To pass PMP exam you need to have these skills ready with you:

1. Real life project management experiences
2. PMBOK book reading, especially its IITO
3. Common sense and smartness with good situational questions reading/understanding skills
4. Comfortable to PMP type questions (Mock Test questions)

How you want to achieve this, its your call as every human nature and style of reading/understanding is different.

To start with you need to concentrate on Points (1) and (2), and this is what I can recommend:
1. Try to visualize things, think real life, watch managers and project management system across and note the observations. You might refer books like Rita, Andy and Headfirst as they have lots of such examples in their book.
2. Here you don’t have any choice except PMBOK, read the book couple of times. Every PMBOK line is a potential PMP questions. How you want to read and understand this….find out your own ways.
As per my experience, I feel point (3) and (4) comes after (1) and (2), so you can first think for (1) and (2).

You might have seen people posting lesson learnt, some making tips and blogs etc. End of day everything you read through these channels would come down to the 4 points I have said i.e. 80/20 rule.

People who have failed (read some failed lesson learnt too), if you understand it closely, you will be able to conclude that out of the 4 points I said, something was lacking in them.

To end up – Success story is like love story, if you copy, you can never fall in love. Make your own plan, see yourself and find out your own ways and finally post your own story.

Hi Shiva,

First of all welcome to the forum and congratulations that you have decided to take up PMP. I wish you best of luck and success in whatever you would like to achieve.

Now to some serious stuff:

Have you taken PMP classes? If the answer is yes then follow this:

Read PMBOK full once - Don't worry if you understand only 50%

Read another book - preferably Rita's or any other book that you find comfortable full and don't worry if you don't understand much.

Then read chapter by chapter either of the book and attemp the mock questions only for those chapters.

After you finish take the full test. Try two to three tests and make a note of areas where you are scoring less.

Read those areas again and give mock tests for those areas.

Now depending on the time read the whole PMBOK agian or the notes which you are supposed to make while you are reading. You need to keep making notes of things that you find hard to remember. 

If you are unable to make notes just use Rajesh Nair's notes.

If you haven't taken the course then please take the course first but if you want to do self study then start with Rita's book first or any other book that you may have purchased but not PMBOK. After you finish that book then read the PMBOK and then follow the rest of the steps above.

Best of Luck 

I would suggest to prepare your own roadmap, have your own strategy which suits you and worked for you in the past. Instead of reinstating everything here please have a look at

Check my blog  http://mypmpll.blogspot.in/2012/05/what-not-to-do-and-what-to-do-while.html

feel free to shoot your questions and there are many volunteers to pick and address. 

- Makarand, PMP

http://mypmpll.blogspot.in