PMP Exam - have failed twice HELP

All great suggestions Caryl. Study and practice until your confident enough to take the exam again. Keep calm and take your time. If your not sure of an answer, take your best guess, mark it and then come back to it after you have completed the first go around. The exam is intended to be high stress (welcome to the PM world) and your reaction is key to success. Remember, some questions are just questions they are trying out and are not applied to your score. The one that is causing you grief may be one of those questions so don't panic. Breathe and trust in your ability and knowledge
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Hi Caryl,
I also fail twice before passing mine in the third attempt. I will advice you to initially read textbooks that simplify Project Management. I'll recommend you start with Head First PMP by Greene and Stallman before reading either Rita's or any other texts. Practice exercises with Sean Whittaker's questions. Good luck

Hi Carly,

RIta's book is very good, but I also added "The PMP Exam: How to pass on your first try" by Andy Crowe. Although there are some typos and a few question errors in the book, it conveys knowledge a little easier on many topics.

You mentioned you ran through 3 simulated exams. You will need 5-10 times that, and try and not repeat the simulated exams more than two or three times, and spread them apart if you do.

One very important factor: study the questions you got wrong, and find out why you got them wrong? It's not a good use of time studying the ones you keep getting right. If you get questions wrong, reference it within the PMBOK, not so much the books by Rita etc. The reason is that the PMBOK explanation will more closely fit the wording of the exams.

Finally, the simulation exams are around 10% easier than the real exam, so you will need to reach around 80% consistently on them to be confident that you will have a good chance of passing the actual exam.

I hope this help. Keep positive.

One additional suggestion- After you read Rita, go to PMBOK again and focus on the areas/processes they talk about. Apply the real world examples/situations to some major processes from PMBOK subject and visualize what you would have done as a PM in some of those situations. major ones are in scope area. The networking/calculations/ITTO's are actually easier because it is just one method or memorization. The situational ones are hard. Also, like everyone else mentioned scoring 75% in the mock exams will help determine when you retake again. Actually I scored only 69% on both my mock tests, but I passed in the first attempt itself. I guess anything over 68% should be fine(maybe?)

Hi Caryl,

i am really sorry to hear that you have failed twice but it is good that you do not give up and that you will give it another try.

Well, you already got great advice and i do not want to add much, cause too much information and options could also be confusing you again ...

However, from my perspective you do have two options now:

1.: And that was already mentioned above: Analyze your results and your mock exams you did so far ...figure out where your weak areas are and what you need to focus on for increasing your results.
Going back to Rita's or any other prep book and reading them again won't help you much here

OR

2.:
You do just forget htat you have already failed twice and start it all over again. Try to get in a mindset that you are completely new on it and start it from scratch, BUT this time you will have a plan!
And big advantage for you, you already know what to expect, so no surprises and no uncertainty for you here (in comparison to an aspirant going for the first time, right?).
If you are willing to go this way (for sure will need a bit more time and effort again) then i can recommend you our "Project Manager's PMP Exam prep" guidance program (it is free!) which will work like your "red line" to the prep process; you may have a look here:

https://goo.gl/pPDzms

You will receive all the advice and tips you need to pass on the next try, for sure.

And here are some additional articles that may help you:

? PMBOK Knowledge Areas for Project Management Guide 5th Edition - Process Groups and Processes - The Complete Guide ?
? http://goo.gl/I2Eusc

? The Complete Guide to PMP ITTO (Inputs, Tools, Techniques and Outputs) ?
? http://goo.gl/crShnB
ITTO Trainer:
? http://goo.gl/LfyHwE


? PMP Exam Questions - The Complete Guide ?
? http://goo.gl/hGC7bD
Formular Study Guide:
? http://goo.gl/l0RFj8

? PMP Formulas and Calculations - The Complete Guide ?
? http://goo.gl/ayWLff

Regards,

Markus

Between 1996 and 2010 I teached preparation courses around the world. From 2010 up to date I am part of the group of people that works with the PMI inside the Exam Questions QA group so I can not teach and can not give some details for ethics reasons. So, returning to the point, take into account that the 75%-85% of systematically accuracy is just a number I saw from my personal experience and after presented it in some forums along the years other people agreed. It is funny. If you make the same questions more than one time you will obtain different results. And the 75%-85% rule is a measure that could help you to understand if you are ready because believe me, returning to your statement, you never will be sure that yoiu are "prepared enough". Remember: understand how to answer is most important that to know what to answer. You need to answer what the PMI expect not what you do in your personal life as project manager. Remember too: you will face situational questions. Relax. Dont give up. And relax. The exam is like travel into an airplane: be nervous or being affraid has no sence (while it is impossible to avoid it) because there is no way that you can get off the plane while it is on air.