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Exam question wording.

Graeme Card Senior Programme Manager - Strategy & Science| Gisborne District Council Gisborne, Gisborne, New Zealand

I'm a bit of a stickler for exact use of English but maybe the exam questioners aren't. As an example here's a question.....

You have to catch a flight to submit a tender document for a strategic project for your company. You are running late for the flight, but there is a possibility that you can speed up and catch the flight. What would you do?

The "correct" answer was " Don't speed as it's against the law" but the situation merely says your "speed up" not "speed" or "exceed the speed limit". If your only doing 40 in a 50 zone then you can quite legally speed up to 50 and not break the law. I chose the "incorrect" option that was "speed up and catch your flight".

Comments?

Posted: Feb 15, 2018 3:09 AM

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ABDULLAH OBEID HAMED Sr. Civil Engineer| The Contractor General Trading & Contracting Co. W.L.L Kuwait, Kuwait

yes correct answer is " Don't speed as it's against the law". because question not mention how much you will speed up. general information use general answer

Posted: Feb 15, 2018 4:34 AM

Drew Craig Sr. Agile & Product Coach| Vanguard Philadelphia, Pa, United States

This is where the 'art of taking tests' comes in. Take the perception of the exam creator or the exam owner to determine what they are asking and what they are looking to garner from the participant.

Posted: Feb 15, 2018 5:49 AM

Kiron Bondale Retired | Mentor| Retired Welland, Ontario, Canada

Graeme -

I'm assuming this was a practice exam question and not one you are remembering from the actual exam?

I'll fall back on my standard caveat - practice exam questions should always be taken with a grain of salt as they don't go through the statistical analysis which PMI puts their questions through before they move from control to "real" questions.

Kiron

...

1 reply by Rami Kaibni

Feb 15, 2018 10:26 AM

Rami Kaibni

...

Fully agree with Kiron.

Practice questions especially free ones, are not always 100% reliable too.

Posted: Feb 15, 2018 6:41 AM

Sante Delle-Vergini, PhD Senior Project Manager| Infosys Melbourne, Victoria, Australia

True Graeme, the wording of the question is inadequate. However, remember there is only one right answer. We all know not to speed as it's against the law. We don't always know that "to speed up" is catching up to the speed limit, or if it is overtaking the speed limit. If you err on the side of caution, and understand that this is an ethical question, which is part of the exam content outline, then you would select "Don't speed as it's against the law".

Posted: Feb 15, 2018 6:42 AM

Dinah Young Project Manager / Software Asset Manager| Prince William County Springfield, Va, United States

Sometimes we overthink a question which causes us to choose the wrong answer.
In this case as previous stated it was the wrong answer because you do not want to break the law. And if you could have made it to the flight going at or below the speed limit the question would not make sense.

Posted: Feb 15, 2018 9:45 AM

Rami Kaibni

Community Champion

Senior Projects Manager | Field & Marten Associates New Westminster, British Columbia, Canada

Feb 15, 2018 6:41 AM

Replying to Kiron Bondale

...

Fully agree with Kiron.

Practice questions especially free ones, are not always 100% reliable too.

Posted: Feb 15, 2018 10:26 AM

Janice Grier Senior Technical Vendor Manager| ATT Shelby Township, Mi, United States

Ditto Kiron

Posted: Feb 15, 2018 2:40 PM

Anish Abraham Privacy Program Manager| University of Washington Auburn, Wa, United States

I agree with my colleagues, here.

Posted: Feb 15, 2018 3:02 PM

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Exam question wording.

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