Graeme CardSenior Programme Manager - Strategy & Science| Gisborne District CouncilGisborne, Gisborne, New Zealand
Doing lots of prep work for up coming PMP exams. My Achilles heel is questions like this... "Which of the following is NOT one of the reasons that this project had difficulty?" and then the answers all start with "A lack of...." or some other negative. The double negative is confusing me so any neat tricks anyone can suggest? Saving Changes...
Rajeev SharmaPrincipal Consultant | Strategy, EA CoE | Digital Transformation, AI and Gen-AI| Tech MahindraGurgaon, Haryana, India
Such questions are situational and push examinees to think which option is irrelevant (elimination) or far away from situation. Try to analyze asked question (perspective) in this way also, might be you will able to crack a few but not all.
Some question will be straight from process group, knowledge area and tools/techniques for which you need to go through PMBOK or additional materials. Saving Changes...
Dan BaleanOperations Mgmt.| 2089956 Ontario Inc.Cambridge, Ontario, Canada
This was one of, if not the most difficult exam I have ever wrote, and I wrote many...
I'm glad I'm done and, hopefully, I will never have to write it again...
Phew! Saving Changes...
@ Dan you are right it is not easy and one should maintain the 60 PDU for renewal to avoid the bitter experience again plus with more time moving ahead age factor may kick in and prevent from memorizing a lot of ITTO's & Formulas Saving Changes...
Graeme I feel you. Those "Not" questions throw a curve ball. Doing as many different simulation exams as you can is the key to getting use to those tricky questions. Saving Changes...
Drew CraigSr. Agile & Product Coach| VanguardPhiladelphia, Pa, United States
Questions like this go back to why it is important to realize the significance of good test-taking skills. How to read the question, what is PMI looking for, look for keywords. Generally, you throw away 2 immediately, then from the remaining, there would be some keyword to identify the correct answer. Also, be aware of 'where you are'. Lots of clues there, too! And all of this in 30 seconds! :) Saving Changes...
Unfortunately some of the folks who participate in exam item writing focus more on trying to trick candidates with how a question is worded rather than validating their grasp of the underlying concept.
The only advice I can provide is to thoroughly read each question and if it seems to be worded in a clumsy manner, mark it so that you can come back to it in a second pass to ensure you answered it correctly.
Kiron
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1 reply by Sante Delle-Vergini, PhD
Feb 10, 2018 3:17 PM
Sante Delle-Vergini, PhD
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This is true Kiron, there's an even worse sentence structure than the "Not" one. That is the double negative. Questions like "If you do not have a cooperative stakeholder, what is not a recommended course of action?" There are worse examples than this, but the point is playing with words can waste minutes during an exam for some participants, and it does nothing to assess their true capability in understanding the meaning behind the question if it was only worded better.
Unfortunately some of the folks who participate in exam item writing focus more on trying to trick candidates with how a question is worded rather than validating their grasp of the underlying concept.
The only advice I can provide is to thoroughly read each question and if it seems to be worded in a clumsy manner, mark it so that you can come back to it in a second pass to ensure you answered it correctly.
Kiron
This is true Kiron, there's an even worse sentence structure than the "Not" one. That is the double negative. Questions like "If you do not have a cooperative stakeholder, what is not a recommended course of action?" There are worse examples than this, but the point is playing with words can waste minutes during an exam for some participants, and it does nothing to assess their true capability in understanding the meaning behind the question if it was only worded better.
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1 reply by Graeme Card
Feb 10, 2018 3:36 PM
Graeme Card
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You are both correct. There does seem to be a lot of questions whose main purpose is to trick you with the wording and not really testing your knowledge/experience of the concepts. I'm pretty sure that many questions on the exam would not be allowed on university type exams because of this. I will keep on persevering with these type of question. Thanks for your input
Saving Changes...
Graeme CardSenior Programme Manager - Strategy & Science| Gisborne District CouncilGisborne, Gisborne, New Zealand
Feb 10, 2018 3:17 PM
Replying to Sante Delle-Vergini, PhD
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This is true Kiron, there's an even worse sentence structure than the "Not" one. That is the double negative. Questions like "If you do not have a cooperative stakeholder, what is not a recommended course of action?" There are worse examples than this, but the point is playing with words can waste minutes during an exam for some participants, and it does nothing to assess their true capability in understanding the meaning behind the question if it was only worded better.
You are both correct. There does seem to be a lot of questions whose main purpose is to trick you with the wording and not really testing your knowledge/experience of the concepts. I'm pretty sure that many questions on the exam would not be allowed on university type exams because of this. I will keep on persevering with these type of question. Thanks for your input Saving Changes...
@Sante & Kiron i agree with Sante I was about to say the time limit will be wasted and many will not be able to complete all 200 questions.
Moreover not only the double negative but even with theories and techniques like tuckman ladder or conflict resolution or pert equation they would never give the question straight forward and not same keywords as in PMBOK guide Saving Changes...
PMP exam is test of endurance with each question having a unique twist. Once you start the exam you can judge that twist quickly but by the time you reach the mid point, you start reading questions twice and in some cases thrice to really absorb that twist and that's when the ticking clock gets to your nerves. Saving Changes...
