There are multiple gurus who will advise you on one common thing – do more practice tests. I heard this all the time.

Not gonna lie this is quite important but there are several other factors that will determine your speed.

Let’s jump into the mathematics of time and how we can save much time in the exam.

There are 400 questions to be solved and 4 Hours (240 minutes) to solve them. Arithmetically for every question you have approx. 72 seconds. For a safe side let’s consider you have 1 minute for every question. 

When you sit for mock tests, the situation is different as you are much relaxed and you know there are no consequences if you fail. But it’s opposite in the PMP exam centre. You know every single question makes a difference. And it does!

The most efficient way to save time & clear exams in less time is simply – not getting attached to questions.

Here are few scenarios that you will encounter in examination:

ROUND ONE

Answer the first 100 questions in just single seating.

20 seconds question

You read the question, its fact based and you know the answer. Voila! Mark the answer & move ahead

30 seconds question

You read the question, you have no idea what this is about. Hurray, time saved. Do not overthink how you do not know anything about this question. Simply, flag the question and move ahead.

90 seconds question

You read the question, you know some points that can help you derive the answer, so you read the question again and you read the options. You are sure that it is either (A) or © so you ponder upon it. Bit nervous, but still your heart says it’s (A), but what if this is wrong. DO NOT OVERTHINK. Mark the answer (A) and flag it. Go ahead.

By this trick you are currently answering 1 question in 40 seconds at an average.

Take a 10 minutes break now

Go outside (but on premises) and take a walk, drink some water and do not think about the exam at all.

ROUND TWO

Now, you need to take the remaining 100 questions. Repeat the same above trick.

And take another break of 10 minutes, you deserve it champ!

There are chances that you may have approx 50-70 questions that are flagged. I had 80 questions flagged at this stage so don’t worry even if you have 90 or even 100. Here we suppose you have 70 questions.

ROUND 3

Go to those questions where you spent 90 minutes and you were sure it was either (A) or ©. Now put your efforts on these further. Let’s say these are 60 questions, so just think further about these questions and try to kick out the options which are non relevant. Please read the important keywords in the question like:

 ‘..what action will you take FIRST for this task’. 

Eliminate other options and choose the best one.

After spending 1 minute each on these questions since you already know the question and much answer so all you need to do is identify keyword nd select best answer, you now consumed 0:50 Hours

Now you are left with just 20 questions to ponder upon the nearest piece of knowledge you have about these questions and answer accordingly.

DO NOT leave any question unanswered as there is NO NEGATIVE marking.

You spent 30 seconds on each question and completed the exam.

You completed the exam 16 minutes before, despite taking 3 rounds. 

This is heavily leveraged timelines, however if you do this practically you shall be able to complete the exam in less than 3:30 Hours. So practice more, strategise more! And most importantly:

Do not attach emotions to the questions