TOPIC: 80% safety level for practice exam test

Hello,

I would like to ask you about the ''safety percentage'' of practice tests. You have said that someone must be feeling comfortable to sit for the actual exam test if the score is 80% + in the practice tests. And of course this is a rule of thumb.

My understanding is that the passing score is about 61% meaning 106 out of 175 questions.

I guess that the 80% rule is a very good safety belt. If someone scores continiously 80% plus then he/she is ready. 80% means 160 correct answers.

Well what about 75%? or 70%? I know that 80 is better than 75% or 70% but the same applies for 85% vs 80%.

My question is what if someone scores always 70% plus? Which means 140 question correct. Now if we suppose that he is unlucky and the 25 experiment question are included in the 140 questions (which is very unlikely-a good number would be 15-18) then we have 140-25=115 questions correct. Which leaves a safety zone of 9 questions more to be wrong in order to reach the 106 passing score.

And this calculation is with a 70% score and all the experiment questions included. Now lets calculate a more resonable scenario. 75% and 18 experiment questions inluded. That is 150-18=132 which leaves us with 25 questions safety zone (25 more questions to answer wrong in the real test compared to our score results in our practice test) . Personally I feel that 25 questions is a big safety zone.

Again the 80% is better but my question is what if someone scores between lets say 72%-75% in the practice tests. What would you suggest? Try the real exam or do more studying?

Thanks

Konstantinos,

First of all... the passing score is no longer 61%. That is an old number and unfortunately still appears in some documentation (even ours and we're working hard to delete it....)

Please read this article to learn more about the passing score:
www.deepfriedbrainproject.com/2009/12/po...exam-pass-score.html

Once you have read this article and understand how the passing score is actually calculated, you will understand that I cannot really answer your question. 80% is really a "best practice" that many PMP trainers support. If you feel that this is too high a safety margin, then please feel free to lower it for your own calculations. But as a PMP trainer I have to "insist" on the 80% margin (just to be safe).

Thanks Cornelious!

This link is ''cursed''!! So much information.....I supposed to read the PMBOK guide for the last two hours.....