16 Aug Tips #21:: Managing Your Time During The PMP® Exam
The PMP® exam, released in Jan 2021 has changed a lot. The exam now consists of 180 questions instead of 200.
Overview
Planning and managing your time in the pmp® exam is very important for passing the examination comfortably. If time management is not planned and practiced, you may end up getting stressed and miss a few questions under stress, which could be critical.
The total time allowed for answering the questions in the entire examination is 230 minutes, which is excluding the breaks. You can take 2 breaks of 10 minutes each. The first break is at 60 questions and the next break is at 120 questions. The breaks do not count towards your examination time. You can decide whether or not you need the breaks, but it is wiser to take them
You can say that the PMP® Examination is divided into 3 sections of 60 questions each
You can take any amount of time from the 230 minutes allotted for your examination to solve the questions in each of the sections. For example, if you take 100 minutes for your first 60 questions, then the remaining 120 questions will have to be solved in 130 minutes. If you take total 200 minutes to solve first 120 questions from the first 2 sections, then you will get only 30 minutes for the remaining 60 questions in the last section
A point to note: The questions in a given section will be submitted at the end of the section. You will not be able to revisit them. That is, in section one, once you submit your 60’th question, you will not see those 60 questions again. You cannot review them again after submission.
Section 1 : Questions 1 to 60
A good plan would be to complete the first 60 questions in 70 to 75 minutes. It gives you more than one minute to answer a question. A timer is shown on your exam screen. Do not keep on tracking the clock continuously. It is a good idea to check and compare your speed every 10 to 15 questions.
If you are going around one minute per question, you are going very well. In case you find that your speed is slower than 2 minutes a question, DO NOT WORRY. It happens. Especially, for the first few questions it is normal.
Such situations is why you need to plan your exam time. You need to plan and track how much time you should spend on the questions against how much time you have spent on them.
Get in charge of the situation and do not spend too much time on questions after you have realized that you are going slightly slower. If you find a particular question difficult or time consuming, don’t spend time on getting it right. Just select an option that you feel is correct, mark the question for review and move on! This will ensure that you will not miss the easy questions just because you did not manage your time well. Stop worrying, you WILL get enough time to finish the questions that you know and work on the questions that you marked for review.
Just before you submit the 60’th questions, you should have completed about 70 minutes or a little more. Spend about 5 to 10 minutes reviewing the questions marked for review and then submit the questions. Remember, once you submit, they are finalized. You do not get a chance to review them again.
Do use the break for calming down your nerves. Take 1 deep breath in and exhale slowly. Do it 2 to 3 times to calm down.
Section 2: Questions 61 to 120
Plan these questions in further 70 to 75 minutes in the same way as you planned the first section. Keep in mind that these questions too, you will not be able to revisit once submitted.
Section 3: Questions 121 to 180
This third and the last section also should be planned in the way you planned the first two sections.
Plan section 2 and 3 in exactly the same way, including the breaks
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