the fact that the PMBOK® Guide is one of the references used by PMI. Indeed, the new PMP exam is based on the new Examination Content Outline (ECO). The ECO is comprised of three Domains: People, Process, Business Environment. Each Domain breaks down into tasks (35 in total), and each task goes even deeper down to the level of enablers.
Each and every question in our exam simulator (both in the Exam pool and Quiz pool) is mapped to a specific Domain/Task/Enabler as well as the project management approach. Each one of the Exams 1, 2, 3, and 4 is 100% aligned with the new ECO in both categories: the distribution of the questions among the Domains as well as the project management approaches. As far as the project management approach is concerned, 50% of the questions are focused on the predictive project management approach, while the other 50% cover agile and hybrid. The PMP exam is based on the ECO, and the exams in our simulator are aligned with it. While it is a common misconception to think that the PMP exam tests your knowledge of the PMBOK® Guide, the Guide, as mentioned above, still serves as the main reference for the exam questions. Even PMI in their own
Authorized Training Partner PMP Exam Prep Course
provides the PMBOK® Guide as a reference to the course topics. Again, 50% of the questions are still coming from the traditional (waterfall/predictive) project management approach, which is heavily based on the PMBOK® Guide. Therefore, questions that cover the predictive project management approach are still supported by the PMBOK® Guide the same way they are supported by PMI in their own preparation materials. Note, most of the agile-related questions are supported by the Agile Practice Guide, as well as additional references provided by PMI on their website.
For your last question, Anand, "Can someone kindly clarify that the simulator is still beneficial to use for taking the PMP exam this year." The answer is definite YES. I cannot stress enough how vital the simulator is for every PMP aspirant. Based on years of experience and feedback collected over a very long time from those who used our simulator and passed their exam, our exam simulator is the best on the market and is still very relevant for your preparations. But you don't have to take my word for it. Just go to the
PMP Exam Lesson Learned Forum
to get insights from those who used our simulator and passed their exam. If you want a completely independent opinion, read
Google reviews
, where our products consistently get 5-star reviews with an average rating of 4.9 stars as of this writing. Sort by "Newest", and you will see that the latest reviews are from those who took the new exam.
I hope this explanation addresses your concerns. Thank you again for selecting our products for your preparations. Best of luck on your exam!
