I took and passed the PMI exam yesterday in Vermont at the Sylvan Technology Center. You have shared some past experiences regarding taking the test and I wanted to share my experience with you. I am already certified as an IBM Project Manager. Now that I have completed the PMI exam, I will send in the necessary information to PMI to see if I can get my PMP certification.

1. October, 1998 - Signed up for the ESI PMI ONLINE EXAM PREP class offered to us by IBM through the IBM GLOBAL CAMPUS.
Ÿ This is a 6 week online course that covers the same information that is in the 2 day PMI Exam Prep course.
Ÿ It included all the material that you would get in the 2 day class: study guides, practice exams, PMBOK, etc.
Ÿ I found the 6 weeks to be a real benefit because I could study whenever I had time and I felt I was able to absorb more. I had access to an online instructor who answered all of my questions as they came up, I had access to online daily Study Group sessions. These were led by the instructor and covered various PMBOK topics on any given day.
Ÿ This course had 8 online tests for each section of PMBOK which I could take as many times as I wanted. The score was returned to the screen immediately after pressing the button to complete each exam. I actually found these ESI tests to be more difficult than the actual PMI exam. This was very, very helpful to me for studying.
Ÿ The course requirements included assignments that needed to be turned in to the instructor, which he corrected and returned via e-mail
2. December 1, 1998 - Take the PMI Exam (need to answer 140 correctly out of 200 questions to PASS - they say 60% of test takers pass the exam on the first try) [an IBM informal survey shows that 90% of IBMers pass the first time]
Ÿ You are allowed 4.5 hours for the exam. In the U.S., you call any Sylvan Technology Center to schedule a day that is convenient for you to take the exam. This is only after you send in the proper forms to PMI to get qualified to take the exam and pay the exam fee. PMI sends you a letter saying you are qualified and they give you an ID# with a letter which you must show the people at STC when you show up to take the exam.
Ÿ There are 4 multiple choice answers, only one correct answer....there are NO "all of the above" or "none of the above" answers. 4 of the questions on my exam said "This problem is for the next 3 or 4 questions" and it asked different questions about the problem presented.
Ÿ I was shown to a nice quiet little cubicle with a desktop PC, 4 pieces of scrap paper, 2 pencils and earplugs (in case I wanted to shut out noise). I was told that the test session was being video-taped and recorded. I had to lock my purse and other belongings in a locker. I was allowed to bring in my very simple, non-programmable calculator. Note: The scrap paper must be turned in at the end of the exam with your scratch notes.
Ÿ The test program had a tutorial, which was brief and clear. It explained how during the test, you can "mark" any questions that you want to specifically review after you get to the end of the test. The actual program for the test was set up in a nice simple format and it was easy to navigate.
Ÿ I was told to get up an leave the test area for a break when I felt it was necessary. I was told to leave the test program running without doing anything (i.e. no putting on hold or pausing). Actually during the 4 hours, I did not take any breaks, I did not eat or drink anything, I was not cold, not hungry and only concentrated on the exam.
Ÿ When you are complete with the exam (after doing any review that you want to do), you press "End the Exam" and within a minute, the screen flashes (in my case) PASS, and it indicates the score. Less than a minute, but oh...what a long minute !!! After the screen indicated that I had passed the exam, I left the exam room, and the people administering the exam were waiting for me with an official stamped document indicating I had passed the exam.

Now...About the exam:

