Passed my PMP exam on 7/29.  First try.  I took all 4hrs, marking the Huh, WTF? questions and coming back to them.  I think i had 19secs left when i finally hit end exam.  The screen after like 3 pointless minutes said Congratulations.  It took me like 30 seconds to understand what congratulations meant because i was so mentally drained.  

I guess this means im an expert at answering tricky questions.  Thats what i felt like it really gauged. 

I took a PMP bootcamp on 6/10 because my company paid for it.  I found little value in it as it really only taught the basics.  I did find out that the exam is changing on July 31 so maybe that was worth the 2000 bucks. 

I studied for about a month averaging about 4hrs a day.  I took a week off work and i think i was putting in close to 10hrs a day to cram as much as i could to attempt the exam.  I wont ever do that again nor do i recommend it but my goal was to atleast give it a try before the PMBOK 4 book became obsolete. 

PREP

PMBOK as a reference only.  LIke most, i found it hard to read cover to cover. 

Rita v6, this was easier to read but she kept telling you that you will fail if you dont go back and re-read the previous paragraph. 

Rita's end of chapter exams, a bootcamp prep test (which was pretty easy) & 4 PMStudy exams (hard has hell).  PM Study was very challenging.  I averaged around mid 60s on each exam on the first attempts, i dont count second attempt scores. 

Memorized pg 42.  I think thats pretty standard now.   Memorized about 25% of the ITTOs. Fortunately the ones i memorized or understood somewhat were the the ones i got. 

Memorized formulas. 

EXAM:

No identical questions from any mock exam.  They werent kidding.  Read, re-read, Read again and then answer.  I had several where they led you down one path and then changed direction in the last sentence. Bastards!  :)

Not to many long scenarios.  The ones that were just consisted of alot of erroneous data. 

Calcs about 7 or 8.  I was upset i got so many. I think they did try to make the exam harder for thos trying to squeeze it in before 7/31. 

Critical Path like 5. In a couple of them the wording was confusing about setting up successors and predecessors,  That was frustrating becasue it proves nothing.  You can be excellent as solving these questions but if your grammar is a bit weak you might struggle and spend too much time trying to set it up.  I had one that i just couldnt figure out how to setup the path so i said screw it and marked C. 

TIP:

If you are looking all over the internet for mock exams i think you are wasting valuable time.  This is a 'train your brain' exam.  Like they keep stressing you have to think like they think, right or wrong in your world.  I chuckled at many scenarios that PMI suggested because in the real world they do not apply or atleast not in that order in most 'functionalized' environments like mine. 

I recommend PMStudy.com.  Take each 4hr exam in one sitting if you can.  These exams really make you think and helps you handle the mental torture of a 4hr PMP exam.  

Ali