Guys.. I am feeling great after passing my PMP exam yesterday. But let me tell you it took detailed study and application of knowledge to make this happen. Only memorization will not help you to get there. You need to rally understand the basic concepts and apply those correctly in time crunch situation.

My Scores:

Initiatition   - Moderately Proficient

Planning  - Proficient

Executing - Proficient

Monitoring and Control - Proficient

Closing - Moderately Proficient

How was the exam:

The question started with difficult level and little bit wordy but once I crossed 50 question they look little bit simple to me (May be I was totally involved :))

Since there were no negative marking, I answered every question and marked those which I found confusing. Please note that it takes good amount of time to answer atleast 80% of questions. It took me 3.5 hours to complete all the questions. This is because. I was rereading the question and that helped me to correct my answers on atleast 5 occasions. I had targetted 60 questions per hour and was able to do that quite well.

Exam tries to fool you with obvious option that looks correct according to situation but there is one KEYWORD in  question which rules out all possible good option and force you to select the worst answer you might think.

My Observation

First and foremost observation is there is not a single question on Profession responsibility section. I dont know whether they removed it from course.

There were atleast 20 questions from Earned value measurments (some of them were very simple), close to 5 questions of Critical path method (PDM) and another bunch of questions related to EMV and lines of communication. This was the best part of the exam. Please remeber these questions take lot of time to answer but dont get frustrated with time as these would be 100% correct if you do it well. I advise you not to skip these question and you might not get enough time in the last to solve these. Remeber these are scoring questions and qorth spending little bit extra time.

There were lots of questions of Risk management and Conflict management and how to handle change.

My Strategy

I started studying about a month ago.Following are the books I referred.

1) RITA
2) PMBOK
3) Head First
4) Rajesh Nair's Note
5) PMZILLA forums for motivation and last minutes preparation

I started with Head first and will advise everyone of you to start with this book. This is only book you wont get asleep while reading. Believe me PMBOK is so boring and wordy that you feel like you are reading typical engineering book with no interaction with the reader.

I recommend reading RITA 2 times. I read it 15 days ago and it took me almost 10 days to complete. Remember I am a full time consulatant so get only 4-5 hours to study. Second time I completed the full book in 10 hours during kill hours of preparation. 

I got lot of motivation from PMZILLA forum about last minute preparation. So I used last 2 days to revise PMBOK and Rajesh Nair's notes.

But most important part was I made my own notes (in written, not word or excel) on following topics which I think was key to my success.

1) All Formulae (EVM, Critical path, PERT, Present value, EMV, Fee calculation,Lines of communication etc)
2) Complete process how to handle a change ( This is very imporatnt. You will get atleast 10-15 questions related to this)
3) Complete closure process
4) Qulaity Assurance Vs Quality Control (In fact I remembered ITTO only for this Knowledge area which was very fruitful)
5) Quality and HR motivation theories
6) Conflict source and conflict management (this is very important section)
7) Risk matrix for Procurement (Buyer Vs Seller)
8) Project Selection criteria
9) Power Interest Grid
10) What does these document contains - Scope baseline, project charter, staffing management plan)
11) Rita;s planning process chart. Only this is important as the processes are exactly in same order.

I carried these 6 pager notes and revised in last minute and used first 15 minutes to write them down to scrap paper. I was remembering everything but still had a piece of mind that in case I dont, I have them with me legally :)

Rajesh Nair's notes are very handy in last minute but I advise it onlyy when you complete reading RITA twice. You would be able to relate it very well. 

I was very nervous and almost closed my eyes when I submitted the results. I think this one really test your patience and of course application of knowledge.

Best of luck guys who are preparing for it...

Thanks,
Amol