I am happy to share that I am PMP now. It took  almost 3 months to achieve the credential.Thanks for sites like PMzilla, deepfriedbrainproject, pmhub which are invaluable and helped me lot for my preparations.

I have been continuously reading all lessons learned from other members.  Now its my turn. Here My Journey follws……

Contact Classes

        35 hour contact classes from Madras Management  (finished on  28                       march 2012 )  Institute in Doha, Qatar. 

       Study Material

  1.  PMBOK  – 2 Times

  2.  Rita Mulchahy 6^th edition -  2  Times

  3.  Madras Mgmt. Institute slides – 1 Time

  4.  Rajesh Nair Notes  - 1 Time

   5.  Raga’s 355 points  - Time

 Mock Up Exams

   1.  PM Fasttract 6v  (Tougher than actual PMP)

   2.  Christoper Scordo Approx. 1000Qs ( Very useful which covers almost          all PMBOK).  which is free accessible PMI members.

   3.  Oliver 175 Qs  & 75 Qs.

    4.  Farndales  262 Qs ( Very useful. I rate this is similar to actual PMP             exam)

    5.  Headfirst 200 Qs.

I recommend to do more mockup exam as much as possible before actual exam and find your gaps and rectify them. That will be enough to pass the exam. If you do so, there is no way to fail in the exams. 

Actual Exam

 I scheduled my exam at 8.30 am on 11/06/2012. I reached Prometric center an hour before.  As the center opens at 8 o clock, no one was there in the center. I parked my car and  remain seated for half an hour with lot of tension. There were some other people also waiting. None of them were attending  PMP exam. Most of them trying for LEED.  At 8 o clock, exam centre was opened. At first they called my name and security check was finished in 5 minutes.

Then they allotted  place and I spent only 4 minutes for introduction. I spend remaining 11 minutes to write down  page no- 43 & formulas. However, I did not refer the sheets throughout my exam. I felt relaxed, when I start answering the questions, it was not much tougher for me. I read all the question & answers two times. I could answer 55 questions an hour approx. I marked only 19 questions for review. I finished 200 Qs in 3 h 40 m.  I spend 20 minutes for reviewing the marked question. I changed only 6 answers.  Since I was enjoying to answer the questions, I did not feel tired during my exam. Thus I did not take break at all.  After that I selected go for survey,  once I finish survey I got results in the screen as pass.

My Result

Initiation  -      Proficient

Planning    -     Proficient

Executing  -     Proficient

Monitoring & Controlling  -  Proficient

Closing    -   Moderately Proficient

But actual exams are not tough at all as some people say. Only thing you have study continuously without gap and do more mock up exams.  

Nice experience to me........... 

Thanks & Regards

Sureshwaran, Indian working in Qatar