How Many Questions Are There in PMP Exam [Authentic Information]

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Project Management Process or PMP is the most popular and competitive certification exam nowadays. Candidates try their level best to pass the exam and stand out.

In order to take good preparation for the PMP exam, you must need to have a clear understanding of the question pattern of the exam. In the next section of this article, you will learn about the numbers, types, and formats of the PMP exam questions.

How Many Questions in PMP Exam?

In the PMP certification exam, a candidate has to attempt 200 multiple-choice questions. All these 200 questions get distributed among 5 process groups of a project management domain or chart.

These five groups include-

• initiating,
• planning,
• executing,
• monitoring and controlling,
• closing.

Candidates get four hours to answer these questions and complete the exam.

Although there are 200 questions in the PMP exam, the passing score is decided based on a candidate’s performance on only 175 questions.

Question Format and Types

It has previously been mentioned that in the PMP exam, questions are basically multiple-choice question types. That means there are four different options for each question, from which a candidate has to choose the right answer or option.

Questions in the PMP exam are of different types and formats. The most common question formats involve-

• Formula Based Questions
• Knowledge-Based Questions
• Technique Based Questions
• Situational Questions
• Interpretational Questions

Let’s learn details about these types of PMP questions to get a solid understanding of the PMP exam questions.

Formula Based PMP Questions

Formula based PMP questions are basically types of questions that demand specific formulas to solve problems and calculate the exact value. But these questions do not just deal with the value calculation. Instead, calculate the exact value. You have to memorize at least 49 PMP formulas.

During your preparation period, you need to capture all those formulas. Otherwise, you would not calculate the exact value. However, these questions need critical thinking and analytical power to be solved. You have to choose the correct answer similar or the same to your calculated value.

Knowledge-Based PMP Questions

Knowledge-based questions can be answered correctly only when you have proper knowledge and preparation on the PMBOK Guide book. This book is the core source for PMP preparation.

It contains all necessary details about the project management process, knowledge areas, process groups, charts, ITTOs(inputs, tools, techniques, and outputs), etc.

Knowledge-based questions are based on the knowledge of the process of project management in the PMBOK book. So, you must take the good preparation for this PMP guide book.

Technique Based PMP Questions

In the PMBOK Guide book, the technique is defined as “a defined systematic procedure employed by a human resource to perform an activity to produce a product or result or deliver a service, and that may employ one or more tools.” Technique-based PMP questions test your ability to use the right technique in solving a problem.

Also, you have to catch the specific technique that is applied in the mentioned question. In this regard, you have to learn and understand all the possible techniques available in the PMBOK book.

Situational PMP Questions

Situational PMP questions are set up to test your potentiality on how you can relate and interconnect your theoretical knowledge in your practical field. You need to be very strategic and decisive in answering these questions.

In your real-life work field, you might get lots of information, some of which are irrelevant. You have to decide and identify what is relevant and vital for you and what is not. Then you must work on the important issues ignoring the irrelevant information.

Again, situational PMP questions ask you to solve the situations described in the question. You need to be very careful about each and every word of these questions because only one word can change the whole meaning of the question, such as using not, except, etc.

Interpretational PMP Questions

Lastly comes interpretational PMP questions. These questions demand your capability to identify and decide a situation from a particular problem.

For example, in a PMP question, you might get several metrics or graphs from which you have to identify how and what different interpretations have been applied, such as positive, negative or neutral, etc.

You have to learn about the good or bad sides or outcomes of each question while preparing from the PMBOK book.

PMP Exam Simulators and Preparation Websites

Apart from reading the PMBOK book, in order to prepare yourself for the PMP exam, the PMP exam simulator is a very useful medium. In PMP exam simulators, you will get lots of sample PMP questions by practicing, which you can take a very good preparation for your PMP certification exam. There are several PMP exam simulators available online.

Not only exam simulators, but you can also get help from different preparation websites specially designed for PMP exam preparation. Such websites include-

• Prepare PM
• Oliver Lehman
• Exam Central
• Tutorialspoint
• PM Hub etc.

Conclusion

So, we sum up here with a satisfactory discussion on how many questions in the PMP exam and their types. You have also got an idea of how to deal with different types of PMP questions.

Finally, you have suggestions about helpful PMP exam simulators and preparation websites. Hopefully, all this information would help you to prepare yourself for the PMP exam properly.