so I wanted to share the study plan that I set for myself after a year of studying on my own and failing my first attempt at the CPM SM so I have many years in the healthcare administrative position and credentialing position and working with the Joint Commission CARF accreditation and different healthcare organizations over the past 15 years my first attempt at the CPM SM was actually I studied for a long time I studied longer than six months I read the book daily the CPM SM study guide from Lambs and I missed it I believe it was about by 40 points so I missed it by a good amount of points so I came home that same day that I failed and I wrote out exactly how I was going to be successful I put a place together in my home I put a crate of all my study material that I had pretty much just in my purse in my bag and a separate death so I put it all together figured out how I wanted to set it all up the other thing I made sure was I researched how I could be successful other than studying so I started to increase my vitamin my supplement intake I read up a lot on what were the best supplements to take walls studying well and needing help with memory so I increased my vitamin D B and E and zinc and magnesium and magnesium specifically so I could rest well obviously you should be well rested and then in the early mornings I would take a daily brain boosting tea so I do I am a person that believes a lot in your nutrition and the herbal intakes and the vitamin intakes you have affect your daily mood your memory your health from head to toe I should say from mind to toe so if you like to know what those teas are oh and I swear by them even now I can post that for you otherwise you can you know Google search and meet up with your super health nut friends and they'll have a lot of recommendations as well I started to increase my leafy greens as I knew that would be good for my memory good for my mind good for my spirit so I just did spinach a little cut of ginger and filtered water and my bullet every morning it was actually pretty delicious I even drink it now the other thing that I started to implement was 30-minute walks every day just to make sure the blood is flowing to my brain exercise is something that I truly despised and I dread but I was focused on getting a high score I was focused on passing and obtaining my certification I didn't want to have a repeat so I try to make sure that while I was walking I was trying to meditate and think positive things and when I meditate when I was doing my meditations during my walks I made sure to tell myself things not like not things that were general but very specific things like I am enjoying this process I will score 600 it's crazy and of course I didn't reach 600 I'm not even sure what the highest score is but I didn't reach it I believe in my own personal success things of that nature that really helped me just calm down and think about being successful and obtaining my CP MSM I tried to do them I tried to do my walks right before my study I tried to do my affirmations during my walk before my study and then your practical tools every NEMS workshop or webinar or study buddy that I've ever had swore my flashcards I used them as well I don't know I guess I thought that they were like any other of the other practical tools what I like to do is I like to write a lot so I used maybe about six different notebooks and I wrote a lot of notes in pencil different color pens I used a lot of highlighter I use blue ink black ink reading greening purple ink I love note-taking and when I was studying the notes and writing them and then rereading them I would I wouldn't think necessarily as a credentialing specialist I would think as if I were an auditor how would this particular section apply to me as an auditor what would I be looking for in a chart what would I be looking for in a file so I tried to think of it that way so that I could capture what I was studying I created a daily calendar and I tried not to miss a day of it and if I did I doubled up the next day but I never missed more than I did I am recording child I did use the names study guide which is a big chunk and then they provided so many useful tools we had a lot of print out site I went to a couple of the workshops are going to attended the webinars and there was always study resources that they gave out so I incorporated those into my studies I googled privilege forms I asked friends for blank PDF copies of their privilege forms I looked up the hospital's itna s protocol I spoke to different people in the hospital I spoke to the risk manager I spoke to the peer review person I spoke to the quality person well one of the quality people so I tried to use as much information as my disposal as possible and I try to use as many people as possible every time I knew someone was studying or just passed the exam I tried to pick their brain and figure out what really helped them and then we talked about how every workshop was pretty similar and we still didn't get the best way to study we still couldn't figure it out and we had to do it on our own so I figured let me try to put together what has worked for me and what I know really helped me was having a lot of structure oh this is what I've already mentioned so when I talked to the people I asked I asked each one when we get audited or when you have to go through an audit for the Joint Commission for your wreck what is it exactly that you're reporting and what is it that you know for sure they're going to ask for they're going to look at they're going to make sure they log and talk to you about so that's what I did and some people were really great at giving me the details and showing me the standards that they were following and showing me what they produced to those standards so the people in your organization are actually very willing to let you know how they do their job how they're successful with accreditation with those people I took notes I added them to my notes and I added them to my study calendar so this is what my study calendar would look like on Monday I would study password rules fellowships caps Tuesday patient complaint you know so I would have every single day scheduled every single day and if there was one day that I missed the next day with double-up so if I miss Friday fppe oppe then that means Saturday I was studying the standards and I was studying fpp oppe so I wouldn't give myself much of a break at all because I needed to get my certification these are just some of my notes I had I had so many notebooks I bought notebooks that were specifically for this I didn't add any of the ones that had color but you get the picture and again I thought about it like not only is it credentialing specialist but adds an auditor the other thing I did was I reached out to Nancy and my chapter on my neighboring chapters so I'm in Illinois and I reached out to Indiana Indiana leadership was very supportive I attended some of their trainings I really loved how they led how they lead their chapter and how they lead their members so it was grateful for that I found webinars doing a google search my coach was Donna G is what I called her her for name is listed there I also reached out to her and she we would have phone conferences I think twice a month and she also helped me by being my study coach so she was one of the people that I made sure I had in my schedule like I would have her at lunchtime because even during my lunch I made sure I was studying I made sure I was thinking about my certification or I was walking or I was meditating or was making sure I had all my supplements at my T's a day and then I also took I believe it was a six-week online course I can put the details in the comments if anyone is interested in that but that course helped me think of studying with acronym studying shortcuts so that was a course that really really helped me and it wasn't very expensive I mean it wasn't cheap but it wasn't very expensive it was what I felt needed to be invested to help me get through the certification there's a LinkedIn study group I hope it's still around it did help me to have another form of writing out quote-unquote or typing out the notes with someone or with a group of someone so that was also helpful I tried to find a study buddy and I got connected with one through Donna G so again Donna helped me in obtaining a study buddy and she helped by coaching me I believe I believe she was an AM Sleater for many years and she's still in a mess instructor so I can't recommend to her so the day of the exam will help me was I my testing location was right in front of a park and I got to walk 30 minutes before my test I got I was able to fit in a 30 minute walk right before my test I had my Chi that morning I had my I actually didn't have a leafy green salad I don't I don't believe I did I think I had a spinach juice that morning that I did again with you know spinach filtered water and a little chunk of ginger and I took my tea and while I was doing that walk again I was telling myself that I was going to go into score very high that I needed to release any negative feelings I felt and that I needed to remain positive and during the test I left things that I was for sure and not certain were correct I still left them flag I answered as best as I could and I left them flagged because I just felt there was no need to own flag them I submitted my tests and thankfully at that time you got your exam results right away I know that's changed since then but I got my results right away and I was happy to report I did not get a 600 but I did pass my CP MSM and I am now nationally certified with nem so I wish you the best of luck feel free to leave any comments let me know if there's any other way I can help I have more pictures of what the rest of my calendars look like the rest of my notebooks look like what my study crate look like I had cleared out my desk and a chunk of my living room just for studying so the family knew that when I was studying they couldn't bother me at all they couldn't turn on the TV they couldn't make a lot of noise even the dogs were quiet unlike this video so good luck