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The PMI-ACP Exam Simulator Guide for the Best Review Experience

Practice makes perfect! The PMI Agile Certified Professional (PMI-ACP)® certification is no exception. Our experience shows that students who use a PMI-ACP exam simulator as part of their preparation do better overall and feel more confident going into the test.

It’s easy to see why. An exam simulator will also help you learn the concepts and study faster as well as setting your expectations about what the test experience itself will be like.

What should you look for when doing your PMI-ACP exam prep online? This article is your complete guide to choosing the best PMI-ACP practice exam simulator.

Why Do You Need a PMI-ACP Practice Exam?

You only have to look at the number of adverts for agile practitioners to see that agile is an approach to doing project work that is here to stay. Let’s say you are working in an agile environment and you can answer the question, “What is Agile?” when your colleagues ask. You want to solidify that experience and take an agile certification.

There are 5 reasons that come up time and time again when we talk to students about why they chose to use PMI-ACP exam questions as part of their study prep. They are:

  1. Access to realistic questions
  2. Learn to plan your test time
  3. Reduce study time
  4. Measure your performance
  5. Increase your confidence.

1. Access to realistic questions

The most important benefit of using PMI-ACP sample questions is that you get to see what the exam will actually be like. Realistic questions give you an experience of sitting a real test (without the stress and with the freedom to make as many mistakes as you like!).

Test questions reflect the difficulty, format and style of what you’ll be asked at the test center (or via the online proctoring experience if you choose to sit the test online) so you can get used to the tone and sentence structure.

2. Learn to plan your exam time

The Agile certification exam is three hours long and you have to answer 120 questions in that time. That’s one and a half minutes per question -- and that’s without any time to check your answers!

Your PMI-ACP preparation should include learning how to manage your time so you can complete all the answers AND still have time to go back to those that you marked for review.

3. Reduce study time

Using an exam simulator helps you focus on the areas where you need the most practice. You can work through practice questions on any of the Agile domains covered by the exam. Most people find certain areas of the assessment easier than others. You can reduce your overall study time by structuring your preparation effectively and focusing on the areas where you need more practice.

4. Measure your performance

As you practice in the simulated test environment across all the domains, you’ll be able to measure how you are improving. The best exam simulator will also provide statistics from customers who have reported back their results so that you can predict from your scores how ready you are to sit for the certification.

5. Increase your confidence

Students report that they feel 100% ready to take the test, and that confidence is reflected in their results!

How to Choose the Best ACP Practice Exam

Now you understand the benefits of using a simulator as part of your PMI-ACP certification exam prep, let’s look at how you can choose the best one for you. A simple way of tracking your research into the best tool is to use our free simulator comparison worksheet. Download a copy and use it to note down what you learn about each product you are looking at. Then when you’ve fully reviewed each tool, you’ll be in a good place to make your final decision.

Here are the criteria to look for when making your choice.

  • Buy from a PMI-approved training provider
  • Make sure it includes full practice exams
  • Make sure it covers the whole exam content outline
  • Make sure the questions are written by certified experts
  • Look for an updated product that reflects the current exam content outline
  • Make sure the questions have detailed explanations
  • Look for in-depth statistics
  • Check how easy it is to use
  • Look at the customer reviews
  • Compare the price to your budget.
Let’s dive into each of those criteria in turn to give you some more details about what to look for before you buy.

Buy from a PMI Authorized Training Partner

Only PMI approved vendors are monitored to ensure the products they provide are top quality. Save yourself time and look for a simulator that has been prepared by a training firm that meets the stringent requirements of PMI. You can check because the company’s website will include details of their authorized status but if you are in any doubt, contact the company to ask.

Make sure it includes full practice exams

Look for a tool that will give you the full exam experience -- that’s 120 questions in a single test. This will help you practice under the conditions you can expect on the day and get used to answering such a volume of questions in a specific time period. It will also teach you how to mark questions for review and manage your time.

Make sure it covers the whole exam content outline

There are seven domains in the exam content outline for the PMI-ACP project management certification and you’ll be asked about all of them. That’s why it’s essential that your simulator presents you with a blend of questions -- in the right proportions -- covering every aspect of what you might be asked. Take a quiz on a particular topic or dive into a full three hour test depending on how much time you have and what you want to learn today.

