TOPIC: Adding a exam pause functionality in pmp simulator

Hi,

Today because of some unavoidable situation I ended up the exam in the middle. Please add a pause functionality so that test taker can resume the test if needed.

I too had an emergency while I was doing a mock. In the 100th question or so I had to send my cat to the vet. At the end I just had to redo the mock over again

I guess life happens for everyone, but I feel that adding a pause option has more harms than benefits. Since the purpose of the mock exams is to simulate a true exam environment, and in the real exam situation there is no mercy for any emergencies (even a washroom/water break is counted as your own time expense).

Hope your emergency wasn't as severe as mine, keep doing more practice exams and I am sure you will have no issues handling the real exam.

Cheers,
Joe

I agree with Joe here. Adding a Pause feature to the mock exam would make it too easy for people to just pause the exam whenever they feel like it. The intent of the simulator is to realistically simulate an actual PMP exam, where there is no pause button. When I did the mock exams, I put my phone on silent (and put it in another room), and locked myself in a room so I would have no interruptions for 4 hours, because that is exactly what the real exam is like.

If, for whatever reason, you aren't able to set aside 4 continuous hours for a mock exam, then I recommend using the Quiz feature in the untimed mode. I did that a lot, in chunks of 50-100 questions. It was a good way to learn about the structure and format of exam questions without the time pressure.

When I first saw this , I thought it was an excellent suggestion. However, after taking the exam today, I have to agree with Joe and Emily. This exam simulator is made to mimic the real thing. There are dozens of other free practice exams available online, plus the quiz functionality here that will allow you to practice if you can't put together 4 straight hours.

But there aren't many options if you want to practice as though it's the real exam. And even with the exam simulator, I still struggled a bit in the exam today. About 150 questions in I noticed I was rocking, turning my chair, tapping my pencil, etc. It's tough to sit still and focus for that long! But there is no pause button during the real exam. If you get up to stretch for 5 minutes, that's 5 minutes of test time that you just lost. But I had noticed myself getting fidgety while practicing and knew how to get myself back on track to finish the exam. If there had been a pause button during practice though, I'm sure I would have used it every time and I would have been caught off guard sitting down for the real thing.

Cannot disagree more with the idea of a pause feature adding more harm than good. I, and I'm certain many others, simply do not have the time to sit for 3-4 hours on any day of the week or weekend just to practice the questions I paid $300 for and I'm frankly very frustrated that this very basic feature in all other test-banks I've used is missing.

If people have the time for a full exam simulation, more power to them. For the other 90% of us with jobs, kids, responsibilities, chores, bills, calls, meetings and life to deal with it's rather absurd to impose that kind of restriction. I'd say that having to redo the same exam an indefinite number of times because of the lack of this feature is a far worse scenario, one that I am currently living with.

If you do not have the time for a full 4 hour mock exam, then you can use the quiz functionality to specify the number of questions you wish to take based on how much time you have to devote to it. The exam simulator can work for any situation! But being able to pause a full 200 question mock exam does a disservice to those who want to truly practice for the real thing. I, for one, found it very valuable to be in a strictly timed situation and have to hone my time management skills. Being able to pause would’ve given me too easy of an out when I got mentally tired. I am grateful that pausing was not an option for the full mock exams. But I also took advantage of the shorter quizzes when I did not have time for a 4 hour exam. You can make it work for you however you need it to.

I too strongly desire a pause functionality. I'm a very busy person... I'm either at work or taking care of my kids at home. I rarely have 2 to 4 hours of free time to sit and take this exam. People should have the option to pause, so that I can do some of it here or there... perhaps 1 hour on my train ride to work and 1 hour on my train ride back home.

Otherwise I'll never be able to do the rest of the exam in one sitting, so it becomes completely useless to me.

If others don't want to use the pause functionality, then they don't need to use it.

The purpose of the simulator's Exam feature is to simulate, as best as possible, the actual exam, including the time pressure that the actual exam will force upon you. There are many ways to use the exam simulator that have been mentioned. For instance, you can choose up to 100 questions from across all rubric areas without a timer for self-study or with a timer to take "mini-exams."

The exams in the simulator select questions from the same pool of questions as any study set, so you're not missing any of the questions. So if you don't have a 4-hour block to devote to an "Exam" - use various features of the simulator to go through all 1600+ questions at least once at your own leisure.

I would strongly recommend, however, that you subject yourself to at least two 4-hour sessions with the simulator so that you can understand more fully what the real exam will be like. If you are not familiar with proctored, professional examinations, it will be like nothing else you've ever experienced; the environment is Spartan and unforgiving. To prepare fully for the exam, you should subject yourself to as many of the stressors as possible so that you are familiar with the environment.

Best of luck.

Harry

Deepak, Mike, and Andrew,

I can see how it’s frustrating to want to pause an exam after a couple of hours and finish it later in the day or even the next day. If Cornelius had included that function, I certainly would have paused the exams and come back to them.

So as a workaround, I spent 2 hours answering 100 question quizzes for awhile. The quizzes are just as hard, using the same bank of questions as the exams.

Here are the Quiz settings I used:
Select quiz mode: Learning (no timer)
Select number of questions: 100
Select criteria: Random
Include questions: Include all questions
Include Exam 8 (ITTO): No

I set a timer on my phone and tried to finish it by the time the buzzer went off. Sometimes I finished and sometimes I paused and came back.

It was really hard to gut it out for 8 simulated exams, 4 hours each. I would not have put myself through it if there had been another choice, such as pausing a timer.

I wouldn’t have passed the real exam without making myself take at least 5 of those four hour tests though. As much as I cursed and pulled my hair out during them, I learned the little things I HAD to do to get through it: physically (eat a big breakfast) and mentally (skip questions with more than 2 sentences in the first pass).

Yes, it’s frustrating because you have a busy life and hate to share that much valuable time. Give the quizzes a try. You may find they work better in many cases for you.

And please make yourself tough it out for several 4-hour exams. There’s a great deal of learning in them, especially if you review your incorrect questions at the very least.

We’re rooting for all 3 of you!