Hello all,

I had appeared for my first attempt at PMP in August 2011. I came to know of the syllabus change only 15 days prior to the actual date, so thought to give a shot by preparing for just about 2 weeks. As many would think, this amount of time was very short - this turned out to be true and as a result of very short study time, I flunked.

I appeared for my second attempt today and was thrilled to pass the exam with 3 P and 2 MP.

Back in Aug 2011, I had purchased only Rita Exam prep - Sixth edition. When I was preparing for my second attempt, I was not very sure of what the changes would be in the latest - 7th edition, but after going through a few posts on PMZilla, I realized there are hardly any new amendments in the new edition. So, I decided to stick with the sixth edition of the book. 

I spent close to 2.5 months in preparation, but became little more focused in the last 2-3 weeks. I read the book once, marking all the important points I thought would be useful upon revision. Thereafter, revised 2 more times. I did not refer any other book other than this. 

Mock test - Had taken only 2 full length tests -  PMStudy (66%), Examcentral (72%). My scores in these test may be deceiving for some, because I had attempted these tests only after 1 reading of the book. I did 2 more revisions and did not take any other mock test thereafter.

My approach was simple - I did not wanted to go through lot of materials. I just wanted to focus on the one that is more reliable and recommended by many. I made sure I am thorough with my preparation using this resource.
 

Actual Exam - The exam was scheduled on April 17th. The first few questions were wordy and since I was not tuned to the exam mode in the beginning, I marked a many for reviewing later.  Once I got into the real mode, I was talking real business. I proceeded with an SPI of greater than 1 and ensured I understood the question or the situation described well enough and then proceed with what I thought would be the righ answer.

I was prepared with the fact that with wordy or situational questions, I might spend little more time, but with simple and straightforward quesitons, I would go with a rapid pace.

During the exam, I was dehydrated but wanted to get through almost all the questions in one sitting, so took only one break at question 199.  :)

After completing the exam questions and a short survey, I was thrilled to see Congratulations message.

I benefited a lot from this site and want to thank everyone who posted their valuable comments. Hope my message might be helpful to some.

Thanks,

Hitesh