TOPIC: PMP Exam Simulator vs Actual PMP exam

Hello successful PMP's,
I was hoping that you could let me know your thoughts on the PMP Exam Simulator exam.pm-exam-simulator.com/ vs the Actual PMP exam.

Did you find the actual exam harder than the simulator or easier?

Was it helpful?

Thank you!

I used the exam.pm-exam-simulator.com/ in my preparation. After taking as passing the test, I thought its content was spot on. Not too hard or easy.

The actual exam has the added feature of being able to highlight words in the question that stand out to you. I found this to be very helpful.

The month leading up to my test date, I took 2 tests per week from exam.pm-exam-simulator.com .

Hi. I also used exam.pm-exam-simulator.com for my exam prep along with other free online tests. Of all the online exams I did, I found the simulator to be the closest to the real test. For my particular 'flavour' of the real exam, I did find my formula questions a tad easier than the questions presented on the simulator.

The key for me was to read the entire question first and understand what the question was truly asking. Also, take advantage of the full practise exams. This teaches you how to pace yourself and mentally prepare for the long exam.

Best of luck!
Tracey

Todd,

Can you explain a bit more in detail how this feature works on the real exam:

The actual exam has the added feature of being able to highlight words in the question that stand out to you. I found this to be very helpful.

We're working on a simulator update and can add this feature into the backlog.

If I remember correctly, it worked much like MS Word. You highlight the text you want to mark with your mouse (usual text selection methods), then you hit a "Mark" button. You could also "Unmark" it. I don't think you could right click and highlight and highlight the text, you needed to hit the button.

It was helpful.

I recall this feature as well - if I remember correctly, if you click-and-drag text to highlight (like you would to select text in Word or other programs) the text will remain selected even as you navigate from page to page. I don't remember having to mark the highlighted text, rather it would just stay selected until you cleared it. This could be used to highlight, for example, the word "except" or other keywords that were important to the meaning of the question, or other key data you wanted to make sure you factored into your analysis.

This was particularly useful if you marked a question - you could highlight the area that made you confused or raised concerns about your selected answer, then when you returned to review the question later the text would still be highlighted.

As for right-clicking, the thing I remember about that was the ability to x-out an answer choice by right-clicking on it - that made it easier to eliminate obviously wrong choices and narrow your focus when considering the remaining options. Right-clicking a second time would clear the x-out. As with the highlights, this was persistent even when you moved from question to question.

I think both features would be handy to add to the simulator if practical.

I'll also second the comments by Todd and Tracey - the simulator content was a good match for what I saw on the actual exam. The only real exception was that the sprinkling in of a handful of "gotcha" questions that were (according to the answer comments) purposefully not reflective of real exam questions. This made the simulator slightly harder than the real think, in my opinion, but only enough to keep me from getting complacent during your prep work, and that just led to more confidence when I sat for the real thing. I think it was an excellent prep tool and well worth the additional cost (especially as part of the package deal).

For me, I scored lower on the PM Prepcast exam. However, of any exam simulators, testing sites, etc. This was by far the closest to the real thing.

Apologies for bumping up an older thread... but this topic of relative difficulty has become relevant for me.

I finally am taking the exam on Aug 31st. I purchased access to the exam simulator and on July 30th, scored ~71% in exam 1 (basically a test run without much study)and in exam 2 today, I managed to up that to a 81% (been studying for the last 6-7 days). I rushed through these in 2 hrs approximately, given my time constraints. I also scored 79% on the ITTO exam. I felt I was doing ok.

Now, based on some links I saw, I took the Oliver Lehmann 75Q test... and got 61%! A real confidence bubble burster!

Of course, I am running through the results (even the correct ones) to ensure my understanding is better and fully intend to take the other remaining simulator tests. But now I wonder... how much shoud I read in to these scores?

Hi Ashwin, I found the simulator to be very similar to the actual exam. You appear to have done very well with that. I don't know how similar the Lehmann exams are to the real thing, but it looks like you should be confident for the exam especially if you fully understand the material...81% is great. Best of luck!