Ÿ I was fully expecting to have to answer a lot of Earned Value Questions that would require the use of my calculator. This may have been the case on other exams (I heard that there is a test bed of over 1300 questions, so everyone's exam is definitely not the same. I am told that anyone taking the exam on any given DAY will be taking the same exam). Anyway, There were about 5 questions on Earned Value, but they were relatively easy considering the types of questions that could have been asked. Most wanted to know "what is the Cost Variance", "what is the Schedule Variance", "what is the CPI" in the above example. These earned value questions were straight-forward and easy to answer. No trick questions here.
Ÿ I had NO questions on PRESENT VALUE, NET PRESENT VALUE or Benefit Cost Ratios. This was surprising, especially since I was really ready for these types of questions.
Ÿ I expected questions asking me to show I knew who (Crosby, Herzog, Maslow, etc.) owned different "Quality" theories and principles (ex: Quality is Free, Zero Defects, Cease mass inspection, etc.) My test had none of these types of questions. No questions on Theory X or Theory Y behaviors.
Ÿ I was not asked to do any PERT estimates, although I had to know what this is and what it is not, the same with standard deviations ....I had to understand what this is and what it is not, but I did not have to calculate either one.
Ÿ What was on the test????
w Lots of questions that explained a "situation" (usually a messy project situation). After they explained the situation, the question was, "What should the Project Manager do next". There were probably 25 of those questions. Unfortunately, in some cases there were at least two answers that were pretty similar and you could only pick one. In some cases, the "real world" may have warranted one response, but they were looking for the PMI response. This made these types of questions difficult.
w There were many questions on the different types of Network Diagrams...what are they, what are they used for, how are they different from others, what do they look like, what don't they have, etc. (PDM's, AON's, AOA, CPM's, GERT's, PERT's). At least 15 of these types of questions.
w RESOURCE questions...There were a lot of these !! Resource Leveling, Resource Loading, Resource constrained scheduling, Resource Leveling Heuristics, Activity Duration Estimating...with resource considerations, Resource Limited Scheduling, Responsibility Assignment Matrix, etc..... I'll admit, if I had known, I would have studied up a little more on what these are and what the differences are, and when to use what for what purpose.
w Stakeholders...who are they, who do they include, who communicates with them, who to favor conflicts toward, etc.
w Management Styles....autocratic, Bureaucratic democratic.......they described a situation and the managers reaction to the situation, and the question wanted to know which style of management the PM was demonstrating.
w Conflict Management.....What's the best way to handle "THIS CONFLICT SITUATION"........avoiding, withdrawing, problem-solving (confrontation), compromise, forcing, etc. There were at least 5 of these questions.
w Communications.....at least 20 questions centering around team building. team building activities, communication blockers, kickoff meeting, collocation, problems with matrix management, weak matrix, strong matrix, balanced matrix, projectized project team, functional project team, etc........ in all of these organizational project team structures, they described a project team and wanted us to tell them which type of team this represented. What are the problems encountered in these types of teams, which kind of power does the PM have in these teams.
w There were lots of questions in the Contract Management (Procurement) area (maybe 10 questions).... RFP, RFI, Bidders Conference, Make or Buy analysis, statement of work, procurement planning, direct/indirect costs (one of these questions listed 4 team related expenses and asked which one is not a direct cost).......The exam wanted to know what these things are, what they are not, when they are used, etc..........How does the contract clause change control system relate to the overall change control system, what is done during contract close-out, what is the difference between contract close-out and administrative close-out?
w There were some questions on the inputs and outputs of the processes, but not as many as I thought there would be. In some questions, the answer was quite clear because only one answer made real sense ...the other three just did not fit.
w RISK management.....What are the three categories of risk response?....expected durations for path convergence, expected monetary value, decision trees, what are the major processes in risk management?.....There were over 10 questions centering around RISK and how to identify risk, how to respond....(ie: what to do in this situation), the tools used for risk quantification, and how to control risk.
Ÿ Well, that is what was or was not on the exam......Of course, there was more there, than I am saying here. There were 5 questions that I simply did not know the answer to at all, but of course, I did pick one answer. It took me 2.5 hours to go through the exam on my first pass. Then I went back to review the 53 questions I had marked for review....then with my remaining hour, I went through all the questions again....not to change my answers necessarily, but to make sure I read the questions right....I found two questions where I had miss-read and did not see that little word "EXCEPT" ...that changes the context completely. I corrected these two answers....and I pressed the DONE button !!
Ÿ I have heard some people say that they did very little studying, I have heard someone say "only study enough to pass"........I have always needed to study a lot in order to pass a major test. In this case, I was still studying when I walked in the door to take the test. I studied the night before, and I believe even in my dreams the night before. I'm a studier, and it worked for me. READ THE PMBOK (as boring as it may be) ... KNOW WHAT PMI "believes", don't rely on "real-world" answers...or "well this is what I did in this situation".....this is a PMI exam....find a way to take practice exams. In my case, I did not have to write down any of the formulas when I got into the exam room....I knew the formulas inside-out...they belonged to me when I went in for the exam. This only came from studying... Of course, in this case, the formulas were not that helpful because there were not a lot of mathematical type questions. The good news is, I learned a lot during this preparation process, it was not a process just to pass the exam.

Pearlene Derello
IBM Project Manager - Owens & Minor
804-967-2861 (Office)
800-426-1477 (Pager) Pin 1112220
Pearlene@us.ibm.com