TOPIC: Moment of Truth - Need Moderator/PMP input & feedback ("Go" or "No Go" for Exam Testing)

Good Day Mark and Others,

I decided to open this as a new thread to ensure visibility among other Moderators/PMPs as I have to make an important decision with PMP examination testing. I welcome multiple points of view & input, as I need to make Go/No-Go call in the next few days.

I have proceeded on taking Exam 5 to serve as a baseline indication of whether to go forward with PMP Exam Testing on 2/22. My result was a 81% and was one of my first attempt passes so far from out of the exams taken. The only other pass I had was on a Second Attempt at 81% for Exam 1.

Here is a record of my test results so far in the Exam Simulator. From Exam 1 to Exam 5, there was a 23.7% improvement.
12/11/2016 Exam 1 (First Attempt) - 65.50% (Fail) (I=BP,Pl=BP,E=BP,M&C=BP,C=BP)
12/18/2016 Exam 2 (First Attempt) - 77.00% (Fail) (I=P,Pl=BP,E=MP,M&C=MP,C=BP)
12/28/2016 Exam 3 (First Attempt) - 79.00% (Fail) (I=BP,Pl=MP,E=MP,M&C=MP,C=P)
12/31/2016 Exam 4 (First Attempt) - 71.50% (Fail) (I=BP,Pl=BP,E=BP,M&C=MP,C=BP)
01/08/2017 Exam 1 (Second Attempt) - 81.00% (Pass) (I=P,Pl=MP,E=MP,M&C=MP,C=P)
01/15/2017 Exam 5 (First Attempt) - 81.00% (Pass) (I=P,Pl=MP,E=MP,M&C=MP,C=P)

Exam 5 Result:
Initiating - 86.36% P
Planning - 84.48% MP
Executing - 78.85% MP
M&C - 77.78% MP
Closing - 78.57% MP

This puts me near a window of 38 days until the exam. I need to receive advice on whether to proceed at the planned date of 2/22 based on these results provided, or if the recommendation should be to take an additional month extension to 3/22 by rescheduling the examination.

Potentially, there is an opportunity to make additional improvements in the time remaining (just a little over 5 weeks) (by how much, I do not know). As a worst case, I want to also consider if I am unable to make any additional improvements, holding steady where I am at, what is the likelihood of passing the real exam? Some of you may see things differently because I may have the blinders on, and I would like to be able to the receive those points of view to see another angle on this based on what you have found in your experience &/or observations.

I see the upside of extending to give additional time to improve in preparation, but the downside for me has been the impact of my time availability of nearly each evening/weekend through these months to my family/kids on top of the job. I am weighing those aspects as well. I have to somehow get through this as I feel like I am wearing down. If realistically this can look favorable to go for the testing on 2/22, then I want to go for it. I would strive to close on another 100 hours+ of study through the week day & weekends.

This forum has been a tremendous help and assistance. I have greatly appreciated all of the professionalism shown, and the encouragement to press on over the last several weeks. Thank you for any input you are able to provide to me on my behalf as I move toward a decision.

Sincerely,
Steven

Steven,

You've made some great improvement as you have progressed through your studies and exams. Do you really need to make the go / no go decision at this point? As I mentioned to you earlier, I waited until a week prior to my original scheduled exam and postponed. I absolutely understand your desire to press forward and just do it. I also reached that point in my studies. I think you should persevere and continue on. Use the statistics to identify your weak areas , focus your studies on those areas for a week and take another exam. Repeat. If you are still feeling uneasy by the end of the week of January 31st then you could still have plenty of time to postpone. If you can still put in another 100 hours of study before your exam date then I think you should be ready.

Mark

Thank you Mark. A few parts of consideration for now has been that if I do a reschedule before the 30 day window, it appears that I won't have to pay the $70 rescheduling charge. The other side is that a few days prior to testing, I am planning on taking time off a few days from work that will need to be coordinated with other team members to provide coverage or handling of escalations, which may impact other people's schedules. If I make the consideration now, it gives enough time to re-work the roadmap, and coordinate with family/work schedules ahead of time. I will have to make a call by Friday/Saturday. I am going to see if I can fit in one more Exam before/by then.

Have a great day!
Steven

Steven, I understand that you have a lot to coordinate / plan. I was fortunate that I didn't have that problem leading up to my exam. Good luck!
Mark

Hi Mark,

Thank you for all the feedback provided. I worked through some additional studying this week in trying to come to a Go / No Go. I found out that tomorrow is the rescheduling cut-off (without fee), allowing to take one more exam (Exam 6) today. I was able to improve from Exam 5 (81%) to Exam 6 (85.5%) that placed me with 4 Ps and 1 MP. From this point, I have roughly 4 1/2 weeks to prepare and close my gaps, possibly even moving higher. I still have 2 more Exams I can use to measure against and an ITTO exam. I have made the decision that I am going to go for it. I will be driving some questions to the forum in the meantime to get a better understanding on some things.

Regards,
Steven

Steven,

Congrats on the continued improvement. Sounds like a good plan. Go for it! I wish you all the best in your final stretch.

Cheers,

Mark