Hi, you’re listening to ByteSize Project Management, a podcast about all things project, program, and IT service management. As always, I’m George and I work for Training ByteSize, a family-run training provider with a passion for project management. Our podcasts will bring you top tips such as how to pass your next accredited exam through to unique industry insights and conversations with industry experts.
Enjoy!
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Hi, you’re listening to ByteSize Project Management, a podcast about all things project, program and IT service management. As always, I’m George and I work for Training ByteSize, a family-run training provider with a passion for project management. Our podcasts will bring you top tips such as how to pass your next accredited exam through to unique industry insights and conversations with industry experts.
Enjoy! Now it’s time to discuss the PMQ exam. One thing I must stress is for you to read the full documentation regarding the exam prior to starting the exam.
That goes without saying, but obviously make sure you do. The other thing I will also talk about in a moment is the command words you’ll encounter in the exam. I would also encourage you to really have an understanding of those long before you go into the exam by having a good practice questions.
The exam is for three hours, unless you’ve been allotted extra time by the APM, which again you will need to have organised in advance of the exam with the APM. There are 16 questions and you have to answer 10 of them. You can choose which 10 you answer.
Each question is split into two parts, part A and part B. Part A will always be worth 20 marks, part B will also be worth 30 marks, which is a total of 50 marks for each question. 10 questions you need to answer, that’s 500 marks across the whole paper.
Each question targets one learning outcome and each part of question, so part A and part B, will target different assessment criteria based on that learning outcome. The past mark is 55%, or 275 marks out of 500 and is a total result across the paper. One thing I must stress regarding the 10 questions is that you must answer only 10.
Do not answer more than 10. If you answer less than 10, that goes without saying you’ll be diminishing your chances of passing, but do not under any circumstances answer more than 10. Any questions above that will be discounted by the APM.
Each question I recommend spending around 15 minutes on. If you do that, that allows you 15 minutes at the start to read through the questions, decide which 10 questions you’re going to answer, as well as perhaps note down any diagrams, any acronyms, any things that pop into your mind at the start of the exam, dump them onto a scrap piece of paper. That can really be quite helpful two and a half hours into the exam when your brain is perhaps turning to mush.
If you do that as well, 15 minutes per question also allows you 15 minutes at the end of the exam to perhaps review, recap, go back to questions you want to tidy up, things like that. Also connect as a buffer in case you do go over 15 minutes for any of those questions. The exam is based on a positive marking scheme and it is a knowledge based exam.
What I mean by those, by positive marking, effectively it means the examiner will not deduct marks for any points that you make that perhaps aren’t relevant, shall we say. Knowledge based exam means it’s asking you for knowledge rather than to parrot definitions and things like that. What that means is you can use your own terminology and your own language from your organisations, for example, if you’re more familiar with it, provided it marries up with what the APM is asking and you clarify for the examiner what you mean.
Let’s look at the command words you’ll encounter. There are four that will be worth ten marks each and there are two that will be worth five marks each. So we have differentiate, describe, explain and interpret.
Each of those will be worth ten marks for every answer. Outline and state will be worth five marks for every answer. Let’s start with differentiate.
Differentiate is asking you to explain the differences between something. So for example, explain the differences between projects and business as usual. Usually it would be something like explain three differences between something like projects and business as usual.
So that’s asking you to go into detail about what is distinctive about those two things. It wouldn’t be enough to say projects are unique, business as usual is routine, that wouldn’t be enough for you to elaborate on why they’re different, what distinguishes them. Detail.
The next command word I would like to discuss is describe. Describe is characteristics of something. What makes something what it is?
Describe three components of a project or a typical project management plan would be an example. So this is asking you to elaborate on the characteristics of these things. So in my mind, what is it?
The best way to kind of elaborate perhaps on what something is is the backbone of your question, what is it? But then to use something called Kipling’s questions, you may have encountered them. So who, what, when, where, why, how, etc.
So for example, what is it should be the foundation of your answer and a describe question. But then maybe to add in who uses it, when is it used, where is it used, how is it used, things like that. Then then is asking typically why, maybe how it will answer the detail on the question if it does ask how, but typically why.
So why are we using something? So explain three benefits of having a robust risk management process in a project. For example, this is asking for why is the backbone of your answer.
Again you can use Kipling’s questions here to answer this question. So why is the foundation of your answer, then how is it used, where is it used, when is it used, who uses it perhaps as well. Something I would suggest with those questions that are worth 10 marks each is to kind of think of when you make a valid point is to then back up that point with evidence saying why it’s a valid point.
What about that point makes it worth mentioning? It won’t be enough to simply say it’s an advantage of having a risk management process because it makes things clear to communicate. Okay, how does it do that?
For example, interpret questions then will be based on data. They’re asking you to interpret some data, typically earned value management, don’t worry too much about that right now. Typically some data which you then have to extract an understanding of and then perhaps elaborate on how you would manage that situation.
Tell about what actions you would take based on the interpretation you’ve made of that data. Again that would be worth 10 marks so it’s requiring detail, elaboration on how you would deal with it, why you deal with it that way and think like that. So the two questions that are worth 5 marks each outline and state.
Let’s start with outline. Outline is to set out the main points and characteristics of something without elaboration. So to me in my simple mind it’s like a described question without the detail.
For example, outline a typical risk management process. So it’s asking you to say what those steps are but perhaps not asking you to elaborate on why they’re the steps, how they work and all this kind of stuff. Next we have state questions.
These are asking you to express the details without elaboration. For example, state four sources of conflict in a project. It wouldn’t still be enough to say the project manager falls out with the sponsor.
You still need a bit more detail than that but you wouldn’t need as much detail as perhaps you put in an explained question. Just elaborate a little bit. It’s only worth 5 marks remember.
Something that can be quite useful in an explained or described answer may be an example. So an example from your career perhaps, an example from your personal life, make one up if it’s relevant. An example can be useful to illustrate what you mean in something but I would be very careful with examples.
They can be useful but keep them simple. You don’t want to spend ages describing an example instead of answering the question. So only use them if you feel they add value.
Don’t use them if they don’t. Now we’ve gone through those command words. I must reiterate how important it is to go through those practice questions.
Have a go. Again, don’t worry too much if they’re taking you longer than 15 minutes initially. It’s not a problem.
What you want to try and do is work down to 15 minutes. Something I find going to be quite helpful is to time yourself. And then to work your way down to 15 minutes.
But really do spend some time going through those practice questions. So that’s it for this episode of ByteSize Project Management. We hope you’ll tune in again soon for another edition.
Until then you can find out more about the certifications and training packages we offer on our website, TrainingBiteSize.com. Thanks very much for listening and we’ll see you again soon.
