Failure is just temporary, i am sure you will pass this. Don’t be so hard on yourself, i understand the pressure from colleagues and boss and the feeling you got there. Trust me  sooner you get over it the better it is for you.

PMP is not an easy exam, it is one of the tougher exams out there and needs a lot of practice and logical understanding. I, myself have postponed it twice due to unforeseen circumstances at work and in personal life.  i was also feeling low. I was desperate to get it cleared by 31^st July but couldn’t, just before the exams i was getting mid 60s and had lost confidence. I just couldn’t gather the courage to appear for the exam as i was very tensed, worried and extremely nervous. Company is not paying for it and i am doing it for myself and out of my own pocket.

I personally think take a bit of break, don’t let it overwhelm you. This is only temporary and you will pass soon. You have done it time and again and have passed all of the mentioned exams so this one as well you shall clear, just have patience and take the right steps.

I have only one strategy – get into mid to late 70s in mock exams and till thn i would not fill confident of giving the exam to be honest. People may have different opinion regarding mock tests, some have passed even if they were scoring early 60s like i was but everyone is different and you need to assess your situation yrself.

I have known a friend who studied for 4-6 weeks, gave 3 full blown mock tests and passed, so don’t give up, don’t be so hard on yrself. This is a passing phase, you will get through. Just relax – have a break and when you are fresh in yr mind just plan out. If you do decide to give it in November end, you roughly have 17 weeks and i am sure with the help from all the kind ppl on this forum you can get through.

I am planning in November as well and shall keep in touch with you J.

Regards,

Vish

 I completely agree with the above post and I think you already show the quality of not giving up and this is the first tell tell sign that you will clear the exam for sure..

Next step is about your preparation....I would suggest the following 3 steps

1. Read the lessons learned from all the forum members to understand the pattern of exam preparation. Mine is here http://pmzilla.com/nailed-it-cleared-pmp-3ps-and-2-mps

2. I would suggest that you post your mock scores here for everyone to give you tips in your weak areas or you can do is to make sure that you score above 75% in the mock tests to judge your understanding of the knowledge and preparation

3. Keep posting your questions here for the areas where you think you lack the understanding and get different perspectives and explaination for the questions

All the best and let me know if you need any more specifics on preparation

Cheers and keep saying to yourself that you can do it

When you visit forum websites , you see lot of people posting about how they clear, it sometimes can give false impression if you dont fully read the LL,  people think PMP exam is easy. but its not , for most people it needs a good 2 to 3 months dedicated preparation. And only the few who are highly experienced find the exam not so tough.

So take this failure as a step towards your success. Just focus on how you will appear next time and pass

What to do if you Fail PMP Exam in first attempt

I wish I could help you and tell what is that you need to do, however, I am in the same boat with the exception I failed it 3 times and I feel very stupid.  However, let me share with you an article l read on yesterday, it said if you failed it twice to let your application time expire before attempting it a 3rd time.  And the reason for this becaue it will give you 3 new fresh chances to start over again.  Remember, if you fail it a 3rd time then you will have to wait one year from your 3rd attempt, so keep that in mind.

I wish I would have seen this article prior to me take it a 3rd time on July 30th and failing it-again. My biggest problem was rushing to take this exam before it changed on July 31st.  Now, that was really stupid on my part, and I cried too, but today I'm feeling a lot better.  

Hope this helps you.

I wish I could help you and tell what is that you need to do, however, I am in the same boat with the exception I failed it 3 times and I feel very stupid.  However, let me share with you an article l read on yesterday, it said if you failed it twice to let your application time expire before attempting it a 3rd time.  And the reason for this becaue it will give you 3 new fresh chances to start over again.  Remember, if you fail it a 3rd time then you will have to wait one year from your 3rd attempt, so keep that in mind.

I wish I would have seen this article prior to me take it a 3rd time on July 30th and failing it-again. My biggest problem was rushing to take this exam before it changed on July 31st.  Now, that was really stupid on my part, and I cried too, but today I'm feeling a lot better.  

Hope this helps you.

Hi nkiruka,

What i suggest you is:

1. Firstly if you need a break, take a weekend break with family or friends. Dont make it hard on you for now. If you wanna longer break take it, for eg: watch a couple of movies, go out with families so that you can be back with much stronger determination.

2. Make a project plan. It need not be with agressive timelines, and can be made in simple excel sheet. If you fall behind schedule or are ahead of schedule, either ways update your schedule.

3. Based on schedule put some buffer and block your exam date. Again need not be aggressive dates. Blocking exam date helped me to get seriousness while preparation because the target date was in front of me.

