Having taken the exam in a test centre recently (January 2023), I'd just like to add some clarification on timing for anyone who is preparing to sit the PMP exam soon. I do not know what, if anything, differs when taking the online-proctored exam.
In the real exam, after the intro and tutorial, the countdown timer in the top right-hand corner of your screen starts at 230:00. After you have gone through, but not necessarily answered, the first 60 questions, there is an on-screen prompt indicating that a break is programmed before question 61 and reminding you to review your questions. Using the Review screen, you can look through a vertical list of the 60 questions which clearly shows if any are Incomplete (i.e. not answered), Flagged for Review (if you flagged any), or both. Returning to any question is quick and easy, as is filtering the list by Flagged and/or Incomplete. When you are happy with your answers, you have to press End Review.
If I recall correctly, this brings you directly to your break screen, although there might have been an 'Are you sure Y/N?' dialogue box in between.
On the break screen, a different timer counts down from 10:00. In the background, the question timer is effectively paused until the break timer reaches 00:00, or if the candidate chooses to end the break early. If you return before the 10 minutes are up, you can interrupt the break at any time and start on question 61.
Assuming you want to make the most of the break, it's a good idea to leave the exam room straightaway. Before anything else, check the time on a real clock -- since you have no devices or watch on your person -- so that you have a good idea of when your break will end. It's funny what exam stress does to people's perception of time. For some people it becomes heightened and they have a great sense of how many minutes and seconds are remaining. For others, the pressure causes them to become less clear-headed and to gauge time poorly.
To be clear, there is no exam advantage to be had in cutting short the break time. Take care of your physical needs, move about a bit, have something to drink and/or eat from your locker if you know this will help you.
Before the 10 minutes of break time end, get back to your station. At my test centre, the supervisor had to accompany each person physically and unlock their exam station with a login and password. At that point, the candidate can restart the question-taking process by clicking on a Resume button. If you still have, say, two minutes of break left and want to wait a little longer, you can do so. The break timer is still visible. When you do click Resume, question 61 appears and the main exam timer restarts from exactly where you left it before the break.
The same process occurs after you have gone through question 120.
At the end, the main timer counts down to zero and cuts access to the questions, unless you have already pressed End Review yourself before that point, ending the exam. There is no scoring advantage whatsoever to finishing earlier, so use all the time that you need to be sure you're happy with your answers. If you're a speed demon and are fully satisfied with all of your answers with 30 minutes left to go, feel free to end the review and thus the exam.
Everyone operates differently in the exam. I had classmates who finished their blocks of 60 questions very rapidly and had acres of surplus time. Others used up every second available. Some people notice that they become heavily fatigued over the course of the 180 questions (eyes blurring, ability to concentrate diminishing), while others are like endurance athletes and maintain similar levels throughout. If you're used to spending long periods working at a screen, you'll probably be more comfortable at the end than someone who isn't. The great value of taking the PM PrepCast Exams in the Simulator is to test not only your ability to answer the questions, but also to see how you are affected physically by the experience. Practicing this part of exam technique can only aid you.
Once you know when during the day your real exam will taking place, I would strongly recommend taking your simulator exams at that same time of day. If your real exam starts at 2pm and you know that you're not usually at your best mentally in the afternoon, then practice starting the exam at 2pm, in as close to exam conditions as possible, to find the best strategy for performing as well as possible. Eat and drink like you would be able to before and during the exam, don't use any other timing devices other than the countdown timer on the screen during the question-answering blocks, and respect the 10-minute break maximums. If your life schedule is hectic, do still prioritize these practice exams. Tell the world you're incommunicado for at least 4 hours 10 minutes, put your devices on airplane mode, put up do not disturb signs, etc. Even one practice exam will give you a great amount of feedback on what to expect on exam day.
The only thing that you need to do differently when heading into the real exam when coming from the PM PrepCast Simulator Exams are your rough guides to progress on the timers.
I'm not used to counting down large periods of time in decimal sets of minutes. I know straightaway where I am with "2 hours 25 minutes left", not so much with "145 minutes left". If you're prone to using up more than the 1 minute-and-16.67 seconds that are available on average for a question and want to track your progress, it's good to have 'red line' guides for the end of each 60-question block to know that you're not behind schedule, assuming a near-constant question-taking rate. If you know that you slow down or speed up consistently during practice exams, it might be worth adapting your red line times to this phenomenon.
For the PrepCast exams, I used a limit of 174:00 after the first 60 questions, and then 88:00 after 120 questions. Don't forget that in this system, if you take a 10-minute break after reaching 174:00, when you come back, the timer is going to be at 164:00. By the way, during the PrepCast Exams, I also only allowed myself to review the 60 questions in the block I was completing, just like during the real exam, even though PrepCast does allow users to review any of the 180 questions at any time.
For the real exam, I had memorized just two numbers: I wanted to be at no lower than 154:00 after the first 60 questions, and no lower than 78:00 after the second block. I left myself slightly more time in the final block, as I knew I would likely be slower due to cumulated fatigue. This helped me and wasn't cumbersome. If you're great at memorizing figures, knowing your intermediate red lines might also be useful, but I found that that became excessive detail.
I hope that this helps some other people with their preparation.
