TOPIC: PMP: Online Proctored Exam

Hi Divya,

Thank you for your recognition, I appreciate it!

You can manage to do calculations using the digital calculator available on the board - just click on the calculator picture to have it opened. Very easy to use it.

You can draw formulas and a critical path on the whiteboard available. If you would like to practice it while studying for PMP, you can use a pencil tool of Paint from Windows. Experience is very similar.

Regarding how to do the formulas memorization, I developed a methodology to carry them out. You just have to put it on your calendar for an appointment, "write the formulas on a sheet" every two days. When the time comes, you go there and write on paper all the PMBOK formulas, the ones you miss, you learn. As the days go by, you memorize it. That method has worked perfectly for me.

Yes, I have bought the paid PMP Simulator from PM PrepCast, and I did 11 PMP exams of 4 hours duration before my real PMP exam. Please find attached my exam historical results for your reference. Luckily I achieved consistent results over a 70% score, and I got a 93% score in my last exam. After that, I scheduled that PMP exam and got it in my first attempt.

I hope that I could answer sharply all your questions.

If you have any further questions, please do not hesitate to ask another question to me.

If you liked my answer, please click on the "thank you" button.

Hello,

yesterday I passed my proctored PMP exam. I contrast to other people in the forum, I liked that the sentences fill
the whole screen as my feeling was like the statements were smaller (but this is only a personal feeling).

I had A LOT of questions regarding change control procedures, risk management, procurement and surprisingly got around
7-8 EV questions which were easy.

Regarding brain dump, calculations and whiteboard, I made a very little braindump on the whiteboard just to try it
DURING THE EXAM INSTRUCTIONS SCREEN and they remain when the exam began!

Whiteboard is almost useless as you need a lot of time to draw a precendence diragram on it and it does not worth
the time. My advice is to calcule quickly the critical path to calculate only its duration and to check "0" float activities and
in case you need to draw, mark the question and return if you have time at the end of the exam. In spite of this, I
only had 1 question regarding criticat path.

EV questions were easy as calculations were simple like only calculate a EAC based on actual
performance or just selecting the correct anwser about CPI, CV, in terms of if the project is ahead of schedule,
behind schedule, etc...

My feeling is that they are aware of the fact that drawing or making complex calculations on whiteboard is
really hard and they avoid to include that kind of questions on the on line proctored exam.

To prepare the exam I used almost all free resources I've found on the internet. Most of them are good to prepare
the exam as you can practice different ways of being asked about the concepts, but PM PrepCast was the best one
to prepare situational questions and practice questions about "in which PM process the PM is", which are a 70%
of the exam.

I hope this helps, good luck to everyone!!

Hi, Hassef,

I got the PMP 2 months ago. I remember an option to save a PDF with my PMP exam summary, which is showing the score in each knowledge area and approval status. Did you see this window? I hope you got your PDF score, just in case. It appeared after the congratulations message.

Anyway, I received a PMI email with my certificate after almost 24 hours of exam competition, and PMP virtual badge after about 72 hours.

If you would like to follow up on your certificate status with PMI, you can call them on 0800 phone.

You should be able to drill into PeasonVue and get your detailed results. The PearsonVue results for PMP link to The PearsonVue and you use your PMI credentials. On the right side, you can select "View Score Reports."

I hope this helps you.

Congratulations on your success. i had one query. In an event of internet failure can i use my phone internet hotspot?

Hi Pinak,

I'd recommend to set it up already from the beginning, as a backup solutions, so that if your wi-fi connection goes down it automatically switches to the hotspot.
Remember you won't have access to your phone for the entire duration of the exam, and you cannot have it within arm's reach.

Gabriella

I wonder if there is a sample whiteboard that I can test out to see if it is useful. Any idea?

Hi Katie,

unfortunately there's nothing like that that I am aware of. Here you can find a description of how the whiteboard works, including a screenshot of how it looks like, and which tools are available.
The way I practiced the use of the whiteboard was using MS Paint, which in my opinion is pretty close to how it looks like on the real exam.

Hope this helps,

Gabriella

Here is a sample of the exact whiteboard used during the exam, I used this to practice all my mock exams

www.mba.com/exams/gmat-online/prepare-fo...am/online-whiteboard

Hope it helps!

