I would like to share my experience with fellow members of this forum, I have extensively used the information available on this forum which I was preparing for the exam and I hope my experiences would help someone.

I started in the month of September accessing the Video tutorials available in my company's training portal, these video tutorials/hours spent also officially were my 35 PDU's. The material was good and I was only watching the videos and trying to understand the basic concepts, content for the PMP exam. My biggest challenge when I started studying was to keep my eyes open :-) as soon as the videos would start I would fall asleep, I believe this happens when you have lost not studied anything from a while, last I studied was for my MBA 8 years ago. My work schedule did not allow me more than 2 hours of daily studies on Weekdays and it took me a month to finish these tutorials, after which I immediately applied for the exam and once my application was approved I also scheduled my exam because I wanted a target date to plan my studies and achieve my goal. I personally feel having a set exam date takes out any complacency and helps focus better.

In the month of October I started reading the PMBOK, after PMBOK I read Rita’s book. After my first reading of the only study material I had decided to use ( PMBOK & Rita) I gave some free online tests and Oliver’s test, I calculated my exam scores but did not look at the correct answers to ensure I can use these tests again in the future. I went back to reading PMBOK again this time word to word very slowly, took my time because I had decided not to read both the books more than twice. It was mid-November by the time I finished my most fruitful reading of the PMBOK, fruitful because reading/studying the PMBOK second time made a lot of sense and I studied, logically understood everything present in the PMBOK. According to me if you logically understand the process flow diagram present in the PMBOK at the beginning of each process half the battle is won, everybody says PMBOK is dull and boring and I agree to a certain extent but if you logically try and understand the PMBOK it is actually the best and simplest source of information from PMP exam perspective.

My next stage between Mid-November to my exam date (9th December): I made a very wise decision and purchased the RITA’s Fastrack simulation, this simulation is expensive but it is worth it, firstly it has quantity – more than 1500 questions and secondly the most important thing this is that it enables your mind to think and answer from PMP exam perspective. I knew my company will pay for my exam fee and PMI membership so I went ahead and purchased this simulation, we spend many dollars on phones and tablets(by the way I use a Nokia phone with keypad) and what not, so why not spend on something useful which will help our career. The SUPER PMP simulation in this package is tough and helps you build up both mentally and physically for the 4 hour exam, do not worry or panic on your score in SUPER PMP if it is low/average, I did not take the easier free online tests available at this stage and went ahead with SUPER PMP 4 hour simulation, from time perspective I finished in 2.30 hours but I scored low (not telling the percentage ) Again I did not directly look at the answers but I could assess my gaps, I went ahead and started reading the Rita’s book now (2nd time) and worked on my weak points. I took PMP simulation available in the same Rita’s PMP package (easier than Super PMP) and I scored more than 70% this time but still with some weak areas. In the last 10 days I practiced with a lot of questions from Rita’s simulation package and free online simulations(PM Study, PM Central, Scordo from PMI website). One suggestion is to not look at the answers of Rita’s PMP and Super PMP when you take these tests first time because the questions tend to repeat and you are not going to do yourself any good if you score a test where you know answers of some questions. I knew I would be doing these simulations 2 times so I never looked at the answers of these test when I took them the first time (till date I have not and now I need not). Also, it was not possible for me to do all the 1600 questions from Rita’s Fastrack Package so I chose to do the simulations and mock exams by process groups which was again very helpful. My average score on most of the exams by this time was between 72-75% sometimes high 60’s and sometimes reaching 80-85% but the scores depended on the easiness of the mock tests. I would suggest do not get demoralized if you score low (65-68% according to me) in one or two tests or do not get over confident if you score 80 or 85+ in some tests.

The last part of my story – Exam Day: Personally I was trying to be confident and was not thinking at all about failing or performing poorly. Don’t be nervous if you are a nervous test taker, luckily I am not and I was smiling and laughing before my exam, looking at how cool and calm I was my wife felt tensed as if she was the one appearing for the exam and I was calming her down. At the end of the day it is an exam not a war so life will still move on even if you make a mistake. Be relaxed at all times before, during and after the exam. Then came the moment of truth when I sat down in front of the computer, the 15 mins tutorial started, I did not do any brain dump etc and in fact to relax and feel comfortable before I click on ‘Start exam’ I went through the tutorial, it is very funny (at least for me it was) as it teaches you how to use a mouse and click, drag etc. If you want to smile or have a good laugh just 2 mins before the real thing it is advisable to go through this tutorial (not for 15 mins though). Anyway my exam started and time was never an issue for me during my mock exams/simulations due to which I had decided to spend as much time on each question because I did not knew after 3-3.5 hours if my mind would be fresh enough to review and answer the marked questions but not all things work as you plan, there were 5-6 questions in my first 50 which I did not understand and could not answer at all, so I marked those. I finished the exam in 3 hours and had about 25-30 questions which were marked for review, so I reviewed all of them, there was one Mathematical question on SPI during the exam I spent 4-5 mins to solve it but could not so I marked it, while reviewing the same question I could find the answer in less than a minute, so yes marking questions helps even if your brain is tired. My Exam had a fair amount of all kind of questions, of course mostly situational but I also had a lot of Mathematical questions (20-25). I would not compare the level of difficulty of the real exam with any of the mock exams, not because the real exam was very tough or very easy compared to the mock exams but mock exams help you practice and prepare you to answer all kinds of questions in the real exam. I had 15 mins when I was done with all the 200 questions, I could not hear my heart beat because luckily within 3 seconds it flashed Congratulations!!! after I clicked end exam.

In a nutshell my experience is –
Study 2 hours daily at least for 2- 3 months, set a exam date so that you have a target
Don’t hate the PMBOK it is not that boring or dull
Do as many quality mock exams/questions you can get hold off
Do not panic and stay relaxed during the exam, 4 hours pass by as if it were 40 mins and believe me human body has the endurance to sit through an exam for 4 hours.
Lastly have fun, enjoy life…

Cheers!!!