APM PMQ Hints and Tips – 2025 Update

In this episode of Project Management Insights, Callum, the lead trainer at Training ByteSize, shares his personal experiences with the new version of the PMQ (Project Management Qualification) exam. Having recently sat the exam himself, Callum offers invaluable insights into the changes, challenges, and strategies for success. He covers tips on how to approach the exam, including techniques for answering multiple-choice and long-answer questions, time management, and how to effectively revise for the exam. This episode provides a firsthand look at the updated format and how to navigate it with confidence.

The full transcript is available below. Enjoy listening!

Hi, my name’s Callum. I’m the lead trainer for Training Bytesize. I just wanted to take a moment to talk about the PMQ, the new version of it, and how I feel about it and my experiences with it over the last few weeks.

Just for some tips and some things I’ve found, having run a few courses now and seen a few of the exams myself. I incidentally also sat it myself in September just to kind of get a feel for the new version because when I sat the PMQ it was a handwritten exam, so I thought now is the time to refresh. So I just wanted to have a moment to talk about that and my findings.

I imagine some of you, if not all of you, have heard a bit about the new exam, the format change. I won’t kind of go through those again in too much detail, but it’s a two and a half hour exam as opposed to a three hour fifteen minute exam. It’s a mix of multiple choice written and select boxes and even the long answer questions, whereas the old version of the exam was essay style, the new version of the exam is more succinct.

The information they require from you is more succinct. Bullet pointy is how I’d describe it. So just over the last few weeks then I found a few things about the new exam I thought might be worth just talking about.

So one in particular is making sure you read the question very carefully. So I found when I resat the PMQ myself, the questions I struggled most on from a person who’s very familiar with the APM’s content was the sort of longer answer, longer question sorry, scenario based questions. They had a lot of text in them in the question and I found that in the exam environment under pressure with that timer clicking down, those are the questions I found particularly challenging because there was a lot of information, a lot of scene setting in the question that gave the question context.

And I found those ones needed a bit more time to have a read through and they were often trying to catch you out, or it certainly felt that way with some of the multiple choice in particular, trying to catch you out by using certain words and using certain phrases in the question that you might upon a glance think oh that’s that when if you read it more carefully and more strategically it actually is asking you something slightly different. So my advice would be to make sure you read those longer answers, obviously read all the questions carefully but in particular those longer scenario based questions where there’s a lot of kind of context setting. The other thing I found with those is and certainly I found when I’ve been discussing the course in the room with people and with delegates sitting the exam or about to sit the exam is try not to bring outside context into those questions because what I found and certainly I was guilty of doing and I know people I’ve worked with over the last couple of months who’ve now sat the exam have found is that they were bringing outside circumstances into the question and going well if it was this I’d do that and it’s like well it’s not that though, it’s the question that they’re asking you need to read and be careful of bringing external kind of thoughts and circumstances into that context because the question’s not giving you all the information, it’s just saying in this particular scenario what would your response be?

When you start adding in well what about that then and what about this then, they’re not giving you that information because then it’s not relevant to what they’re asking so don’t bring that outside information in. So read the question, read the context and answer within the context the question is asking you within. That’s something I found.

The other questions I found that I’ve I found a bit of a I found them straightforward once I found this little trick with them and I know this is one of the question types that can cause a few problems as well is it’s another multiple choice where they have like a list of six answers and then you need to choose which mix of those are correct. There’s still four possible options but there’ll be a list of usually six sentences and they’ll say right which two or three from that list are the correct answer and they’ll give you A, B, C and D underneath then to choose the three you want to go with, two or three you want to go with. Now a technique I found worked quite well for me and I have since worked with a few of the groups I’ve worked with is to basically read through the list and I actually, you’re allowed a piece of scrap paper in the exam, I actually used it quite a lot for these because there was a few of them in my exam.

I actually wrote one to six and then I crossed out I thought that’s I basically read them from top to bottom and then I’d try and work out from that list which one of those immediately looked right, which one of those six was correct and I’d kind of tick it and then I’d look at the options to choose from, I’d say A, B, C and D and I’d find the ones that had that particular one from the list in it and that would help me narrow down that question because they’re usually you’d find two of them don’t have the one you think is correct in and then you can use that to deduce which one is correct and then what I did was looked at the other options that were available in the two answers I had left to choose from and then would see if they were correct and I’d look for the one that was more correct or the ones that were more correct. Usually I think I found that most people who’ve used that technique have found themselves quite confident with their answers once we’ve gone through them because it’s kind of like a checklist, you’re almost ticking off the ones that are wrong and working out which ones are right and then you can use the ones that are right or the one that’s right to figure out which other ones are right and that worked quite well for those and that’s something I thought worked for me and as I said has since worked for delegates in the room as well when we’ve done the practice questions. The advice I’ve got for the written questions is be careful, make sure you read the question carefully because they have a couple of buzzwords in there about like explain and differences between and things like that.

