TOPIC: Failed my PMP Exam

Hi,

I failed my PMP exam yesterday and I decided to go for another Shot. Earlier in my last attempt, I covered Rita, PMPBOK and Simulator from Prepcast (1600 questions) But i guess my mock test results were 65%. Most people recommended me to take my exam with that percentage but now i realize that my conceptual knowledge is somehow below par. I bought this product today.

I want to ask, if I still refer to PMBOK along with this product or this product is self sufficient to give me the concepts and clear exam. I got 1 MP and 4 BP

Hi Ashish,

Sorry to hear that you failed yesterday. But do not give up hope. This is a very hard exam, and you need to be prepared.

I used Prepcast, Rita and PMBOK to prepare. I would recommend that you do a mock exam first. See where your weak areas are and then start on the Prepcast. It is worth going through the majority of the presentations. But be thorough with the areas you are weak on.

I have to admit that I stopped reading PMBOK and did not use it at all to get through the exam. for me it was so badly written I could not follow it - the prepcast gave me 90% of what I needed, the rest I got from Rita and practicing exams over and over again.

I would not recommend going into the exam with less than 80% in a simulator exam though.

Good luck and let us know how you get on.

Sarah

Hi Ashish,

So sorry you did not pass the exam and am glad you are going to try again. When I did my mock exams, I fell in the mid 70% range and I passed the first time around. I also reviewed those areas where I was weakest. I know the PMBOK can be dry, but I found the Data Flow diagrams for each knowledge area extremely helpful. I even photocopied them and created a little pamphlet of just those diagrams. So much of understanding the knowledge areas is understanding how the data flows. It's also a good idea to practice creating/timing your "brain dump". Best of luck!

Hello

Some body said you must read the PMBok others said no need to read it !!??

What is your advice?!

You are going to get conflicting advice here too Mohammed.

Personally I did not read the PMBOK because I found it no help whatsoever. However, others in this forum have used it.

So my advice would be if it is helping with your studies then use it. If it is hindering you, in that it is not helping you learn any more than you are learning with other material then do not use it.

Clear as mud I know!

I Agree with Sarah it is personal preferral. you need to check what people are saying and recommending and what best suits you.

to me I Recommend to skim over the PMBOK Guide parallel with watching the prepcast. the prepcast pretty much includes everything that is in the PMBOK and is structured in the same way. The PMBOK contains some charts and flow diagrams that I found very useful as Dawn outlined.

Good Luck in your second attempt.

Hi,

I am sorry to here about it. I believe, going through PM prepcast and the PMBOK side by side helps to clear the concepts more nicely. PMBOK is must read according to me, because all exam questions revolve around the PMBOK vocab. PM prepcast and RMC are strong companion to look at the concepts at little different angles, but ignoring the PMBOK may lead to higher chances for failure.

All the best.

Thanks!!!

Ashish Gupta wrote: Hi,

I failed my PMP exam yesterday and I decided to go for another Shot. Earlier in my last attempt, I covered Rita, PMPBOK and Simulator from Prepcast (1600 questions) But i guess my mock test results were 65%. Most people recommended me to take my exam with that percentage but now i realize that my conceptual knowledge is somehow below par. I bought this product today.

I want to ask, if I still refer to PMBOK along with this product or this product is self sufficient to give me the concepts and clear exam. I got 1 MP and 4 BP

Sorry to hear you did not pass the exam. Good to see you're not giving up hope! The recommended mock % is above 70% (each new mock test you give - at least 3 full tests), which can be a good indicator.

I personally would recommend referring to the PMBOK along with the PrepCast. You can use the PrepCast as your primary study material and go-to place. However once you're done with a module, I'd recommend skimming through the PMBOK for that particular module as well.

The PMBOK sometimes contain subtle difference between concepts, which will provide you a new perspective. In the mocks I took, I personally saw that few of the questions asked therein were closely link to the subtle differences mentioned in the PMBOK.

Good luck! Let us know if we can be of any further help your second time around

After each module in the Prepcast, I recommend reading or at least going over the respective PMBOK chapter. Doing so the other way around doesn't give context and I felt I was wasting my time.

Having past work experience definitely gave shape to the concepts and theories in the PMBOK, but the Prepcast helped fill in the gaps and round out the areas I wasn't familiar with.

Straight memorization is not recommended and frankly doesn't help much for most of the situational questions presented in the exam. I hope that helps.