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13 PM Exam Simulator Features You Didn’t Know About

Studying with a PMP exam simulator is a good way to test your knowledge and feel confident that you can approach your Project Management Professional (PMP)(R) exam with a good chance of success.

The PM Exam Simulator is a lot more than just a simple Q&A machine. It’s a rich, powerful tool that will help you build an exam strategy as well as testing your domain knowledge. The exam simulator features include being able to track your progress, gauge your performance, assess your results against other candidates and give you helpful feedback about what topics you need to revise in order to see ‘Above Target’ in your exam scores on the PMI CCRS system. And more!

How does it do all this? Well, as we said, the PM Exam Simulator is far more than a list of PMP exam questions and answers! In this article, we’ll show you the behind-the-scenes working of the software and all the hidden features that are specifically designed to help you ace the examination. Here’s how to maximize your use of this amazing learning tool.

3 Major PM Exam Simulator Features

Let’s refresh the basics first. These are features that commonly get asked about, so it’s worth a quick recap.

1. How many questions does the PMP Exam Simulator have?

The PM Exam Simulator has 720 questions in four full-length exams as well as 1,350 questions in a separate quiz pool, for a total of 2,070 questions. That’s a huge amount of questions to work through so you can test yourself on all the knowledge areas and domains. By contrast, our popular PMP questions book only has 50 (although they are the hardest questions and the ones that students get wrong time and time again!).

How to use this feature: There are lots of ways to use the questions within a PMP practice exam simulator, from simple quizzes to taking full, timed examinations.

2. Explanations and answers

The simulator has in-depth explanations for each answer, including the answers that are incorrect. These detailed explanations help you see why an answer choice was not the right selection, and they guide you towards understanding why the correct answer was correct.

Each explanation also includes a reference to one or more places where you can read more about this topic if you want to take your learning further or get an even more detailed understanding of the concepts behind the question.

How to use this feature: Take note of the explanations and references provided for each question, especially the questions you did not get correct.

3. Email course

When you sign up for the PMP exam simulator, you will also automatically get a mini training course delivered by email straight into your inbox. This course helps you put your new study materials into practice. Start your studies off in the best possible way by gaining the best study tips and proven examination practice techniques from successful students.

The email course is an extra bonus for students using the PM Exam Simulator.

How to use this feature: Simply wait for each installment to arrive in your inbox and then follow the instructions in the email to streamline your study plan.

13 Hidden Features of the Exam Simulator

Now let’s look at the less commonly-known features of the PMP practice exam simulator. There are 13 features to highlight:

  1. Build a study strategy
  2. Tutorials
  3. Quizzes
  4. Hints
  5. Show answers
  6. Mark for review
  7. Grid and grid filter
  8. Strikeout
  9. Recent results
  10. Time on questions
  11. Results by Knowledge Area
  12. Filter results
  13. Compare your results to other students’

Where shall we start with so many brilliant features to review? Let’s start at the beginning of your PMP exam prep, with your study strategy.

1. Build a study strategy

Yes, you can build a complete study strategy with the PM Exam Simulator! Here’s how.

Start with quizzes. Build up your test taking practice by taking short timed and learning quizzes - more on those in a minute.

When you have reviewed a decent portion of your study materials, add full exams to your study strategy. As a guide, take your full practice test after you’ve studied the first four or five major topics.

Finally, review your statistics within the PM Exam Simulator so you can track your progress. Next, look for where you didn’t do so well, where you answered incorrectly. It’s also worth reviewing the questions where you know you just guessed at the answer so you can confirm the theory and concepts behind your lucky guess! From here, you can continue to take quizzes to deepen your understanding of each topic, especially those where your results were not as good as you were expecting.

Tip: Take the same amount of time reviewing your results as you do taking the quiz questions.

How to use this feature: Build the PM Exam Simulator into your study plan and allocate time to using it during your revision.

“This tool helped me a lot for my final preparation and I regretted that I purchased it at the end of my preparation after I passed all materials because I realized that it could have helped me a lot while I was still in the learning process with all its learning options.”
~ Neda Klenska, PMP

2. Tutorials

Wondering where to start with the PM Exam Simulator? The tutorials are a complete guide to how to use the tool and will help you make the most out of the product.

