I am happy I did it and I am happy it is over. 6 weeks of studying and worrying. I had a training in February and was postponing ever since. Finally I scheduled for end of July and started studying. Here's my short LL.

1) Schedule in advance and give at least 6-8 weeks to get prepared. It's not only about the effort, it is about the duration, at some age it just takes a while for the knowledge to nest in your brain and it was a case with me.

2) Do the test at the beginning to first, discover your grey areas, second to compare later how did you progress.

3) First objective is to cover knowledge, so you are not faced with terms that does not ring a bell, e.g. I did not know terms like value analysis/engeneering, constructive change, kaizen, herbzberger etc.. I used PMBOK (I kept the PMP bible under my pillow) and Ritas. I started with full PMBOK (I preferred reading it by process group rather than knowledge area) and later clarified some topics with full read of Rita's. She is annoying but she knows what she is talking about and gives good hints and practice excercises !

4) Later, focus on remembering ITTO, however I just remember 42 processes and key output & tools and some basic inputs (i.e. like business case or project statement of work for charter)

5) Once you're complete do the, tests, tests, tests. I did more less +- 1200Q

6) Benchmarking, perfect tool to see where you are, I compared my results with the ones who passed and it seemed a week before the exam I was on the right track. Here are my results:

- Rita's end of chapter (75-85% depending on chapter) 

- Lehmann 175q - 75% (two weeks before)

- PM ZILLA tough 30 (50% a few days before !!!)

- Fast Track - PMP 200q (80% +- week before) - that one gave me the confidence

the last one was FastTrack Super PMP (two days before, full 4 hours to complete) 64%

The feedback from the real exam:

- I got 4Ps and MP in Closing

- The question were NOT lengthy, majority of them were max two lines of text, so no time problem. It was a huge PLUS point, becasue I was worrying about lenghty question requiring a lot of reading ...

- EVM VERY easy, about 10q, simple math, no tricks, sometimes you had to figure out what is the EV or PV based on the provided text (e.g. 20 % complete of 4weeks project)

- CPM question very easy, sometimes you need to draw the diagram yourself, however with max 5 activities.

The questions were not that difficult, I would not say easy, but not tricky as many Rita's questions. Sometimes (not many questions though) they were tricky in a way that the text suggests you by providing some info (i e contract, risk, quality words) in which knowlegdge or group you are, however you need to figuere out you are in different area/group.

I need to manage the stress, my first question was lengthy and tricky, it took me 3 minutes to select an answer which I was not sure at the end. It made me nervous, luckily after 30q I was back on track when set of straightforward questions apeared ...

Thanks PMZILLa which I visted during my PMP journey, the benchmarking with others is great, it gives a confidence or just you know when you need to reschedule...

now it's time for holidays. Special thx to my "understanding" family !!! my wife who gave me support and needed confidence.

Zbyszek, PMP