Dear Friends,

There seems to be quite a number of people failing in last few days despite good mock test scores. Vishal Harshvardhan for example, I'm surprised. I saw his name at the Prometric centre, we appeared for the test at the same time.

To the point...few experienced colleagues (12-17 years bracket) too have failed. Mock test scores does not seems to have any direct relevance.

The PMI handbook clearly mentions that they use Modified Agnoff Method to score exams and use psychometric analysis to determine difficulty for each candidate.

PMP Handbook says:

"The passing score for all PMI credential examinations is determined by sound psychometric analysis. PMI uses subject matter experts from across the globe to help establish a point at which each candidate should pass the examination(s) and the examination point of difficulty. Data that shows how candidates actually performed is cross referenced with the subject matter experts to ensure that the point of difficulty on each examination is healthy"

First conclusion: The exam assigns different weightage to questions based on their difficulty levels. More "corrects" on easier questions does not help much, while "wrongs" on many difficult questions will spell a doom.

Mock exams does not account for this and try to provide a blended score. No wonder mock exam providers prescribe a score for 85% plus.

Second conclusion: Does PMI takes the candidates profile into account to assign a "easy" vs "difficult" question set? Newbie non-PM pass with fake experience of minimum 3 years,  whereas people with long PM experiences and management background (IIM alumni like Vishal) fail? There is no direct evidence, its just my observation of failed cases vis-avis what PMI has publicly stated.

Combining the two, my conviction is that if one is an experienced candidate and has a sound management background then they need to score extremely high in mock tests and should expect a relatively diificult level of questions thrown at them during the exam.

One drawback from PMI method seems to be the fact that the lower permits allows unworthy people to get in while on the upper band experienced people are barred.

We should explore these area in hope that candidates are able to establish their level of preparedness on realistic basis. Mock score tests seems to be misleading to me (although I enjoyed high scores).

(PS: I also post under the handle, "sr.ind.comm" as I lost the password for this account and was not sure which email ID I used...anyway got them back)

Regards

- Subrato