TOPIC: 10 days left for exam, feeling anxious

Dear fellow PMP aspirants, I seek your candid opinion about my situation.

Preparation Background
I have completed Joseph Phillips udemy course for PMBOK 5th and 6th edition
Took one paper-based full exam about three months ago and scored 60%

Timeline
My PMI membership expires on 7th July, 2018
Currently Scheduled an exam on 20th June with the room for second attempt between 4th to 7th July.

Plan for first attempt
Working full time for exam and prepared to study 15+ hours
4 hours - Take Full length exam daily till 6/20 from PrepCast exam Simulator
3 hours - review each wrong choices and make notes
8 hours - review material from weakest section based on simulation results, memorize concepts etc

Budget & Constraints
There is no constraint on money for buying Simulator or rescheduling exam fees or fees for second attempt.
Only concern is time, I need to get PMP before 7th July.

Feedback
I know a lot depends on situation and many of you would have questions about few things
However, considering only 10 days left and no time for back and forth
Do you think its a good plan as laid above ?
or
Reschedule exam for last available date till July 7th and prepare more for the target date ?
if so how would you modify current plan ?

Thanks for your feedback.
Amit

Everyone is different, but here are a couple of quick comments:

1. Are you seriously going to study 15 hours per day? Frankly, I worry that such a schedule will be counter-productive. Even a full 8 hour day of study would be difficult, but it seems far more realistic to me.
2. Similarly, I would caution about a full 4 hour test every day. I did one every other day, with the day in between devoted to re-studying the areas where my last test showed I was weak.

Make sure to build in time to get some exercise, talk with friends/family and generally blow off steam. Get some fresh air, take a walk.

Again, you may well be very different from me (for your sake, I hope you are ), but for me your schedule would have been a self-fulfilling prophesy of failure -- I would have felt the pressure to pass, compounded by being exhausted by the study schedule -- and, in the end I would have tanked. I also had to finish my studies on an accelerated schedule because I had a sudden personal commitment come up, forcing me to finish in 1.5 weeks when I thought I had a couple of months left. In the end, I only did 4 of the practice exams before sitting for the real thing. It worked out, and while I worked hard every day studying (after work each day and longer on the weekends), I made sure to keep a more sustainable pace. I didn't want to walk in to Prometric's office physically and emotionally destroyed.

Beyond that, I think your general approach is logical, and I gained a GREAT DEAL of benefit studying my wrong answers after each full 4 hour practice test. I not only found the study areas where I was weaker, I also discovered habits I had while taking the test that were counterproductive.

All that being said, good luck!!

Tracy

Reschedule your exam for the latest date possible.

The plan is specific enough, but you may need to adjust it based on how you do on the mock tests.

Also on the last 2 days before the exam start ramping down. You need to rest to do well on the exam.

Good Luck!

Thank you, Tracy and Genevieve, your feedback is timely and encouraging.
I will continue with my plan with the following changes.
Completed purchase of PrepCast Exam Simulator.
Take a call of rescheduling or take the exam 2 days (6/17) before the exam based on facts and trends discovered from 6 exam analysis.

It sounds like a plan. If you have the ability to watch, or at a minimum listen to the videos, you might glean some extra stuff though. The exam alone won't cover everything. But yes, it will help you know your weakest areas.

I completed 1st exam with 61.5% (123 correct out of 200).

I observed following trends in 1st exam.
1) Ran out of time for last 30 questions
2) Got 21 correct of last 30 questions which were completed fastest due to time running out.
3) Verbalizing long question impacted my speed initially however as I stopped verbalizing my speed improved in last 30 questions
4) Spend total 5 min of exam time to dump 49 processes, formulas, org matrix etc however it did not help.
5) Took 2 min break every 25 questions.
6) Initiating is the weakest domain
7) Communication and Schedule Mgt are the weakest knowledge domain

Root-Cause: Time management

ToDo before Exam 2:
1) Review all 77 wrong choices
2) Review Initiating domain
3) Review Communication and Schedule Mgt

Action Plan to cure root-cause:
1) Maintain speed right from start, 50 seconds per question
2) Practice reading question first, then answer and then content
3) Mark question with the best option based on what I know in 50 sec.; if not sure then Mark and move on.
4) Do not dump since I already remember them, instead dump whats needed when needed JIT.
5) 2 min break every 50 questions.

Question:
1) Does anyone know how to strike out choices in simulator?
(I could not find the option but in test analysis there is a filter by strikethrough option)
2) Any feedback on improving my root-cause ?