Dears

Til now, I attended 4 PMP exam simulator out of total 9 exams and got 71-73%. I am little bit worried. I have booked the final exam on 10 sept 2015. Kindly suggest if any.

I agree that the Prepcast Simulator was the closest thing to the real test (a little more difficult at times).

I took a few 10 question quiz's 2 nights before my exam and once I scored 100, that was my last simulation. It helped me mentally going into the actual exam.

You're scores sound like mine and I passed today with 1P and 4MP.

Good Luck

Note: I took the test 25 Aug 2015 in Brussels, Belgium and I did not have these features. I am not sure if it is test center specific or not. (I was looking forward to them based on this post).

Not a big deal but it would have been a nice feature on a few questions.

Use the My statistics function to find your weak areas.
Look at My domain and note your domain All attempts number 5. Take some 15-20 question quizzes on just that area.
Look at By knowledge area, All attempts number 8, 9, 10. Take some 10-15 question quizzes on these.
After all that, look at the Exam Feedback tab and look at the percentage of how many you answered correctly on First attempts. If you are in the 74% or better range you are on track.

The PMP Exam Simulator is very close to the actual exam. You will feel at home when you take the actual exam. Also don't burn yourself out. A couple of short quizzes every day or two will keep the mind fresh.

Appreciate the support, everyone!

And yes, I did and still go through the My Statistics page... and I did take a couple of quizzes today morning and score a P in all of those.

So guess I should just stop being down because of the one test score. (Besides, a bit more of time spent in Google... and I found the Lehmann's test is arguably the most difficult... and a score of 50% or more in that is quite decent. So guess I was not doing too bad myself!)

Hi,

i have appeared to exam on Aug; 24th and can tell that the exam simulator is just like the exam. Not more, not less.
I had no features to highlight text or to x-out any options by right click, but doesn't matter at all.
Concentrate on every single question (there is displayed one at a time after another) and walk through the exam.
I had about 40 minutes left after first passing with approx. 20 Questions marked where i am a bit unsure ...
I reworked those 20 Questions, changed just a few and had still 10 Minutes left after that.
I took a deep breathe and hit the end button with 8 Minutes to go ...

Done hte little survey ... wait for some sconds more ... and than ... CONGRATULATIONS! ...

Just go for it.

And don't let bully you too much by the Oliver-Questions ... they are the hardest ones out there and they are not really displaying the difficulty in the real exam.
May be i had one or two questions that difficult ... however it depends on your preparation ...

Olivers Questions are a bit "special" and should motivate you to study more and harder .... don't fear it ...

Best of luck!

Regards,

Markus

I thought the exam simulator was great preparation for the real exam. If anything, I thought the real exam was a little more casual in it's wording than the simulator. By that I mean the simulator sticks strictly to PMBOK terms such as Project Management Plan.
As for the Oliver Lehmann practice exam. I too was discouraged by my score but a little research showed that it's regarded as harder than the actual exam and my score, graded on a curve , was pretty good. So don't be discouraged by a lower score there, just review what you missed to try to make weaknesses strenghts.

Hi,

I am sitting for exam on next Thursday ,So far my results on Pm prepcast simulator is 79.5,83.5,88,85.5,90,86.5 for the first six exams,but still I am worried because, I did not use any other books rather than PMBOK fifth edition, many people says Rita s book is very good,but I have never used such books for reference. Can anyone give some suggestions,.

Thanks
John George

John,

Do not (worried please. Your scores are very good. The precast simulator and the PMBOK are enough for you to pass. Be concentrated and ficus on correcting your weak aread.

Good luck

John,

As a rule of thumb we tell our students, that if you are consistently scoring 80% or more when you take a practice exam for the first time, then that is a good sign of readiness. However, take this with a grain of salt because we are all individuals and your personal readiness may differ. Some students work better on an exam when they know they are under pressure a bit, while other students are more risk averse.

