TOPIC: Suggestions to focus on exam

I gave 2 exam till now, Attempt 1#, I could complete 142 questions out of which 93 were correct . Attempt 2#, I could complete only 106 questions.
Im attempting the exam with complete focus but after 20 question i am going into this continuous reading of the question atleast 4 or 5 times before I answer.

Im not sure how to handle this and focus more while attempting the exam.

Hi Bindhu,

I didn’t finish my first few simulated exams, either. It took several practice tests before I was able to get through them.

What finally worked for me was to make multiple passes through an exam. On my 1st pass, I automatically skipped all questions that were more than 2 sentences or had calculations.

The shorter the better. (My real exam did have a number of short questions, just 1 or 2 sentences.) On the 1st pass, if a question had more than 2 sentences, I selected “Next”. I practiced this strategy on PrepCast’s simulated exams. It was suggested by my exam coach and made a huge difference in my real test score because of PMI’s inclusion of “experimental questions” — 25 long, vague ones that are not counted in your score. It’s best to practice this, however, because on THE day, you may get swept up in reading all questions in order on the 1st pass.

Why it works: Pretend you answer 50 questions on your 1st pass through the exam. If it takes you 2-3 seconds per question to count the number of sentences and click “Next”, you only lose 5-7 minutes with this strategy. The computer at my test center was lightning fast – no pauses between clicks. On the 2nd pass, I tackled the 3+ sentence and calculation questions. I banked on the probability that the unscored, experimental questions were in this 2nd group of longer questions. If they were particularly ambiguous or lengthy, I skipped them again. I “Flag for Review” questions I answered but felt there was more than 1 good choice.

Cornelius and PM PrepCast have a good article about this strategy, too. See Best Practice #10, PMP Exam Timetable shown below and linked here: Creating Your PMP® Study Plan - The Complete Guide



Hang in there, Bindhu. We’re rooting for you!