How can we/members participate in converting the PMP test questions into English and correct grammar?
MARK A ANNUNZIATA, SrVP/EXPERT CONSULTANCY TO THE CONSTRUCTION INDUSTRY| ROMAN STRUCTURES, INC WELLINGTON FLDammam, Eastern Province, Saudi Arabia
We all know that 10% of the test questions for our certifications are not clear and grammatically correct. Is it fair for test takers who are otherwise smart and well prepared to miss questions due to improper grammar and unclear subjects? Somehow, these tests should not be produced at the current quality level. We need Process Improvement Plan for the production of test questions.
I am open to suggestions............... Saving Changes...
You emphasize two topics:
(1) improper grammar: I am not a native English speaker, but to me the overall wording of the exam questions in the grammatic context was ok.
(2) Clearness of questions: Yes, this is a good point. There are many situational questions, questions with extraneous information, excessively overloaded questions with many sentences (partly with made-up terms). BUT this is with intention, as the exam wants you to interpret the question and coming up with an answer that demonstrates that you understand the PMBOK framework concept having a big project in mind when giving an answer to such kind of questions. The test challenges you to understand the essence of the such questions that you need to read "between the lines" without getting confused by many provided (unnessary and confusing) additional information in the question itself. Saving Changes...
MARK A ANNUNZIATA, SrVP/EXPERT CONSULTANCY TO THE CONSTRUCTION INDUSTRY| ROMAN STRUCTURES, INC WELLINGTON FLDammam, Eastern Province, Saudi Arabia
Peter-
1) thanks for the thoughtful response, however the grammar and wording on my exam was not vetted by any English major, the focus was unclear, and the terminology used (especially for construction terms) was just plain incorrect. (however i did pass the exam-but it concerns me that some well qualified examinees may be eliminated- and there really is no practical reason for these flawed items)
2) My examination of the available online courses, and those I chose, all had the incorrect grammar and improper wording subject as part of the Syllabus. I think these deficiencies are well known by all the Exam prep Schools.
3) I agree with you about the psychology of the test questions- i do not dispute that quality of the exam.
4) I have taken many certification exams for the multitude of licenses and Osha certs that i currently hold, however this is the first exam where the lack of quality of the wording was a recognized fact and a known pitfall.
More importantly- Any advice on how we can participate to improve this process of exam wording? In my opinion, some SME (including an English language SME) review should be considered before these creations are utilized in an exam. Saving Changes...
Mark, I appreciate your follow-up comments. My suggestion would be to provide examples of bad quality questions to the PMI customer service. Other ideas may come up during further communication on this topic. Saving Changes...
MARK A ANNUNZIATA, SrVP/EXPERT CONSULTANCY TO THE CONSTRUCTION INDUSTRY| ROMAN STRUCTURES, INC WELLINGTON FLDammam, Eastern Province, Saudi Arabia
Many thanks for your input- However i recently "signed my life away" to guarantee I would not repeat or discuss PMP exam questions.
After my discussion with you i did make an Improvement policy suggestion to customer service earlier today.
I didn't find any grammatical mistakes in my exam, There were however, situational questions with information overload which were expected to test the understanding of project management concepts Saving Changes...
Having twice participated in PMP exam item writing sessions, I can tell you that there are many pairs of eyes looking at questions and their answers from a clarity and correctness perspective and before a question counts towards someone's score, it would have been field-tested as one of the 25 control questions (out of the total 200) which don't get marked.
In those item writing sessions, we spent our first day reviewing the statistics of such control questions and if the distribution of responses did not look appropriate OR if we found the wording poor, we used to rewrite the question, change the answers or in an extreme case throw out the question.
This is for PMI's "real" questions. I will say that many so-called high quality practice exam "pools" do suffer from poor quality.
Kiron Saving Changes...
MARK A ANNUNZIATA, SrVP/EXPERT CONSULTANCY TO THE CONSTRUCTION INDUSTRY| ROMAN STRUCTURES, INC WELLINGTON FLDammam, Eastern Province, Saudi Arabia
I really appreciate your response. However, i did experience grammatical errors, and technical errors on my exam.
The technical errors are incorrect construction terminology, Kiron. Almost every attempt at a construction related exam question had a flaw ( I would do the "eye roll" every time I read one of these- it was apparent to me that none of your review group has any idea about construction terminology) One example I remember is using the term "cement" in lieu of Concrete. This is a typical mistake by people not in the business.
You are exactly correct about the exam pools. However, the idea about poor grammar within the exam is a widely recognized issue- I think PMI should poll the Prep Class Organizations for their opinions......
M Saving Changes...
MARK A ANNUNZIATA, SrVP/EXPERT CONSULTANCY TO THE CONSTRUCTION INDUSTRY| ROMAN STRUCTURES, INC WELLINGTON FLDammam, Eastern Province, Saudi Arabia
I guess we must ask ourselves 2 questions:
1) Will we recognize a Quality issue exists with the exam questions that we are willing to fix? ( possibly bringing in an English Professional to assist in test question review)
2) Is it fair to force candidates to spend valuable time and money prepping for the exam-only to use them as guinea pigs for sample questions that will not be scored? Is this practice fair and moral? Saving Changes...
AMMAR ALRUBAIEDirector of PM/PMO| IMPREGILO GROUPDubai, United Arab Emirates
I do agree with Mark's findings, and the difficulties to understand the exact meaning and or requirements of the questions due to language technical issue ... Saving Changes...
While there might be inaccuracies related to the technical domain of a project example, how does that really bear on what you are being tested on? Ideally we want to strive for 100% correctness in all respects, but the costs associated with achieving that might be prohibitive or might require PMI to require test item writers to use industry neutral scenarios.
There's always room for improvement, but having worked with certification bodies in other fields at a similar scale, I feel PMI has done a good job.