Make sure the questions are written by certified experts

You want the questions to be high quality and representative of what you’ll see on your exam day. It’s really important that you have confidence in the quality of the practice tests.

You can ensure you’re getting a quality experience by checking that the sample tests have been put together by people who have taken (and passed) the certification and know what they are talking about! Look for questions written by a team of agile certified experts as that means what you are asked on the day is likely to feel more familiar.

One of the simplest ways to check out the quality of a product is to sign up for a free PM Exam Simulator trial.

Stas Podoxin, PMI-ACP

I’d recommend that you look for a simulator where most (if not all) of the questions have two references. One should be the Agile Practice Guide and ideally there should be another reference from one of the PMI-provided agile references, which are recommended books. Having the questions supported by is another virtue of a good agile test simulator.

Look for an updated product that reflects the current exam content outline

This seems like a silly thing to say, but the certification exam has changed over time. Make sure you buy a simulator that has been updated to represent the latest Agile certification exam content outline, which you can access from the PMI website.

Make sure the questions have detailed explanations

You can’t improve if you don’t know what you did wrong! Look for a simulator that has detailed explanations for every answer choice to help you understand why a response was incorrect. A provider that offers Live Feedback™, like we do, will be on hand to provide supplementary information to address the correctness of the answer, explanation, or reference.

Jonathan Hebert, PMI-ACP

The best simulator has very life-like situational questions and will give you an indication of your progress and your weak areas. A good simulator will provide per answer choice explanations. That means you get a detailed response about each answer choice -- even the ones that are incorrect. This teaches the student why the best answer is the correct answer and why other answers that could be considered correct aren’t as correct. Look for a simulator that allows quizzes of any of the seven Agile domains and the agile tools and practices used.

Look for in-depth statistics

You want to plan your study time more effectively by focusing on the areas where you need more work. It’s easy to do that if you have in-depth statistics and instant feedback from your test exams. The numbers will show you the domains to revise and give you confidence that your performance is improving.

Check how easy it is to use

One of the main ways our students use our simulator is to take quick quizzes when they find themselves with some spare time. That could be waiting in line or on their commute, so it’s important that it’s easy to use the simulator wherever you have internet access. Your PMI-ACP exam prep has to fit into your lifestyle and around your other commitments.

Look for a tool that has nothing to download and nothing to install. The most flexible option is a simulated test environment that works on every device so you can access it from multiple locations during the day and have all your practice tests sync instantly so you can pick up where you left off.

Look at the customer reviews

Another way to choose the best simulator is to look at the customer reviews. Are there reviews? Are those reviews positive? A solid product will proudly display verified, independently collected reviews, for example, the ones that people submit to Google. Check out the number of satisfied customers and read some recent reviews as that will help you make your choice.

Compare the price to your budget

Let’s face it: cost is important! Our students tell us that price is a consideration when they look to choose a system to support their studies. You will know your own budget and what you can afford. You should expect to pay a reasonable price for a quality product. You can look out for discount coupons and offers to ensure you get all your study materials at the best price.

Yazmine Darcy, PMI-ACP

Sample questions put you in the right mindset for understanding what type of questions to expect. A good simulator will help you to understand the concepts, tools and techniques and how to apply what you learned from books and lessons. It’s a great way to practice on questions where at times you struggle to eliminate the incorrect choices. A simulator helps you learn from your mistakes and improve your weak areas. It helps you gain confidence for exam day.

Your next steps

You’re ready to take your next step in your journey towards agile certification, so a simulator is an important part of your preparation. As we’ve seen, there are plenty of benefits to including a practice exam as a regular part of your study schedule.

Choosing a simulator can be easy. Review your top tools and compare them to each other, then make a decision and select the one that is best for you.

We think our ACP exam simulator ticks all the boxes and is the perfect complement to your other study materials. Why not give it a try?

Training for Project Management Professional (PMP)®, PMI Agile Certified Practitioner (PMI-ACP)®, and Certified Associate in Project Management (CAPM)®

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