September 8, 2026 · 9 min read
TL;DR: Sort every answer option in this bank by its opening verb and the keyed rate spreads from 83% (Analyze) down to 2% (Report, Continue). Investigation verbs cluster at the top, handoff and inaction verbs at the bottom, and the ordering is a compact statement of what the exam believes a project manager is supposed to do first.
Four options. Same scenario. Same length, roughly. The only structural difference between them is the word each one starts with.
That word turns out to carry a startling amount of information.
We took every single-answer question, stripped each option to its first word, and counted how often each verb appeared in the key versus in a distractor. Verbs with fewer than 19 appearances are cut for noise.
| Opening verb | Keyed | Distractor | Keyed rate |
|---|---|---|---|
| Analyze | 24 | 5 | 83% |
| Conduct | 14 | 5 | 74% |
| Work | 46 | 41 | 53% |
| Meet | 33 | 30 | 52% |
| Identify | 16 | 16 | 50% |
| Discuss | 12 | 14 | 46% |
| Review | 34 | 48 | 42% |
| Create | 11 | 28 | 28% |
| Hold | 28 | 73 | 28% |
| Notify | 3 | 9 | 25% |
| Document | 5 | 16 | 24% |
| Update | 13 | 58 | 18% |
| Raise | 15 | 75 | 17% |
| Request | 4 | 29 | 12% |
| Inform | 3 | 21 | 13% |
| Escalate | 8 | 69 | 10% |
| Ask | 37 | 346 | 10% |
| Add | 10 | 103 | 9% |
| Wait | 2 | 30 | 6% |
| Tell | 5 | 94 | 5% |
| Accept | 1 | 27 | 4% |
| Continue | 1 | 40 | 2% |
| Report | 1 | 40 | 2% |
Baseline is 25%. Everything above Review beats it, everything below Create loses to it, and the ends are separated by a factor of forty.
Read the top and the bottom as two lists and the pattern names itself.
The top of the ladder is finding out (analyze, conduct, identify, review) and doing it with people (work, meet, discuss). The bottom is moving the problem (escalate, raise, request, report, tell, inform) and declining to engage (continue, wait, accept, add).
That is the whole exam in one table. A situational question almost always presents a problem whose cause the scenario has deliberately not told you. The correct action establishes the cause or brings in the people who know it. Every wrong option either acts before knowing, hands the problem to someone whose job it is not, or does nothing.
Analyze sits at the top because it is the purest form of the correct move. Take this one: a freight operator is halfway through launching a temperature-controlled pharmaceutical shipping service when a larger competitor announces the same service nationwide with an earlier start date.
The three wrong options are continue, pivot, and cancel. They are the three possible conclusions, each offered without the evidence that would justify picking it. The key does not pick one. It goes and finds out which one is true.
Common trap: "Ask is a soft, collaborative verb, so it is probably right." It is keyed 37 times and wrong 346 times, the worst ratio of any high-frequency verb in this bank. The word is concealing two opposite moves. Ask the team what is causing the slippage is investigation. Ask the sponsor to decide, ask HR to step in, ask the vendor to absorb the cost are handoffs, and handoffs are what the distractor pool is made of. Read the object, not the verb. This bank names which of the two an option is doing rather than just marking it wrong.
Each low-scoring verb has a narrow condition under which it becomes the answer, and knowing those conditions matters more than the ladder itself, because a heuristic you cannot break is a heuristic that will eventually break you.
The condition is the same in every case: something in the scenario has already supplied what the low verb would otherwise be skipping. That is why these verbs read as wrong so consistently. Ninety-odd percent of the time the scenario has not supplied it, and the option is asking you to proceed without it.
Treat it as a first pass that turns four options into two, not as an answer.
Read the four opening verbs before you read the options in full. Typically two will be from the investigation and collaboration group and two from the handoff and inaction group. Set the second pair aside provisionally. Now read the remaining two carefully, because the actual discrimination between them is almost always about sequence, and that is a judgement the verb cannot make for you.
Then check your provisional discards against the conditions above. If the stem has already done the analysis, the low-verb option you set aside may well be the answer, and the ladder will have pointed you exactly the wrong way.
Which verbs signal a correct PMP answer? In this bank, options opening with Analyze are keyed 24 times against 5 distractors, about 83 percent. Conduct runs 74 percent, Work 53 percent, Meet 52 percent and Identify 50 percent. All of them describe finding something out or doing it jointly with people.
Which verbs signal a wrong answer? Report and Continue are keyed once each against 40 distractors, about 2 percent. Accept runs 4 percent, Tell 5 percent, Wait 6 percent, Add 9 percent, Ask 10 percent and Escalate 10 percent. Most of them either move the problem elsewhere or decline to engage with it.
Why is "Ask" only keyed 10 percent of the time? Because the word is doing two different jobs. Ask the team what is happening is investigation and is often right. Ask the sponsor to decide, ask HR to intervene, ask the vendor to absorb it are all handoffs, and handoffs dominate the count 346 to 37.
Can I answer questions from the verb alone? No, and the 5 keyed Report options prove it. The verb tells you what the option is doing structurally, which narrows four choices to two on a lot of questions. Which of the remaining two is right still depends on what the scenario established.
PMP Practice's 2,141 questions are re-certified against PMBOK 8 and the July 2026 ECO, with every wrong answer explained, not just marked wrong, including whether the option was investigating or handing the problem off. Start the free 20-question sample - no card, no signup required to try it.
Which verbs signal a correct PMP answer?
In this bank, options opening with Analyze are keyed 24 times against 5 distractors, about 83 percent. Conduct runs 74 percent, Work 53 percent, Meet 52 percent and Identify 50 percent. All of them describe finding something out or doing it jointly with people.
Which verbs signal a wrong answer?
Report and Continue are keyed once each against 40 distractors, about 2 percent. Accept runs 4 percent, Tell 5 percent, Wait 6 percent, Add 9 percent, Ask 10 percent and Escalate 10 percent. Most of them either move the problem elsewhere or decline to engage with it.
Why is "Ask" only keyed 10 percent of the time?
Because the word is doing two different jobs. Ask the team what is happening is investigation and is often right. Ask the sponsor to decide, ask HR to intervene, ask the vendor to absorb it are all handoffs, and handoffs dominate the count 346 to 37.
Can I answer questions from the verb alone?
No, and the 5 keyed Report options prove it. The verb tells you what the option is doing structurally, which narrows four choices to two on a lot of questions. Which of the remaining two is right still depends on what the scenario established.