How to use this feature: If there’s something you are stuck on, try the tutorials to help you.

3. Quizzes

The PM Exam Simulator allows you to study in a range of ways to help support you at all stages of your learning. Quizzes are a powerful way to test your knowledge.

There are two different types: timed and learning. As you’d expect from the name, timed quizzes run for a set amount of time and you answer questions within that window while the clock runs down. Learning quizzes do not have a time limit and you work through the questions at your own pace.

For both types, you can set the number of questions you wish to answer, so you can control how long you’ll be doing the test for. Then choose the topics to be covered in the quiz from the Knowledge Areas or domains. For example, you can choose only to answer questions from Project Integration, or the People domain, which is especially helpful if you have recently been studying those topics.

Finally, you can filter questions to include only questions you have not seen before, questions you answered incorrectly in the past or all questions. Those selections will help vary your learning and make sure you are answering all the questions in the pool.

How to use this feature: When you are ready, click to start a quiz and make your selections!

4. Hints

Did you know that hints are one of the exam simulator features? When you’re working through questions and come to one that you feel like you should know but just need a tiny prod in the right direction, the hint feature is there for you.

Hints are question-specific and only available in learning quizzes. Obviously hints are available on your real PMP test and the full examinations in the simulator reflect that by not offering the hint button. However, during your practice tests and learning time, make the most of hints!

How to use this feature: Simply click the ‘Show hint’ button during a learning quiz and you’ll get a sentence or two displayed on the screen that will help you work out what the answer might be.

5. Show answers

In a learning quiz there is no pressure, you can even show the answer! This is a good feature for a low-stress way of learning in a fun, question-driven setting. You can check your progress instantly as you go by showing the answer to each question as you work through the quiz. This is great if you are short of time and want to review your work as you go, and you don’t have time for a full practice exam.

How to use this feature: Simply click the ‘Show answer’ button during a learning quiz to see the answer explanation.

6. Mark for review

The best PMP exam simulator will make you feel like you’re really in the test environment, and the ‘mark for review’ feature is one of the ways we achieve that.

Let’s say you are working through a timed quiz or a full examination and you come across a question that you are not certain about. You guess at the answer and think that if you have time later, you’ll come back to it and check your work. But how will you know which one it is? With so many questions passing across the screen in such a short time, the likelihood of you remembering the question number is slim! That’s where the ‘mark for review’ feature comes in.

If you reach a question you want to review again later, assuming you have time left at the end of the test, mark it for review. Then you can come back to it later to check your answer.

How to use this feature: Click the ‘Mark’ button to highlight a question and mark it for review. Then you can come back to it later using the Grid and Grid filtering options, which we’ll discuss next.

7. Grid and grid filter

Here’s the next one of our key features: The Grid. This is a way to visualize all the questions in your current quiz or exam and what status they are at. Hit the ‘Show Grid’ button and it will show you a list of all the questions (you won’t see the question text, just the question number and status). From here, you can see the questions that have been answered and also those that have been marked for review. Consider this your quick navigation solution to jump around your digital test paper to make sure you don’t throw away easy points by missing out questions.

The Grid filter gives you options to show the answered, unanswered or marked questions. Click the question number to directly go quickly to that question. For example, click to show the questions you marked for review and navigate to those. Then the ‘Next’ and ‘Previous’ buttons will navigate you through the filtered subset of questions so you can review your answers without wasting any time trying to find the right question.

How to use this feature: Click the ‘Show Grid’ button to bring up the Grid and use the filtering options at the bottom right of the screen to navigate through the relevant selections.

“In the beginning, I have to say that CRUCIAL IS TO PRACTICE WITH PM EXAM SIMULATOR. I did 4 full exam tests with a detailed review of incorrect answers and careful reading of all explanations. I work in an agile environment, so I was glad to see plenty of agile questions. Just practice with [the] PM Exam Simulator, understand the way of testing. and the success should come. Many thanks to the whole PM PrepCast team to build such a great tool!”
~ Peter Sopko, PMP

8. Strikeout

What if you know that one answer is definitely incorrect, but you aren’t sure about the others? The strikeout feature is perfect for that! It lets you strike through an answer on the screen so you have a visual reminder of the answers you don’t believe are correct. That can help declutter the screen so you can focus on the responses that are more likely to be right.

