Program manager

About this practice suite

This suite prepares candidates for program manager selection in the business, consulting, management, and operations sector with 5 skill areas: management and supervisory judgment, planning and scheduling exercises, case analysis, situational judgment and critical thinking. Every question was written by Novus editors for this suite — none are taken from live or leaked exams — and the full bank holds 52 scored questions across three modes, plus 8 reserve questions used to vary repeat attempts. Answer keys never ship to the browser: your answers are scored server-side, and results stay on your device.

Skills this suite practises

• Management and supervisory judgment — Prioritization, delegation, fairness, coaching, accountability, and team decisions.
• Planning and scheduling exercises — Resources, dependencies, deadlines, constraints, and contingency planning.
• Case analysis — Synthesizing multiple documents and making a reasoned recommendation.
• Situational judgment — Evaluating workplace responses against role-relevant principles.
• Critical thinking — Evaluating evidence, assumptions, arguments, credibility, and alternative explanations.

Sample questions from the guided bank

Two of the 10 guided-practice questions, shown exactly as they appear in a session. Answers and explanations are not printed here — keys stay on the server — so open guided practice to answer them and see how you did.

1. A program differs from a single project mainly because it:

   • A. Has no stakeholders
   • B. Never uses schedules
   • C. Only writes consulting pitch decks
   • D. Coordinates related projects to deliver combined benefits beyond any one project

2. Two projects in your program need the same scarce platform team next month. Best?

   • A. Let both assume full capacity
   • B. Ignore the conflict
   • C. Make the contention explicit; sequence or split capacity against program benefits priority
   • D. Tell both PMs to escalate loudly daily without a forum

Practice modes and timing

Guided practice is untimed-feeling and instructional; the mini-test is a short timed check; the full simulation mirrors a complete sitting. All three draw on separate question sets, so moving up a mode never repeats what you practised.

Study outline

Read the study outline for this suite’s skills, timings, and recommended lessons on one printable page, or download its standalone HTML file. The printable page can also be saved as a PDF from your browser.