Thanks
Ritika

Great! I didn't know about that, Ritika.
Thanks for sharing: I'm sure many will find it useful.

Gabriella

Following Katie's questions... there's some breaking news I'd like to share with you as you may find it useful.
PearsonVUE has just provided a tool on its website to practice and get familiar with the online whiteboard, before the exam; here's the link: home.pearsonvue.com/onvue/whiteboard

You will see it's very close to the tool shared by Ritika. I just thought it was nice to practice with the very same tool you will find on the actual exam.

Gabriella

Hi,
Congratulations on passing the PMP exam! I have a question regarding the online exam at home. I would like to know how you get benefited from Brain dump during your online exam? Because they are not giving any sheet and writing things on the whiteboard will be not that easy, I assume? What are your suggestions if someone like me depends on Brain dump, especially the chart? Thanks in advance for your reply.
Abdullh

r2d2

Thanks for this report. I have been wondering (AKA worrying...) about many of the points you covered.

Best regards,

Bill

I am very concerned about the brain dump, white board and calculator for the Online Proctored Exam. Is there anywhere to go to take a practice run at using these tools? Also, I had hand surgery for Dupuytren's contracture on both hands which has slowed my typing quite a bit. I have been doing brain dumps (PG/KA, formulas) and practicing network diagrams for critical path on paper and writing is no problem. Is there any allowance for my medical situation?

Hi William,

regarding your medical condition, I would recommend to contact PMI and ask them whether this makes you eligible for test accommodations; however, as far as I know, candidates who require test accommodations are not eligible for online proctored test and must take the exam in a test center.

As for the brain dump, have you already checked this link —posted above? This should give you the opportunity to practice and get familiar with the online whiteboard. The calculator is very straightforward to use; you can keep both the whiteboard and the calculator open at the same time, if you need both. Otherwise, just click to open the tool you need to answer a given question.

Gabriella

Thanks, this is shock. Really clunky. Trying to do EV problems is enormously time consuming. Doing a PG/KA not workable at all.

I don't know if you tried it already, but for EV problems I preferred to use text boxes, as I could type faster than handwriting with my trackpad.

Gabriella

Do you know how to move text boxes around and how to edit text box content?

This is going to sound like a ridiculous question, but does anyone know if we're prohibited from wearing certain items of clothing during the proctored exam? i.e. a hat? Due to Coronavirus I've not been able to get a trim and I could really do without hair tickling my face every 5 seconds!

Hi there, I was wondering if the online proctored exam would allow googling or using the calculator from your computer, all they can prevent your own computer is ONLY running their exam? people can still use other apps during the online exam, does it make sense? or they just completely block your computer in a way that you can ONLY do the test?

Is it possible to use another app during the exam ? I mean what prevent people from googling or chatting with someone on facebook during the testing? does the online exam block everything from your computer except the exam ?

Sorry, William, I haven't tried to either edit content or move the text boxes during the exam, but from what I can see on PearsonVUE practice whiteboard it doesn't look like any of these is possible.

Song, before starting the exam you are asked to close any other application running on your computer. Once you launch the PearsonVUE software, it takes full control of your computer, so you cannot exit the full screen mode nor access any other application, including the calculator on your computer. Instead, you will have access to the built-in calculator (and whiteboard) included in the application for your exam.

Gabriella

Thanks, and on another note do you know of any study group options besides PMI local chapter?

Sorry, William, I don't know... I know there's plenty of virtual study groups online—but never tried to join one of them, so I would not be able to recommend any.

Good luck on your exam!

Luke H wrote: This is going to sound like a ridiculous question, but does anyone know if we're prohibited from wearing certain items of clothing during the proctored exam? i.e. a hat? Due to Coronavirus I've not been able to get a trim and I could really do without hair tickling my face every 5 seconds!

I spoke to PMI and they have confirmed there are no clothing restrictions for the proctored exam, for anyone else wondering.

I have some questions for PMI RE: Proctored exam - what is the phone number you used to speak with them, thanks..............bill

Hi William,

I'm not sure, but these are the phone numbers to contact PMI Customer Service, depending on the continent you live in:
www.pmi.org/about/contact

I used this number for the US, but be prepared to longer waiting times than usual; which is why I decided to reach out to them via e-mail.

Hope this helps,

Gabriella