Dear All,

I passed the PMP exam on 1st of December. I thank my wife, my kid and other family members for their extensive support in helping me make time for my studies. I also thank the creators of pmzilla.com as it is helped me in going through the lessons learnt, tips and suggestions from other members.

Below are my lessons learnt and few suggestions.

Reading Material
1. PMBOK.
2. The PMP Exam: How to Pass on Your First Try, Fourth Edition - Andy Crowe.
3. Rita's PMP Exam Prep, Sixth Edition.
4. Head First Pmp.
5. PMP Project Management Professional Exam Study Guide - Kim Heldman.
6. Flash cards from http://www.project-management-prepcast.com/ - Cornelius Fitchner.
7. Formula study guide from http://www.project-management-formulas.com/ - Cornelius Fitchner.
8. Made my own chart with all the ITTOs in it for all processes.

Practice Tests:
1. PM Fasttrack - Rita.
2. 75 Free questions - Oliver Lehmann .
3. 175 Free questions - Oliver Lehmann.
4. Free 90 Questions: PM Exam Simulator (http://www.pm-exam-simulator.com/) - Cornelius Fitchner.
5. All Questions after every chapter in Andy Crowe's book.
6. All Questions after every chapter in Head First Pmp .
7. All Questions after every chapter in Kim Heldman's book.
8. 105 Formula Questions (Part of formula package) - Cornelius Fitchner.

Preparation:
I began first by reading Andy Crowe's book and answered all the questions after every chapter. I used to spend 2 hours a day after office hours. Then I attended the 35hr contact program at PMI Chapter during which the content in Andy crowe's book started to make sense. In my opinion it was beneficial attending the classroom based 35hr contact program. After reading Andy Crowe's book, I started with Rita's book, read it once completely. By then I got a basic understanding of the processes and the terminology used. I did not answer the questions at the back of Rita's book as they were already present in the PM Fasttrack software.

It was time to go through the Pmbok book. I read it once until the end. I still felt the need to go through some other books and so read Head First which was a good book after which I read Kim Heldman's book. The method used was by the author was to go through the topics performance domain wise. This is different from what other books normally do. It has good examples and case studies.
I recommend reading this book, it is very good from exam point of view.

Just some tips to people who have started preparation, if you have started reading Rita's or Kim Heldman's books, you may take notes of the "Tricks of trade" or "Exam spotlight" points. They help in final review 2 days before the exam.

Before I began practice tests, I used the Formula study guide (Link given above) which is very good.
The package has:
1. A quick guide single sheet of all the necessary formulas for the exam.
   Tip: I used to dump all the formulas I learned every morning before I start anything else. I did this for 2   weeks until the last day.
   If you plan to do this, you might get a feeling in the second week that you know them already and no need to do dump them anymore. But continuing this process helps to etch them in your memory and also improve your speed of recalling them on the final day.
2. A detailed guide, explaining what the formula is about and when to use them
3. A 105 questions practice test only to test you on the usage of formulas for the exam.

I then started with PM Fastrack. Rita has done an amazing job in situational questions. The questions sometimes seems incomplete, but they are not and in a way it helps you create the scenario in your mind. Not all the questions are tough, there are easy and straightforward ones too. But the question bank is exhaustive with about 2000+ questions. However, the real exam does not contain questions as tough as Rita's. In my opinion the questions in Kim Heldman's and Andy Crowes book were close to the ones in the exam.

After finishing Rita, I tried out Oliver Lehman questions, and 90 free questions in PM Exam simulator. I did not make time to go through Andy Crowes Velociteach which is free for a week, if you buy his book. From the initial looks it seems good to try questions there if you have time.

I suggest to start working on full time practice tests atleast 2 weeks before the exam.
A lot of time is required to review the questions answered wrong and if you going through PM Fasttrack there are many questions to answer.

Another important tip is while answering practice questions, do not guess. There were some questions where I just was not clear which option is right but I used to guess. Somehow it was correct and so I missed it while reviewing the wrongly answered questions. Later the same question appeared else where with some slight word changes and option I selected last time was not there, so I got it wrong.
Then on if there is a question I am totally not sure about, I just marked it to check the explanation.

To learn the ITTO's for all processes, I made my own chart with all of the ITTO's on it. I used post it notes with different colors representing different knowledge areas. However I could only get a few different colors of postit and so had to share the same color with one or two knowledge areas :). Basically  what I did was write page 43 on the chart but with ITTO of each process as well. It took me about 4 hours to do this. I would recommend you to do this in the begining of your study phase as it will help alot understanding the ITTOs. I regret doing it just 3 days before the exam. It was so helpful in understanding the flow, you could see which processes shared the common Inputs, TT and Outputs.  Also you could revise content from the PMBOK guide just by standing in front of this chart and running through your memory right from the initiating process.

Finally I would suggest not to read much on the last day before the exam nor do any tests. People who are generally nervous during exam time can get their memory system malfunction during exam day, if you keep reading until the last day. I suggest plan such a way that you can rest your mind the last day before the exam and on the exam day as well.

Well hope this helps. Thanks to all who have shared their lessons learnt. I had taken suggestions from several people from this forum during my preparation. I congratulate all who have passed the PMP exam so far and I wish all the best to people yet to take their exam.

Best Regards,
Sam