Earned value, budgets, forecasting and the cost maths the exam actually asks for. 7 articles.
We Counted Every Calculation in 1,948 Questions. There Were 24.
PMP candidates spend weeks memorising EVM formulas. In a 1,948-question bank, only 24 questions supply the numbers needed to compute anything. Here is what the other 1,924 are testing instead, and where that study time should have gone.
September 8, 2026 · 8 min read
Reserves on the PMP Exam: Which One, Whose Money, and Why Spending It Is Usually Wrong
Contingency reserve appears as an answer option 26 times in this bank and is keyed 3 times. Here is the distinction the exam is actually testing, and why reaching for the money is the trap.
September 7, 2026 · 7 min read
Cost-Benefit Analysis: 8 Keyed, 6 Distractors, and the Split Is About Whose Decision It Is
Cost-benefit analysis is the rare exam option that is right and wrong in almost equal measure. It keys when the question is a trade-off nobody has quantified. It fails when the decision belongs to somebody else, or when the problem was never a trade-off.
September 7, 2026 · 7 min read
Historical Data and Past Projects: 4 Keyed, 15 Distractors, and Accuracy Decides It
Options that reach for historical data, a similar past project, or the organizational process assets are keyed 4 times against 15 as distractors here. Whether it wins depends entirely on what the scenario said it wanted.
September 7, 2026 · 7 min read
Penalty Clauses: 0 Keyed, 13 Distractors, and the Bank's Cleanest Absolute
Across 2,141 certified questions, not one keyed answer applies a penalty, adds a penalty clause, or invokes liquidated damages. Thirteen wrong answers do. Here is what the exam keys instead.
September 7, 2026 · 6 min read
Cost Baseline, Budget, and Reserves: The Money Terms Candidates Mix Up
Contingency reserve sits inside the cost baseline. Management reserve sits outside it. Almost every tricky cost planning question on the PMP exam turns on that one line.
September 6, 2026 · 8 min read
EVM formulas, what each number actually means, and the wrong-answer traps the PMP exam builds around SPI, CPI, EAC, and VAC.
June 29, 2026 · 6 min read