Help with Assessments

The assessments for the ActivePM Certificate are straightforward multiple choice and text-fill (fill in the blank) type questions. Here is some information to help you through the process:

Contents

How much does the ActivePM certification cost?

Refer to Prices and Discounts

What topics are covered?

Refer to the Study Guide

Do I need to buy the Active Project Management book?

There is no formal requirement to buy the Active Project Management Book when taking the ActivePM certification. However, without the information contained in the book, you will find it difficult to answer the questions in the assessments. If you can borrow a copy of the book from a friend or colleague, that should work fine.

How long does the certification take?

The time required to take the certification will depend very much on the participant. If you can read quickly and are an experienced project manager this will go a lot faster than if you are a beginner who needs to take things slowly. As a very rough guide, the program is likely to require around 30 hours of study time or around a week of full time study:

                                                    Hours
Approximate time required to...
    read the Active Project Management Book            12
    take 15 assessments x 1 hour each                  15
    retake failed assessments                           3
                                                    -----
                                            TOTAL      30

Where do I need to go to take the tests and how much time do I have?

The ActivePM certificate can be done at your own pace at your own place providing you complete the assessments within 18 months of the date you registered for the program.

All study is conducted either online or by reading the Active Project Management Book (see the Study Guide for details)

The assessments can be taken as slowly or as quickly as you like, in any sequence. You may refer to the Active Project Management Book or any other materials while you are taking the assessments.

What are the main expectations on participants?

  • Participants are expected to complete the assessments on their own without assistance from another person.

  • Participants are expected to complete the assessments within 18 months of registering for the certification.

How are assessments accessed?

Assessments are accessed from the Assessments page. Note that you will only be able to see this page if you are registered to take a Certification program.

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What is the pass mark for each assessment?

The pass mark for each assessment is shown on the Assessments page (see above). Note that all assessments are automatically graded.

What do the questions look like?

Questions take the form of multiple choice questions or text fill (fill in the blank).

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When entering text answers how precise do I need to be?

For text-fill questions you will need to be reasonably precise. Note the following:

  • Answers are not case sensitive so "Apple Pie" is considered the same as "APPLE PIE" and "apple pie".

  • Allowances have been made to accommodate differing answers as follows:

    • Normal spelling variations should be accepted. For example "realise" will accepted equally as "realize".

    • In some cases different word endings and pluralisation are accepted equally, for example, depending on the question "test", "testing" and "tests" might all be accepted equally (but not always, see below).

    • If "three" is the correct answer, "3" will also be accepted

    • Sometimes there may be more than one correct answer, for example "persevering" may be accepted as well as "persistent" for the following question:

      When things get tough, Project Managers should not give up they should be p_____.

How do the clues given with text-fill answers work?

In some cases clues are given as to the required answer. For example:

Name the most populous US city: N_____ _____k

This question should be answered with "New York" and not with "ew Yor" or "New York City"

In the following question "testing" might be a reasonable answer except that the last letter "s" given in the question indicates that "tests" is the required answer.

Towards the end of a project _____s can be used to validate deliverables.

How do multiple choice questions work?

You will notice that some multiple choice questions accept only one response. In other cases, multiple responses may be selected, this does not necessarily mean there is more than one correct answer.

Note that where multiple responses are accepted and wrong answers are selected, these will subtract from your score and a negative score for these questions is possible. If you are unsure about a multiple response option, it is best not to guess.

What happens when I Submit or Save an assessment?

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  • Saving your work: once you have started an assessment you can Save your work. This enables you to come back later and finish or check your work. You can save an assessment an unlimited number of times.

    • Note that when you save an assessment, the questions will recorded in the same order but the order of the answers will be shuffled. Your responses will be correctly saved, but in a different order.

  • Submitting your work: once you have completed an assessment and have checked your work, you should click on "Submit". At this point a confirmation box will appear asking you to confirm submission. Once you have submitted an assessment, this action cannot be undone. Within seconds you will be informed of your result:

If you are successful, congratulations! You can move on to the next assessment.

success

If you are unsuccessful, don’t worry. You can still move on to the next assessment, but you will need to retake the failed assessment.

unsuccess

(See What happens if I fail an assessment?)

What happens if I fail an assessment?

If you do achieve the pass mark for an assessment, do not worry, you can retake it an unlimited number of times. Bear in mind the following:

  • The first time you need to retake an assessment, you will need to wait 12 hours before the assessment is available again. Each time you need to retake an assessment, the time you need to wait will double. So the first retake is available after 12 hours, if you fail again and need to retake again, you will need to wait 24 hours, then 2 days, 4 days and so on up to 28 days, when the waiting period will stop increasing.

  • The pause before a retake is counted separately for each assessment. For example if you failed assessment B for the first time while you were already waiting 4 days before you could retake assessment A, the pause for assessment B would start at 12 hours.

  • If you fail an assessment, you should click on the "Incompletions" button (See above) to see which questions were unsuccessfully answered as a well as the "Study Guide" button to see which study material should be reviewed.

  • When the retake becomes available, there will be a slightly different (random) selection of questions that you need to answer.

What happens when I complete the certification?

Once all the assessments have been successfully completed, a link will appear at the top of the Assessments page that provides access to a page where your PDF certificate can be downloaded. Your certificate will normally be available within 24 to 48 hours after you have successfully completed all the assessments.

If I am not happy with the certification, can I get a refund?

Refunds may be available depending on the circumstance. Please refer to "Refunds" section of the terms and conditions.

I still have questions

Please get in touch using the email address provided here