Based on the 80% rule of thumb, and the results that you shared, it sounds like you are well on your way!

We suggest you study your practice exam results as well as your own mental assessment/inventory of your readiness to see if there are specific areas (processes, chapters, PM concepts, calculations, etc.) that you may want to revisit.

I personally did not use Rita's book when I prepared for my exam but many students recommend it. I, of course, highly recommend the PM Prepcast. Time may not permit this as it sounds as if you are close to taking your exam, at a minimum, I suggest that you read through the exam content outline again and make sure you are familiar with all the topics listed.

Best of luck with your preparations.

Yazmine Darcy, MBA, PMP, CSM
Senior Project Manager, OSP International LLC
The Project Management PrepCast™ - www.project-management-prepcast.com

Thank you very much Lazard for your kind feedback and wish.

John George

Thanks all for yours kind feedback and support, passed the PMP exam ...

John George

Congratulations John, Welcome to the club

I read this discussion about a week ago and I passed the exam yesterday. In my experience the PM PrepCast simulated exams were very similar to the actual exam. My time to complete the simulations and real exam were also very similar. The first hour always seemed to be slow but in reality I got through all of the questions in about 3 hours and had plenty of time to review. On the real exam I only marked about 20 questions and those were the only 20 I reviewed before finishing.

Both the simulations and the real exam had fewer formula questions than Rita's book led me to expect. On the real example the formula questions were more straightforward. I had 3-4 questions pertaining to risk mitigation vs. risk transfer so I'd recommend being familiar with that. The simulations have more (perhaps too many) questions about Maslow, McGregor, Juran, Demming, etc. I probably chose "initiate a change request" on 10 questions on the real exam.

Since the PMP doesn't tell you how many you answered correctly it's hard to gauge how simulator scores translate to passing the real exam. I'll share my own experience as a point of reference. I took a total of five PrepCast exams , four regular and the one ITTO. I took them on four consecutive Saturdays and the ITTO on a Tuesday evening because it takes about half the time. My scores (in order) were 79%, 80% - ITTO, 80.5%, 84.4%, and 84%. Yesterday I scored "proficient" in all five domains. I wouldn't suggest sitting for the exam unless you can hit 75% on at least two simulated exams.

The hardest part for me during the exam was to trust my first answer and not overthink the questions too much. Basically, I had to accept the fact that my first read was about 80% accurate on the simulations and should thus be about 80% accurate on the real thing.

One other note, I took my exam at a Prometic test facility. The staff made it very clear that I should not write anything down on my 8 pages of blank paper until I was on the clock for the actual exam. There was no 15 minutes for a "brain dump" that others told me about. Rather than writing out everything I had practiced I just did the formulas in about 3.5 minutes.

Jim, fantastic news and thanks for the lessons learned synopsis. What I'd like other forum readers to take away is the percentages of your mock exam. Your scores are a pure example of how to gauge one's readiness. You can never truly feel comfortable until you pass the real exam, but many people ask if they are ready. We usually ask them to earn mock exam scores in your range and consistency.

I wanted to give my $0.02 here.... I passed the exam today... And for me I was worried about my itto readiness so I focused on those the last 2 days... And out of the 200 real questions I got.. I had 0 of them.... Yes There were itto questions but nothing like the exam simulator... And very few... Maybe it was just my exam... There is a huge db of questions... Alllll My questions were situation based... The situation questions on the simulator are accurate.. But for me the itto questions were not... I was very worried cause I booked my test 2 months in advance, since my year mark was coming to an end... I was scoring 75% on the mocks... I passed today with 4 MPs and 1 P... So it was close..

Eric, that was my experience as well. There were loads of 'what would you do in this situation?' questions but none of the straightforward ITTO questions that you see throughout the simulator exams.

There's no way to know how much my ITTO flashcards helped in answering the situational questions.

Dear Eric,

First of all, congratulations on passing your PMP exam!