If it’s asking you to explain something, so if they say something like explain five steps of configuration management, you won’t be able to just get away with listing the five steps of configuration management and not saying what each step involved because they’re asking you to explain it so they won’t award any marks. If you just say planning, identification, control, status counting and verification audit, that’s zero marks. You’ll need to elaborate a little bit around what happens in the planning step, what happens in the identification step because otherwise you’re not answering the question.

So read the long answer questions carefully because they are asking for detail but not loads. It’s certainly not an essay. I would say maybe a sentence or two sentences for each kind of your five points so to speak.

They sometimes split the questions up as well so those five mark questions won’t be just list five things or explain five things. What they’ll do is things like explain two benefits of, explain how you’d use it in this context and then you’d have to make sure you read the context of the question as well, the scenario they may have provided to get an answer. But those, I found them not too bad.

Once I got into the flow of the long answer questions and again, based on feedback, I think I found some of the multiple choices more tricky because of the way they were kind of trying to catch you out with the wording. Whilst the long answer questions were more explain why you’re doing something or what something is, which I thought was a bit more straightforward. I could put it into my own words a little bit more I think and explain around a few things.

But don’t write loads of detail. It’s a waste of time because there’s only five marks available and there’ll be one mark for each kind of point you make. So there’s no point writing a big long paragraph for each point.

I would actually recommend using bullet points for the five mark long answers because it will kind of restrict you from writing too much. As I said, a sentence to two sentences maximum, I would say for a long answer kind of point, for one bullet point. And then for the short answer questions, you really want to keep them brief.

They have a very limited word, a character limit in the answers anyway, so you won’t be able to write an awful lot regardless. But a couple of lines, sorry, a couple of words rather, a phrase or a short sentence will be enough for your short answer questions. The timing I think personally seems reasonably fair.

I think you do need to make sure you keep an eye on your timing because I’ve had a couple of people who spent too long in the first half and then hadn’t had enough time to really spend on the second half. But the timers are always on screen. You can take a break whenever you finish the first half.

Just be mindful of when you finish the first half and you submit those answers, they are gone. You can’t return back to them. You can’t rethink them or reword them.

You have to be careful when you think you’re ready to move on. But regarding kind of how you structure your exam, obviously keep an eye on the timing. But the main thing I’d recommend is if you’re stuck on a question, there’s a flag option.

In the bottom right hand corner, there’s a flag icon. And if you click the flag icon, it puts a little flag symbol in the question tab on the left hand side of the screen. If you come across a question, you think, I don’t know what the answer is.

I don’t get what they’re asking. This is a bit heavy in the wording because again, some of those long answers, some of the long questions can be quite wordy in terms of their context and the scenario they’re providing. Flag them and don’t answer them.

Park them and move on is my recommendation. Get through the exam at a reasonable pace to begin with. Just go through the questions.

If you think, I’m happy with this question. I know what they’re asking me. I know what the answer is.

I’m confident with the answer. Answer it, move on. Click next, go to the next one.

If you come across a question, you think, I don’t know the answer. I’m not sure what they’re asking me. Don’t sit there for 10 minutes mulling it over.

Just flag it, click next and move on to the next one. And then you’ll have like a few questions left at the end that are flagged potentially or maybe not at all. But I certainly had flagged questions when I sat it myself a few weeks ago or whenever you’re listening to this podcast.

A few weeks ago could be years ago. But I flagged them and then I came back to them later on and I found that would help me manage my time a lot more because I got through the first set of questions and then I had leftover. I thought, well, I’ve got half an hour or 20 minutes or 15 minutes or whatever I’ve got left to answer them.

Then I know how much time to spend on them. If it’s a multiple choice and you come back to it and you think, I still don’t know the answer, then there’s a one in four chance of getting it right. So have a guess.

If you are doing that though, and you are really not sure on the answer, my recommendation would be to try and narrow it down a little bit. What you can usually find, and this isn’t always the case, but you can find it. Certainly this is what I’ve seen and is the case with PFQ as well, the qualifications beneath this one, is you’ll usually be able to identify two that seem wrong, instinctively probably come across as wrong to you, and then two that will come across as correct.

Obviously dismiss the ones that are wrong. You now have a 50-50 chance of getting it right. If you have a look at the answers you’ve got left, you can usually try and work out which one’s more correct.

If you feel one’s more correct than the other, then go with that one. Then you’ve narrowed down the answer. Hopefully you’ll feel a bit more confident about it that way.

With the long answer questions, you’re going to need to understand what they’re asking. You need to know, you need to have that knowledge. Don’t walk into this exam expecting to blag it because it’s got multiple choice in it.

It’s really difficult exam still. They’ve retained its difficulty. They’ve just simplified the actual exam itself.

Not simplified, it made it more accessible, I think. It’s less intensive in terms of there’s not as much writing and it’s not about an essay so much anymore. It’s about knowledge of their syllabus, which I think is what it should be testing really, rather than your ability to type fast.

Once you’ve committed the first half of the exam, you will go to a break. As I said, you can’t return to the previous 20 questions, 40 questions overall, 20 in the first half, 20 in the second half, total of 19 marks available across the paper. Your break is non-mandatory.

I would recommend brief pause perhaps. Maybe get a cup of tea or something. You are allowed to leave the room if you’re doing the exam at home.

