TOPIC: PM-Simulator mock test

Hi,

I recently bought PM-Simulator and i believe we have a question bank of 1600 questions spread in 8 diff. mock test.
Is there a diff. in mock test 1 vs let's say mock test 4 or mock test 8?

Does it start to get tough as we do these mock test or the questions are just randomly distributed in 8 mock test. I am assuming, it's the later.

-Neeraj

Neeraj:

No. Tests 1-7 choose 200 questions randomly from the 1600 in the test bank. Most certainly you will get a few repeats if you do all 7. Test 8 (ITTO) will choose 200 ITTO questions. (I do not know how many of the 1600 questions in the bank are ITTO-specific).

If you want to see all the questions, the best way to do that is to take chunks of each process group (i.e. "initiating") and select "Questions I've never seen before" (or something like that), and then repeat until you've seen all the questions in the group.

Best of luck!

Harry

A followup question ... so let's say, we take Mock test 1 and then mock test 2 ... is it safe to say that mock test 2 may contains few questions that might have already appeared in mock test 1?

I am not able to find a option where i can say don't bother generating the same question in mock test 2, if we have already seen it in previous attempted mock test 1.
-Neeraj

My understanding is that each of the full length mock exams has completely unique questions. You will not see repeated questions between full-length exams. You will see repeat questions if you do shorter quizzes, and there is an option to select only questions you have not seen before.

Thanks a lot Emily for your prompt response, appreciate it.

-Neeraj

Neeraj:

I do not believe you get the "don't repeat" option in the exams. You only get them when you do quizzes in Knowledge Areas or Process Groups.

Harry

Emily:

I do not believe that is correct. There are 1600 (or so) questions in the pool. When you start an exam, you will get 200 randomly selected questions in the proper proportion as the real PMP exam. Eventually, you will indeed run into repeats if play with the system long enough.

Harry

Thanks Harry for the additional clarification, appreciate it.

-Neeraj

No worries. This is how I did it. I'm not saying it will work for you, but it worked for me:

I took exams until I was consistently scoring >70% on the exam (Exams 1,2,3). Then I went back to each Knowledge Area or Process Group and did every question in each section using the "don't repeat" option until I saw every question at least once. Then I went to areas that I believed I was weak in and bolstered repeated questions there too. I did NOT do all 8 exams.

Good luck!

Harry

Harry, not to be argumentative, but what would be the point in having "7 full mock exams" if they weren't all unique? Otherwise there would just be one option to "Take a full length exam" and it would randomly give you 200 questions. There would be no need for 7 separate exams. Therefore, I maintain that the full length timed exams are unique. Repeat questions DO, however, occur in quiz or learning mode.

Hello, Neeraj,

Due to the confusion that I see in some of the responses, allow me to clarify this. We have 1,610 questions that are organized into 8 exams as follows: 7 full-length 200-question exams and 1 exam that is comprised of 210 pure ITTO questions. All questions are unique, and if you attempt full exams, you will never see the same question in two different exams. This is because each exam has 200 dedicated questions. The only randomness you would see if you take the same exam more than once is the order of the questions. For example, if you take Exam #3 for the first time, you will see 200 unique questions ordered in a particular way. However, if you take the same Exam #3 for the second, or third, etc. time, you will see the same unique questions, but just organized differently. For example, question #1 in the first attempt may become question #159 in the second attempt and #27 in the third attempt. In other words, the sequence of the questions will change every time you take the same exam. But the questions themselves remain the same and, as clarified above, unique for each exam.

Quizzes, however, are designed differently. They take questions from the same 1,610 question pool. So not only may you encounter the same questions in every new quiz you take, you would definitely encounter these questions in the exams. Therefore, we recommend using quizzes lightly to avoid the effect of memorization when you encounter the questions while taking full 200-question exams. There is an option in the quiz mode, however, to select unanswered questions. This would at least eliminate the chance of seeing the same questions in the quiz.

I hope this clarifies the subject.

Perfect !!

Thanks Stan for clarifying this.
Thanks Harry & Emily for your support as well.

I am sure, this post would be useful for lots of current future & future students.

-Neeraj

Not argumentative at all, Emily. It's important to get the information right and Stan set me straight. Thanks, Stan!

My pleasure. You are all very welcome, guys!

Neeraj -- best of luck in your preparations!

I took all 8 tests in that order except I took ITTO test as #6. None of the questions were repeated and they all are at similar level as actual exam. These tests were only reason I was able to pass the real exam. Try to test under same environment as actual exam. Good luck!

Hello Neeraj,

How are you doing on Simulator exams? I am taking my exam on 20th Feb 2020. Thought will get ideas from you for last 2 weeks prep..?

Thanks!

Hi Anantha,

Well, I have an exam on coming Monday i.e. Feb 10 2020 8 am ... so just 4 more days to go

So last 3 days i.e. 7th, 8th & 9th i am planning to do 3 full 200 question mock test. I wish i had known about this product earlier, i would have planned for 6-7 mock test ..i came to know about pm-simulator few days back. It's going to be very tight for me.

The bad news is that i never attempted any 200 question mock test, and the good news is i have done lot of practice quizzes like Rita , Scordo after each Knowledge Area and i have scored somewhere between 75-85%, so i am pretty positive of scoring good in full blown mock test.

For now, i am doing revision by going through iZenBridge Videos, high level Rita Book and then Rita Hot Topics flash book. I wasted way too much time to revise Rita book by reading each & every line from that book.. i feel at the end, it's not required.

How is your prep. going on ? What strategy are you applying?

-Neeraj

Hi Neeraj,

Do not regret. I am rooting for you.

I read PMBOK couple of times and wrote a test. Scored 63.5% in simulator. Went back and studied my weak areas and wrote another simulator. Was disappointed. Scored only 64.5% This was 2 weeks before.

Last weekend wrote another simulator test. Scored 76%. Feeling little good. Still long way to go.

Now quickly glancing Rita book to study my weak areas and answering questions at end of chapter. Planning to write a mock test once in 3-4 days from now.

Are you sure , are you planning to write a test on 9th? I feel you shouldn't be exhausted on 10th. Would suggest you to stay hydrated and practice stress relieving techniques. ALL THE BEST.

Did I miss to mention - Make sure to do retrospectives after each test. Any suggestions for me?

Yaah, that's a good point of taking some rest before the actual test. In my case, worst part is i have the exam at 8 am and
that too in a diff. city which is like 1.5 hours away from my house, so i will have to wake up like at 5 am.

I will see how i feel after giving first mock test on 7th & 8th and then may be i will take a call to give another mock test on 9th.

Since you still have time, when you are do Rita questions, make sure to track it via excel file like i do, refer to attached image. This will give you some good RCA on where you are lacking.

In my case, what i observed was that the questions that i have been confused between 2 options are the ones that i ended up marking and then there were some questions that i overlooked some keywords or was very close to selecting the right answer.

Refer to attached image.

-Neeraj

Thanks Neeraj. Your legends in the excel helps. Hoping for the best.