Hello everyone, Disclaimer: PLEASE DO NOT CRAM IN THE LAST MINUTE! IF YOU HAVE THE TIME TO STUDY, PLEASE DO & TRY NOT TO PROCRASTINATE.

However, if you can’t help but procrastinate and you started studying in the last minute like myself, here’s a sign that it’s okay and you can still pass!

A little brief about my qualifications, i’ve got a Bachelor degree in HRM & a total of 2.5 years of experience.

I decided to register for the exam by the end of October. I opened their website to check for exam dates and realised there was only one day left for the “Early Bird” discount so I went for it! By then, I thought I had exactly the amount of time I need to start preparing for my exam. ~ 3 beautiful months ~????

I began searching for the materials that I wanted to use. I checked the LMS, got a slap in the face when I saw the price. I started reviewing more budget friendly guides, trying to compare between them, contemplating whether I should buy all of them, research research research…Luckily & finally, I stumbled across this life saving thread which clarified a million things for me and made it easier for me to decide on what resource I want to use to prepare for the exam.

https://medium.com/@hrsolutions386/passed-the-shrm-cp-some-advice-and-self-study-materials-2415a6455ae8

I purchased the following book(it was the only guide I used and it was the basis of everything)

SHRM-CP/SHRM-SCP Certification All-in-One Exam Guide (Willer)

Now to the best part, there was one month left for the exam, and I haven’t started studying yet! I wasn’t happy about it ofcourse. The emotional turmoil, stress and anxiety I was going through until the day of the exam was unbelievable.

Exactly 8 days before the exam, I got my shit together. I divided the topics in the book and scheduled my learning hours so that I could cover everything during those 8 days. It was horrible, the amount of info I had to process in such a short period was unbelievable, but doable. I did not learn everything by heart, I just made sure that I am aware of the concepts and processes.

Now, one thing I got to know is that without practice tests, you won’t really grasp how to answer the situational questions. My most important tip to you is, do practice tests like your life depends on it. No matter how much you learn the “knowledge”, if you don’t grasp the way they SHRM wants you to answer, you won’t get the score.

The practice tests I used are the ones available in the SHRM-CP/SHRM-SCP Certification All-in-One Exam Guide by the end of every chapter. The book also includes a CD with questions presented in an exam format, timed,scored and all. It gives you a really good feel of the actual exam.

I also found this 7$ resource on pinterest, it has around 800 question presented in an exam format. The best part, they actually thoroughly explain the reasoning of the correct answer.

https://payhip.com/b/4IUC

Finally, I purchased this practice test from certexamdb

My eight days were days where my face was buried in the book and doing a few practice questions everyday.

Whenever I couldn’t sleep from stress over the exam, i’d use Quizlet, they provide online flash cards that provide you with short definitions and short questions on different topics. Imp: Don’t depend on quizlet for studying, it’s more of a short revision on random topics.

Finally, exam day: I felt that due to the amount of info I processed in a short time period, I wouldn’t be able to remember anything during the exam. I honestly expected to fail. Gladly, I didn’t.

For revision, I printed the notes that @Andypizzle provided in the thread linked above, and used them to revise. 2 hours before the exam time, I stopped reading and revising. I just freed my mind because a 4 hour exam is definitely going to fry my brain!

Moral of the story, you can do it & you will do great!