AACE Certified Scheduling Technician Examination Practice Test
The AACE Certified Scheduling Technician Examination concerns the methods used to build, update, and interpret project schedules. Its scheduling vocabulary includes activity duration, calendars, work breakdown structures, precedence relationships, status dates, and earned value measures. The practice bank also uses scenarios about schedule logic, progress comparisons, activity ownership, and recurring work.
Exam overview
About the AACE Certified Scheduling Technician Examination Exam
Scheduling work involves translating project scope into activities, linking them with relationships, and applying calendars so calculated dates reflect working time. A scheduler must distinguish a predecessor’s finish from a successor’s start, recognize how holidays affect activity dates, and check whether logic and durations produce a credible forecast. During updates, actual dates and progress are compared with the approved plan at a status date; earned value measures distinguish budgeted work performed from planned work. Schedule narratives explain update conditions and material changes, while assigning activity owners clarifies responsibility for providing progress information. Work breakdown structures organize scope for schedule development, and recurring low-effort tasks may need a different representation from discrete activities. These skills support schedule review, communication of variance, and coordination between project teams and control points.
Sample Practice Questions
Review a selection from this exam's published US Practice Tests practice bank.
A project team wants to compare the planned cost of scheduled work with the budgeted cost of work performed at a status date. Which earned value measure represents the latter?
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Correct answer: BEarned Value is the budgeted value of the work actually accomplished by the status date. Planned Value is the budgeted value of work scheduled, while EAC is a forecast of total project cost.
A project calendar specifies the normal working days and holidays for a schedule. What is its primary scheduling effect?
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Correct answer: ACalendars define working and nonworking time, such as shifts, weekends, and holidays. Scheduling software uses the applicable calendar when calculating dates and durations.
What is the primary purpose of a schedule narrative accompanying a periodic schedule update?
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Correct answer: AA schedule narrative helps readers understand the meaning of the update by describing status, significant changes, assumptions, risks, and issues. It supplements rather than replaces the schedule model.
A project has five workdays available each week. An activity has a duration of 10 working days and starts on a Monday, with no holidays. When would it generally finish under this calendar?
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Correct answer: ATen working days span two five-day workweeks. With the activity beginning on the first Monday, its tenth working day is the second Friday.
A schedule update shows that actual dates and progress differ from the approved plan. Which comparison helps quantify the time difference at a control point?
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Correct answer: AComparing a current forecast date with its baseline counterpart indicates schedule variance at that point. The comparison should use consistent definitions and calendars so the difference is meaningful.
In a precedence diagram, which relationship means the successor activity cannot start until the predecessor activity finishes?
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Correct answer: DA finish-to-start relationship requires the predecessor to finish before the successor can start. It is a common relationship for activities performed in sequence.
A scheduler wants to check whether the durations and logic in a schedule produce dates that agree with known project constraints and team expectations. Which activity is most directly relevant?
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Correct answer: AA structured validation review checks whether schedule assumptions, logic, durations, and resulting dates are credible and consistent with project knowledge.
How to use this practice test
Access is free. The practice bank contains 50 questions, with each session drawing up to 20 random questions. Use a session to work through scheduling scenarios, then review the results to identify concepts to revisit, such as calendar effects, logic relationships, or earned value terminology.
Preparation tips
- Practice calculating finish dates from working-day durations, explicitly accounting for the project calendar, weekends, and holidays.
- Draw precedence diagrams for finish-to-start relationships and trace how a change to a predecessor can affect successor dates.
- Compare planned and actual progress at a stated status date, and distinguish budgeted cost of work performed from planned value.
- Draft a short schedule-update narrative that identifies status conditions, key variances, and relevant changes without confusing explanation with activity data.
- Map a sample scope into a work breakdown structure, assign activity owners, and decide how to represent recurring coordination work.