Concerns About PjM Practice ARE Questions
SPOILERS FOR PjM PRACTICE EXAM; DO NOT READ BEFORE TAKING
My experience with the PcM practice exam was relatively positive; it taught me several things I didn't know and was fairly straightforward. Most importantly, the questions asked me what they wanted to know and the answers (and why I got them wrong) were relatively straightforward.
The PjM exam is far less clear than that, and I think it all comes down to wording. Things like the question whereby an entire project team continues in its current roles, and the answer is to shift the CM from constructor to adviser (which is pretty definitively not the same role, I would think).
More importantly, in a question from the ice cream store case study, we are told, "The cupola is 40% taller than zoning allows," then expected to answer the question as if we were told that the cupola was 40% taller than the allowable building height, which zoning does allow. We cannot reasonably be expected to give the answer as if the cupola is within what zoning allows when the question itself says it is taller than zoning allows.
This isn't even touching the question where I had to locate internal and code compliance reviews and was graded incorrectly when, according to the answers, I answered it correctly.
My real PjM exam is tomorrow, and I'm hoping this isn't an issue I'll have to deal with. Are the questions on the current PjM ARE more clear than this? I am very worried that I will be in a position where I am answering questions rationally, being graded incorrectly, and have no means by which to appeal my reasoning.
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I think I did well; we'll see when the official results return. I'm not entirely sure how to process the provisional "likely pass" result, whether to treat it as a relatively sure thing and they're just making sure I didn't cheat or whether my pass/fail status still hangs in the balance somehow.
The actual ARE was much more straightforward and specific than the practice ARE was. I can think of only one moment where I might have worded a question differently, but I think I know what they were trying to ask. -
Eric,
I failed the PM practice test three times in a row, printed the practice test, memorized every question and got a provisional pass on my exam - still pending as well. There were a lot of questions in the practice that were ambiguous. How about the effort allocation question with the table of staff available hours that has no labels as such. We can't tell if it is describing current workload, or available workload.
In the actual exam I got a question with about 9 boxes labeled all in yellow and had to put about 7 items in the correct order. I felt the question was very confusing and unfair, given NCARB's all or nothing approach to partial credit! This is also a problem for the internal review milestone question you mentioned. Too many options of placement to be graded too harshly on.
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