Last week was pretty busy with the re-opening of the CPLP exam window. Email and phones have been jumping here at Owl's Ledge with comments from candidates who sat the exam last week at a Drake Kryterion test facility.
Yes - this is a different test vendor than the one used for the pilot. For those of you re-testing, the rules have changed.
Here's the skinny on what I've heard:
- No tutorial. We received bad information, initially. The Drake Kryterion test centers do not offer a tutorial of their systems previous to sitting the exam.
- Re-testers -- you have less time to complete the exam now than you did during the pilot. You have 150 minutes to answer 150 questions.
- It's easy to prematurely hit the Submit button. The Submit button is at the bottom of the screen, along with the navigation buttons. There is no confirmation message if you accidentally hit the Submit button in the middle of your exam -- your exam is immediately submitted for grading. Be careful!
- Check the equipment. The equipment, in some facilities, is older than others. Check out your mouse -- make sure it's in working order -- before the protor leaves the room.
- Monitors can be uncomfortable to sit at for a couple of hours - bring your glasses! Candidates report the display refresh rate and font size on some monitors to cause eye strain. Be prepared. Bring your glasses, if you need them.
- No bathroom breaks. We've heard that -- once in the exam room -- leaving (for any reason -- including a bathroom break) forfeits your exam.
- Be prepared for sound and noise. Some of the Drake Kryterion exam faciliaties are located in retail stores like CompUSA. Some candidates have reported the ability to hear a lot of outside noise coming from the store while sitting in the exam room. Some people are extremely sensitive to their test environments. If ambient noise is something that might rattle you, be prepared.
- You can still mark questions to review later. There's a button that allows you to mark a question for review at the bottom of the screen.
- Questions are 50/50. Candidates report the exam having 50% situational questions and 50% memorization/definition questions. You still don't need to know the names of the thoughtleaders or theorists -- or when they introduced their models or theories -- but you do have to understand the theories themselves. For example, you don't need to know that Kurt Lewin came up with Force Field Analysis, but you do need to know what Force Field Analysis is.
Did you recently sit the exam? If so, what were your experiences? Post them using Comments (below) or send an email to trish@cplpstudyprep.com.
~ Trish Uhl, PMP, CPLP
Owl's Ledge LLC
www.cplpstudyprep.com
Copyright (c) 2006 Trish Uhl, Owl's Ledge LLC
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