4. Prepare one sheet which has all the processes and knowledge areas and paste it in  your work area, so that you have a look at it everyday.

5. Including fruits and exercise in my schedule helped me to increase blood circulation and agility. As i have attended college long back, studying is tougher now. So fruits and excercises helped me.

6. I was drained out by the time i wanted to attempt the exam. So one month before the exam i joined a pmp training course so that i can refresh myself, while somebody else is teaching. This helped me a lot as i was tried of studying and it also gave me opportunity to meet others preparing for pmp and judge where i stand.

7. Also after first reading of pmbok start mock exams. no need to read full book of rita. identify where you need to refer rita and focus on those areas. keeping a copy of headfirst may also be helpful.

8. there are some good free questions as well like examcentral.net which helped me. so after every chapter you can try that.

9. i found pmstudy questions good for practice, so you can try this after first reading of pmbok.

10. after completing mock exam, try to see where you went right and where you went wrong. you need to review this after every mock exam so that you can go back to those topics and clarify the subject.

alternatively you can find me on linkedin and can help you and guide personally till your success in exam.

Hope my inputs will help you and all the best.

Thanks

Raju

First of all, do NOT feel ashamed! One time tests are never a true judge of how much you know! So MANY factors act on us when we go write the exam! May be it was not your day! You have seen so much success in other certifications so why let this make you feel dumb? Besides, look at this in this way that this would clear more concepts to apply in real life too!! 

Anyway! I just cleared it in first go and I have NOT EVEN READ PMBOK!! I got 4P and 1MP!! I will strongly advice not to scare yourself with PMBOK at all...All you need to do is a glossary read of PMBOK so that you know all the terms. It will not even take you 2 hours to do that! I posted a detailed post of my preparation so please look into it! I GUARANTEE you, you will clear it in one shot if you just do tests of Rita Mulchay and also the software they sell!! IT is AMAZING! It has sooooo many different kind of catches

There are direct questions to ITTO, I never MUGGED them all but yes I learned all exceptional inputs and outputs and most important ones! Please do not miss on those cuz there are direct questions for those

RE-READ RITA MULCHAY atleast 2 more times! I guarantee you, it clears sooo many doubts more and more cuz the whole exam is about the catch questions they have on the exam! and do the software for sure cuz that is VERY important to learn patiently answering many questions while understanding what the question wants as an answer rather than what appears to be an easy answer.

so in short, RITA MULCHAY 3 times, RITA's SOFTWARE questions for all Knowledge Areas, Important ITTOs and atleast 4-5 mock tests and you are good to go!!!!!!! All the very very best!

My detailed preparation link:
http://pmzilla.com/pmp-cleared-flying-colorsmy-journey-0

I gave the exam on july 30th and I PASSED it. I would like to sugesst you that don't loose your courage/confidence. As exam was going to change so I had to atleast give a try so I planned as follow.

-- I work 8 hours so I never did any reading in day time. I studied from 6 pm to 9 pm in library till july 29th everyday. I got up at 4 am in morning and studied for 2 hours then to job. In day time I couldn't t study at home beacuse I have 2 kids. 

Here ss my sugesstion

1. On July 2nd I started reading Head first book.

Read once or twice. Don't worry too much about Cost management formulas at this time just copy the chapter and keep it with you. 

2. On July 10 I started reading Rita 7th edition. First time I read I didn't understand anything. Second time I read i started understand 40%. Then I read 3rd time this time I understand  70% what I was reading and then I started doing the q&A all back of all chapters while I was reading.

3. Now while I was reading 3rd time I did also started dong rita fast track which is really hard and guess what I failed everytime the fast track test. I took the book and started reading and this time I only read what I didn't understand. Then I started the exam again and here we go I was doing great. I build my confidence

4. In office I use to do Examcentral and they were like piece of cake for me now. Once i got confidence in rita fast track everything else was like easy.

5. I bought PMP formula from prepcast and I used the Cost management chapter from Head first and Learned all formulas. 

6. I kept PMBOK guide just for reference. Didn't even read fully once.

Now it was july 26th by the time I complete all the above.

7. Now I started reading the notes fro PMP Comprehensive Notes - Chowdary. 

8. On July 28th I just did rita fast Track and july 29th just read the notes from Chowdary.

9. July 30th I gave exam and passed with flying colors.

This is my journey.

Reading too many books or notes doesn't pass you the exam. It is how you understand the concept. Once you get that exam will be very easy for you.