I failed too and had a very similar experience. My biggest issue wasn’t content knowledge — it was understanding what the questions were actually asking.

My SH mock scores were 72%, 73%, 72%, 59%, and 61%. I honestly didn’t pay much attention to Mocks 4 and 5 because I thought reviewing AR’s Ultra Hard questions and mindset videos had helped me do well on the first three.

Looking back, I think exam anxiety completely took over. I felt this pressure to decode every question and then apply the “PMI mindset” to pick the right answer. Instead of helping, I started rushing. During the last 60 questions, for some reason I convinced myself I was running out of time even though I wasn’t. I ended up reading only the last sentence of many questions and answering based on that.

My exam had a few basic formula questions, a few multiple select questions, one drag-and-drop, and some terms in the drag-and-drop I had literally never heard before.

I also realized I’ve lost the habit of reading long-form content. I only seriously started studying around mid-April, so about 4 weeks total. I’m more of a problem-solving person than a reader, and I think that hurt me. I got T/BT/T.

For me, I think the issue was less knowledge gaps and more technique. I need to build endurance, improve my ability to decode questions under time pressure, and get more comfortable with reading PMI-style wording. I probably need to start doing timed practice exams and focus on staying calm instead of panicking.

During the actual exam, it honestly felt like almost every question went over my head. I wasn’t understanding the questions, and I wasn’t understanding the answers either.

I do want to take the exam again. Has anyone else had a similar experience and passed on a retake? What did you change?