I have cleared PMP on 26th October'15 at first attempt; finally hard work of 3 months has paid off!!

I would like to share my experience with forum members and future PMP's.

To begin with thanks to PM Zilla forum through which I got lots of tips which had saved time in searching right resources for PMP preparation, particularly about mock exams.

I have completed mandatory 35 contact hours through class room training from a reputed R.E.P (authorized by PMI). This has helped in understanding concept and techniques for exam, and resolving doubts during preparation. Other than study material provided by Institute I have gone through PMBOK and Rita 2-3 times. I have practiced almost 2000 PMP questions from various resources and after every 2-3 mock tests, referred PMBOK & Rita to understand PMI ways of handling project.

Everybody knows that most of PMP questions are situational and they test that how a project manager should handle the situation, memorizing PMBOK or any other reference book may not help until you understand the concept! As per my experience PMI test whether we understand the real issue/concept?  

To me this Exam (the crucial 4 exam hours) require focused approach as wordy questions may divert us from real issue, so have patience, keep your head cool, be relaxed and focus on real issue and answer keeping PMI way in mind (forget what we are doing in our project or what we should do). One must have time management and review the progress (run rate) after every 50 questions.

I have used following resources for practicing mock exam, which is also shared by many at PMZilla:

Headfirst lab, Scordo, PM Study, Exam Central, Izeinbridge, certchamp, projectmanagment & pm-exam -simulator.

Last but not the least, have a good sleep on the exam night and avoid practicing mock exam on the day of exam or a day before to test your readiness. This may increase nervousness and if you are not in control of yourself during exam, you can't control exam J. Thanks to PM Zilla and other bloggers for sharing their experience which has benefited me.

Good luck to all PMP aspirants,
Maneesh Kumar Sharma