Passed! Second Attempt!
First attempt, May 4, 2026: BT/T/NI
Second attempt, May 22, 2026: AT/T/AT
First attempt experience:
Well, I sat down for the exam earlier this month and about 5 questions in I had serious concerns that the organizers did not put me into the correct exam. In my previous experience, if I have no idea how it’s going - it’s most likely not going well. That was completely true.
I walked out of that building completely deflated, questioning my study methods, the countless pages read, and whatever knowledge I did have was knowledge I was not tested on. I was fully prepared for EVM formulas, critical path, PERT, you name it! None of it was on my exam.
If you have failed the exam, I highly recommend going through your exam breakdown. PMI typically has it available 24 hours after your exam regardless of outcome. It does identify the areas that you exhibit low or high understanding in.
Other resources that proved to be very helpful:
AR PMP Simplified Book + Online Course
This is a fantastic resource for understanding process.
YouTube: AR Mindset / AR 50 Principles w Questions and Answers / AR 200 Super Hard Q’s
This exam is all mindset, process questions also apply mindset. For understanding ensuring that your mind is in the correct headspace these resources helped me out quite a bit.
Study Hall
After reviewing a lot of Reddit posts I finally gave in Wednesday (2 days before my scheduled exam) and purchased Study Hall Essentials. These questions are arguably harder than the exam. The practice question section will review answers with you as you ask them. The practice exams are 175 questions and will time it for 4 hours. I spent Wednesday doing practice questions until I was redlining and Thursday morning I did one practice exam where I scored 77%.
Regardless of where you are in your journey - this exam is hard! Allow yourself a little patience and grace if it does not go the way you want it to the first time around.
Also, massive shoutout to this community! The discussions and conversations were incredibly helpful and encouraged me to get back into it and look at that 18 days later I turned the fail into a pass.
Don’t give up!