Second, thank you for sharing your success and posting your lessons learned. Inputs like yours help us improve our products for all our customers and help our customers better prepare and pass their exams.

As for the ITTO related questions: yes, we are aware of the fact that there are no more (or very few) direct ITTO questions on the real exam. We are continually updating our questions’ database to reflect this change in the exam that the Project Management Institute (PMI)^® introduced about a year ago. We still have some direct ITTO questions randomly placed in the exams 1 to 8, and we are planning to phase them out during the upgrade of our simulator to reflect the upcoming release of the PMBOK^® Guide, Sixth Edition, examination content outline. In addition, we have exam number 9 which consists solely of ITTO questions for customers who explicitly asked us to keep this exam alive in order for them to be able to practice ITTO questions. Some people find this approach useful for them in their preparations to increase their level of confidence. All people are different and each one chooses tools that work best for them. I personally, during my preparations, used that ITTO exam just for the sake of training my brain to memorize as many ITTO’s as possible to reduce my anxiety level. Of course, it was not my main preparation tool, but I must admit it helped me personally to recognize some repetitive patterns for the situational questions. For example, it made a lot of sense to me to see that organizational process assets and enterprise environmental factors were used as inputs to many processes, while project documents updates were frequently found as an output from many processes.

Again, thank you for your valuable input, and a I wish you best of luck in all your future endeavors.

Good afternoon,
I completed PMP exam a couple of days ago. I have passed so certainly happy....The practice exams are good!
My best score was on ITTOs (9th) exam as I had prepared heavily. On the real exam there were a few ITTOs questions but not direct ones. All were situation based and they gave tool for next process and asked to identify. Preparing ITTOs is helpful and understanding integration management is IMPORTANT. Comparatively PMP was to the higher end of Fichtner practice exams but the exams are very helpful (re-took 2 or 3 which were low scores). Had 5 or more math questions - EVM based...(one of them was on TCPI and was a bit difficult). Good luck, y'all.

Thanks for sharing lesson learned . My exam is scheduled in 2 weeks , and I have been scoring range of 83-88% in 6 exams & 95% in ITTO which I took on PM simulator( prepcast). I also took RITA FAST TRACK 8th scored 77 - 81 % range in 5 full mocks


Please suggest me If I am okay to go ahead with the exam?comparing the difficulty level of PM simulator and real PMP exam.

last minute tips appreciated

Rahul, from the scores you shared, You are good to go. I am sure you will pass the exam easily and we will see your lessons learned here
in the next couple of weeks, try to relax, review what you already learned, practice.

Yes, I believe your scores are good (Rahul). Please stay calm through your PMP exam. If some questions are tough (or long questions), mark them and come back to them towards end. Please take water bottle, small snack like energy bar (place it over your locker) so you could have it during the break you take. The clock runs through the break yet I believe 1 break is required to keep fresh. Good luck.

I passed my Pmp exam 4P and MP, Woop Woop! Thank you Prepcast and everyone for the help. I did not get any ITTo, but a lot of questions about EVM interpretation and Network diagramme complex network diagram with logical relationship)

Most of Actual questions were framed as“ What will you PM do next…….” & “ What would have been done to prevent this situation….” ,“ What will you do Now, What process might the PM have skipped & What will you do First
. In mock you able to eliminate 2 options but in exam some questions are very difficult to eliminate.Of Course there were many times when i thought two answers were right and i had to spend some time reading the Q again and again. find the key word which drives questions . some time it is very difficult to use process of elimination as most answers are related to questions .
Questions are really tough and written to confuse you make mistake. Questions may sometimes look ambiguous of what it tries to convey but note for the keywords in the question which hints you what it is trying to find out from you.
I used combination of strategy. Like keywords. Last statement. And answers first, when I am not not able to understand the question.

Congratulations Raul. and thanks for sharing your feedback on your exam, hopefully it will be useful to others planning for the exam.

Congrats! Please let me know where I can find good network diagram questions to practice? PrepCast network diagram questions are quiet easy for me to do.