Just PASSED the PMP exam 2 hours ago!  Wanted to write my lessons learned while it's still fresh in my head and since I found myself pouring over everyone else's success stories, being inspired to study when it was really TOUGH to do so.  Hopefully it will help others too. Thanks PMZilla community!!!

RESULTS

• Initiation: MP
• Planning: P
• Executing: MP
• Monitor & Closing: P
• Closing: MP

I passed the exam with 2 intense weeks of studying (over the winter break and this past week).  

PREPARATION

Mock Exams

200 Question Full Mock Exams

• PMStudy 1 = 66%,
• PMStudy 2 = 77%
• PMStudy 3 = 75% and just took them yesterday, the day before, and the day before that).
• Andy Crowe = 86% @ Velociteach website.  Andy is a nice confidence booster.  :)

Textbook Quizzes/Others

• HeadFirst 50 Qs= 66%
• HeadFirst 50 Qs= 66%,76%
• Rita ~ 77% average overall score (all chapters)
• Crowe ~ 85% average overall score (all chapterss)

Conclusion/Recommendation

The questions are easier to read in the real exam compared to Rita, HeadFirst, and PMStudy.  The questions/language seemed more straightforward.  Had maybe 1 or 2 questions where there were 4+ lines of text.  Most were 1-2 lines!  

HeadFirst's exam is REALLY LENGTHY AND WORDY.  Reminds me of Rita's quizzes in the back of her book.  The level of difficulty is right on par w/ Rita's, if not moreso with the lengthier questions.  There's also a greater focus on ITTOs whereas I didn't see that so much in Rita's quizzes.  

Take the FREE, quality mock exams out there.  I paid for all 4 PMStudy exams but didn't get to practice the last one as I just took them over this weekend.  It was still worth it but if I had more time, I would have researched further into the quality free exams like HeadFirst. If others were in a timecrunch like me and didn't have time to look into the free exams, I would still recommend PMStudy, especially if you didn't read the PMBOK like myself.  PMStudy provides answers/"justification" to each answers that are straight out of the PMBOK w/ page #.  Study the justifications to the incorrect answers.  Again, the justification is verbatim w/ PMBOK.

Reading Material

• Andy Crowe - 1st  week over the winter break - I read this since it wasn't as intimidating as everything else.  Didn't even touch the PMBOK.
• Rita - 2nd week (this past week) - After the overwhelming positive reviews here and especiallly on Amazon, I forced myself to squint and look beyond the perceived condescending air in her book.  Personally, it doesn't bother me and it felt much more personal and interactive that way, which helps when you're reading a large 400+ page book w/ the tiniest font.  She's also absolutely true about real world project management.  

Conclusion:

• Glad I read both books as one misses something that the other one covers.
• Both books can do a WAAAAAYYYYY better job on more complex practice questions for earned value calculations.  Ooooh and Rita says you don't have to memorize NPV but YES YOU DO!  Thank goodness I downloaded Abishenk's "cheat sheet"!  

AND FINALLY LESSONS LEARNED

• I wasn't nervous but very, very relaxed and calm...too calm it seemed and thought that meant that I was going to fail but it worked out fine.  
• Yes, go ahead and do the last minute scramble studying if you function well that way.  I do!  And thanks to the last minute studying and scrambling the night before, I was able to do the EVM and more complex time management calculations!  
• As for memorizing and doing a "data dump" on "page 43,"....It helped me understand the concepts better BUT don't waste your time writing it all out during those precious 15 minutes if you've practiced doing it all along.  By the time you get to exam day, it'll be well versed...in your head, not on paper.  It was time consuming and cut into the time of the real exam.  
• I wish I purchased HeadFirst as my first guide since the first thing I ever purchased to study for the PMP was the PMBOK and that just turned me off all together.  But now that I can get past the way PMBOK does the boring numbered outline thing, I've found that there are a lot of gold nuggets if I just look pass all the convoluted flow charts and the dryness of it all.  I know it has been recommended by many to stick to one book but I get easily distracted and find and fill gaps by x-referencing material.  That's how I roll!
• I was SO BADLY regretting that I didn't take more time to study for the exam or take 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 months to study but now that I went through the journey, I'm glad I didn't sacrifice more time than neeeded.  Of course, that's easier to say AFTER THE FACT.  ;)
• I know there are mixed feelings about Andy's Quick Guide but I love it!  After studying each chapter in such detail, then having to come to terms that I had to answer 200 integrated questions (i.e. you know you're going to be tested on procurement if you're taking a procurement quiz lol), it was all too overwhelming for me.  Andy's laminated quick guide was a really nice overview.  Yes, it doesn't have everything but that's the point!  
• Like a fellow test taker who earned their PMP certification today, I too, was taking 2-2.5 hours to take the 200 question exams at home.  Taking the actual exam took about 3.5 hours, AND THEN I reviewed the questions I marked.  
• I'm glad I didn't mark many questions.  Sometimes, you just know it or you don't and it's a matter of guessing.  I didn't want to waste my review time on questions that I knew I would purely be guessing on.  Instead, I saved the marked questions for those that required extensive, time consuming calculations.  All in all, I think I counted 10 marked questions.  
• Wish I found this site sooner.  It would have drastically improved my procastination about studying and setting up the appointment for the exam!

AHhhhhhh now I can have a LIFE AGAIN!  Time to go shopping!  Hang out w/ friends!  Get my nails done!  Woohoo!

Good luck PMP aspirants (a new term I learned by reading through this site :) ).  Hope this helped!