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Just failed RCA exam by 4 points — what am I missing?

by Megan P. 510 views3 replies
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Megan P.OP
May 27, 2026

Ugh, so I finally sat for my RCA certification last Tuesday after about six weeks of studying and walked out thinking I'd nailed it. Got my score report this morning: 71%. Passing is 75%. I'm honestly gutted because I put in real time on this — probably 40+ hours total between reading the official materials and grinding through an RCA practice test almost every evening.

Looking at the breakdown, I tanked the regulatory compliance section and anything touching root cause analysis documentation standards. The process methodology stuff I actually did fine on. I'm wondering if I was using the wrong resources — I leaned heavily on one study guide I found through a Google search, but it felt a little thin on the documentation side of things.

Has anyone else retaken this? How did you adjust your prep the second time around? I've got about three weeks before I can retest and I want to make sure I'm actually plugging the right holes this time, not just doing more of the same.

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Mike_T
May 27, 2026
Failed mine the first time too, by like 7 points. What helped me second round was ditching the broad study guide and going deep on the documentation standards — like, really understanding the difference between causal factors and root causes according to the actual framework. I spent two weeks just on that section. Also did timed practice sets instead of open-book review. Passed with an 82% on the retake.
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Ravi S.
May 28, 2026
Which practice test were you using? That matters a lot. Some of the free ones floating around are pretty outdated and don't reflect how heavily they weight the compliance piece now. I used a mix of resources and honestly the quality gap between them was huge. Also — did your score report give you subscore breakdowns? That'll tell you exactly where to focus instead of guessing.
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Carlos B.
May 28, 2026
Three weeks is plenty of time, don't panic. Focus on documentation standards and corrective action verification — those trip up almost everyone on the first attempt. You clearly understand the core methodology, so you're not starting from zero. You've got this.

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