You can leave the room. That’s absolutely fine. You can’t bring any notes in with you.

You can’t walk back in with the answer sheet, but you can in theory do some revision outside of the room if you want to. I’d be cautious of doing that because you don’t overburden your brain. It’s just my thoughts on it.

I mean, if you want to do some revision in that half an hour, you can do, but I wouldn’t really suggest it’s recommended in my opinion anyway. You might disagree, but in my thought, it’s a bit late for revision, though cramming, lots of people do it. You have a full half an hour if you want to take it, but it’s not mandatory unless you’re doing the exam in person and vigilated in person that works slightly differently, in which case the break is currently mandatory.

If you’re doing it online, which I imagine most of you will be, then the break is non-compulsory. You have a timer on screen and it will count down from 30 to zero. There’s also a button in the middle of the screen saying next, and you can click on that and it will open up your next half of the exam.

Then you’ll bring up the list, the last 20 questions, and it’s very much the same as the first half. There’s no split where the written questions are in the first half and the multiple choices in the second half. It’s a complete mix.

So question one could be a multiple choice, question two could be a long answer, question three could be another multiple choice, question four could be a short answer. It’s a real blend. It’s the same with the topics as well.

There won’t be kind of topics bunched together, though they can occasionally bunch themselves together, just with the way the paper’s been formulated, but you can’t rely on that. Each question is an isolated kind of thing. So that works to some extent as well, and I think that’s actually quite preferable because it kind of helps to remove the outside context I was mentioning earlier on.

But read the question in isolation. Each question has its own page as well. When you click on it, all you’ll see on that page is the question you’re required to answer at that time.

So you won’t need to worry about looking at multiple questions and muddling them up or anything. But second half of the exam, very much the same as the first. 20 questions, you need to answer all of them.

And keep an eye on your timer. You should have at least an hour and 15 minutes left, ideally, if you want to split the exam equally, which is what I would recommend. And when you’re finished, if you’ve run out of time, it will boot you out.

Same with the first half. If you run out of time, sorry, the first half works a bit differently. You control the time when you want to have your break in the first half.

In the second half, though, you can quit the exam early if you want to, or you can let the timer run out. It depends how long you’ve got left. But if you let the timer run out, it will boot you out because the exam is coming too close.

So you do need to keep an eye on your timer during your exam and manage your time. But when you’re ready to finish, you can click the finish button in the top right hand corner and it will manually end your exam. I mean, I finished my exam, I think I have about 25 minutes to spare in mine, though I found most people are getting to around five to 10 minutes left.

Some people have been working right down to the last minute, but I’ve been finding the timing on this exam isn’t as critical, as it were, as the old version of the exam. You might have a different experience with that potentially, but if you manage your time, I would be surprised if you do find you’re absolutely down to the wire. But yeah, that’s my thoughts on the exam so far.

Generally, the feedback has been that it’s a more accessible, more straightforward experience than the old version of the exam. There’s a greater breadth of knowledge to know, because unlike the old version of the exam, every question is mandatory. So you will need to make sure you do revise everything.

You will need to understand the breadth and detail of all the topics really. My recommendation would be to make sure you revise, make sure you prepare for the exam. When you get your email through to do your checks, do your checks early.

Don’t leave it to the day of the exam, because that will add to the stress levels. If you’ve done your checks in the five to seven working days beforehand, I don’t think it’s even working days actually, I think it’s just days before the exam. Then you will be fine.

Make sure you do your checks. And if they work and they’re all okay, then your exam will be fine. The actual setup experience is very simple.

It’s all talked through, every step is listed very clearly, and it talks you through very, very straightforwardly. I didn’t find the actual administrative side of the exam stressful at all personally. Admittedly, I’m more experienced with it because I teach the qualification for a living.

But generally, if you’ve done your checks, then the actual setup is pretty seamless. They’ll ask you to show them your desk and then it’ll click next. They’ll ask you to show them, show the camera or use your phone for this, by the way.

You have your phone synced up to your exam application on your computer. Via Google, you need to enable extensions and everything. But if you’re using a work laptop, you will need to make sure it all works.

Hence why I do the checks beforehand, plenty of time. So if there is any problems, you have time to address them. You don’t want to be two hours before your exam starts finding it doesn’t work on your computer.

So do do those checks. But yeah, setting up is very straightforward. You show your phone around, you’ll see the image on screen on your laptop or computer, whichever you’re using.

And once you click, once you showed them around the desk, they’ll ask to show you the wall. Then they’ll ask to show you your ceiling, so on and so forth, your ears, because they want to make sure you haven’t got earphones in. But yeah, the setup’s pretty straightforward, I think.

But yeah, that’s my thoughts on the exam so far. I’m sure I’ll have more thoughts as I do more of them. We are still fairly early days in terms of the PMQ, this new version of the PMQ.

We are starting to get results through and they’re looking pretty positive so far. But yeah, I’m sure I’ll be making a few more of these to keep people updated. So thank you very much for listening, signing off and I’ll see you on a course perhaps.

Cheers.