I stumbled on this site while looking for PMI's PMP certification sample questions/test. And I also came across a few of the tips/experiences from folks who had taken the exam. After going through some of the posts I have to admit I thought I didn't prepare anywhere close to what most of the folks had stated. Anyway I thought of posting my experience to let folks know that PMP certification is not as difficult as some of the posts/threads have made it out to be and you should be able to get through if you have PM experience...

- Prepared for around 2 months and the material I used or referred to was Rita Mulcahy's book and PMBOK 4th edition. I did not use any other material or web sites. The only time I used some other source was for taking sample tests or practicing sample questions the last 2 weeks.

- I read through Rita Mulcahy's book (took me 20 days) and then read PMBOK (12 days). After reading PMBOK I read Rita Mulcahy's book a second time (7 days). You will be amazed how concepts/things which didn't make sense or which you didn't understand the first time round actually make sense the second time around. Also it's extremely important that you read PMBOK at least once as there are some terms which are not there in Rita Mulcahy's book. I suggest you follow whatever approach you want to follow and stick with it. Don't make the mistake of reading or following multiple books/websites as it will only confuse you and result in analysis paralysis.

- I didn't cram or memorize anything other than the 42 processes (I think Pg 43 of PMBOK - Fig 3-1 Project Management Process Groups and Knowledge Areas Mapping) and the PTA & EVM formulas (EAC, ETC, SPI, CPI, TCPI etc.).

- Do keep in mind I didn't memorize/cram anything else - no diagrams like the one shown on Pg. 42 of PMBOK, any Inputs/Outputs/Tools/Techniques etc. In fact I looked at couple of memory aids/notes etc. like Chowdary and Rajesh Nair notes and found them to be way too exhaustive. In fact I only had 2 pages of memory aid - Pg 43 of PMBOK which had the 42 processes and one for the formulas I mentioned earlier. That's it and nothing more. Keep in mind the whole purpose of the exam is to test whether you can apply the knowledge in practice, and not to test how much you can cram.

- If the above point doesn't make sense then you have to remember that the exam is a multiple choice exam and you don't need to memorize things - if you have read and understood most of Rita's book and read PMBOK you should be able to select the correct choice on the exam pertaining to inputs/outputs/tools/techniques.

- After spending nearly 40 days focusing on Rita's book and PMBOK, I started taking sample tests and practicing questions. This is where this web site came in handy as I got a list of websites which offer free exam/questions here. These are the sources I used for practicing/sample tests :-
    - Edwel
    - Headfirst
    - Oliver's 175 questions
    - Oliver's 75 questions on the website
    - PMzilla's free 25 tough questions
    - Techfaq360

I took these tests in addition to the practice questions in Rita's book (I think around 400 odd or so). After taking the test I used to go through the incorrect questions or the questions I didn't know much about but got lucky while answering. I used PMBOK and Rita's book as a reference for the same, especially PMBOK and this process acted as a second revision of PMBOK guide.

- I have to warn you about Voight (at least it didn't work for me) as I found some of the answers incorrect and they were focused more on memorizing/cramming. You will not find questions like those in the exam and I didn't find Voights very helpful.

- In the last week I bought the 4 test package from PMStudy as people had mentioned that the PMStudy tests were similar to the real tests and gave you an idea where you stood in terms of preparation. I have to say I didn't find too much of a difference between PMStudy tests and the other tests. The main difference was that there were some duplication of questions in the other exams while PMStudy questions were mostly original. My scores for the tests were :-
    - Test 1 (166/200). I ignored the marking out of 175 in this case as I was able to see the results of all the 200 questions
    - Test 2 (168/200)
    - Test 3 (164/200)
    - Test 4 (155/200)

- The review of the tests was more useful than taking the test and try to spend time in reviewing the test results. Also spend some time initially in getting basics right while going through Rita's (or any other) book and PMBOK. Don't hurry this process as this will be the basis for your preparation. No point in skimming or reading through the book(s) in just a week and then struggling the rest of the way through.

- The actual exam didn't seem that difficult as there were plenty of easy questions as well to balance the tough ones. I was done with the test in around 3 hours - I didn't mark any questions and didn't review the test once I was done as I find the exercise of reviewing counter-productive since it leads to second-guessing yourself and in my experience I have a better success rate with my initial guess/response than the latter ones. This approach depends on the individual and if reviewing works for you then definitely do so as you will have plenty of time to do so.

Hope this helps.