How to use this feature: Right click on an answer choice and that will strike out the text on the screen by adding a line through the answer

9. Recent results

Your 5 most recent results from tests and quizzes are shown on your student dashboard. This is a quick reminder of your current progress and is a motivating factor when you log in! Will you beat your score this time?

How to use this feature: This is an easy way to quickly get back to your results if you close the window by mistake or want to quickly navigate to your most recent tests to review your performance statistics.

10. Time on questions

Wondering how much time you are spending answering questions? The time spent on each question is shown in your exam report. You can see exactly how much time it took to respond to each question. Ideally, you should be averaging around 6-7 seconds per question: any longer than that and you risk not being able to complete all the questions in the allocated time on your test day.

How to use this feature: Navigate to your latest results and scroll down through the questions. You’ll see the time spent on each question on the right hand side. Look for topics where you spent far too much time, as that can be an indication that you were uncertain of the answer and need to revise this topic again.

11. Results by Knowledge Area

Do you think you are particularly good at one knowledge area, and are ready to move on to study other topics? The ‘Results by Knowledge Area’ report can show you whether your assessment is correct. When time is at a premium, it’s important to use it wisely and focus your learning on the areas where you can make the most difference. This is one of the key features students come back to time and time again.

How to use this feature: Check out the report within the statistics section and review which Knowledge Areas are your strongest. Perhaps you don’t need to spend too much more time on those? Instead, focus on the areas where the results show you are under your target score and should be revising those concepts.

12. Filter results

If you want even more detailed analysis of your performance to date, you can use the advanced filtering options per quiz to dig into your answers. For example:

  • Only show those questions you answered correctly
  • Only show those questions you answered incorrectly
  • Only show those questions where you used strikethrough
  • Only show questions from one domain
  • Only show questions from one Knowledge Area.

You can do it all, or combine filters to get detailed analysis and easy-to-navigate results. For example, you can display all questions from the Process Domain and the Project Scope Management Knowledge Area, and show only those you got wrong. Then navigate to the questions and click through to read the explanations so you fully understand why you choose an incorrect answer.

How to use this feature: This hidden feature is perfect for reviewing your answers in a time-efficient manner.

13. Compare your results to other students’

You’ve got your results but how do you use them to answer the question: “Am I ready for the PMP exam?” People always want to know what score they should be achieving before they set their test date, and the performance statistics section is a hidden feature that gives you a guide for what scores lead to test success.

Navigate to the Exam Feedback tab in the Statistics section. This section allows you to see the average results from past students. This is aggregated, real data from students who have passed their PMP exam. We ask them to come back and share their pass or fail status with us after they have taken the test, and then use those results in an aggregated way to establish what a ‘good’ pass mark looks like.

This feature shows you what the likelihood of passing is, given your first attempt answers in the PM Exam Simulator. For example, if you are scoring 80-90% correct on your first attempt, then you can see the likelihood of you passing the real exam on your first, second or third attempt.

While PMI does not publish the official pass mark, we can use many thousands of student reports to build a profile of what success looks like based on past results and your current performance.

How to use this feature: Check your current statistics to find your average of questions answered correctly on the first attempt. Navigate to the Exam Feedback section and read along the chart to see what results other students got when they scored the same as you.

Get the simulator!

Many students report that selecting your PMP simulator is a key decision point in their studies, and we hope you’ll agree that the hidden features in the PM Exam Simulator really do enhance and support your learning.

For more information and to see inside the tool itself, watch the video below.

“The PrepCast Simulator was a HUGE help. It was the only practice test I went through and I feel that it is sufficient to crack the actual PMP exam.

I completed all 4 tests twice - I scored between 70-75% in all the tests in the first try and above 90% in the second try.”
~ Nishant Sahay, PMP

Why not try it yourself to see how you could improve your chances of exam success? There is a free 7-day trial so you can test out all the features!

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

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The PM Exam Simulator is a mark of OSP International LLC. PMI, PMBOK, PMP, PgMP, PfMP, CAPM, PMI-SP, PMI-RMP, PMI-ACP, and PMI-PBA are registered marks of the Project Management Institute, Inc.