How I got prepared for PMP? Here what I did. 

You can't apply unless you complete 35 hour training, fortunately my company offered the course so I was able to clear that in a few days.Then I prepared the application and submitted. This application process is a little boring but keep your resume next to you and see what they are asking for.

I ordered Rita's book once I got approved and took PMI membership. The advantage of the membership  you save some $ 100 bucks on the exam but you pay $ 125 for the membership but you get access to PMBOK and other study material. Check out the benefits of membership. 

Ok the fun part starts. I studied for 2 moths, weekdays it was hard but weekends I tried to focus. It all depends the time actually you really focus on what you are reading. I studied on my own. I did not plan like day 1 or day 2. First I was in a hurry to finish up all the chapters, but by the time I got to half of the book  I decided to go back and review it quickly so that I can connect the things its talking about.  Then I continued with the rest of the chapters. After a while I got confused and started thinking why I got myself in to this mess :-)

I was getting confused between processes and work areas like what applies where, making connection between them, I understood when studying but when I close my eyes and tried to remember its fading. The method I followed was: From PMBOK I printed out Table 3-1. Project Management Process Groups and Knowledge Areas Mapping and started referring to it. It helped, and also Figure 3-8 Planning process group helped.

I answered all the questions given at the end of each chapter in 'Rita's' book, but did not see the explanation till I reached close to the exam date, if you see it you remember the answer, so don't see it. If you did not score well go back and read again.

In each chapter I took the main points and listed them out, so that it easy to remember - for example critical path,network diagrams in Time Management and list out FS,ES… , Earned Value in Cost Management and list out EV, PV and so on. Now by looking at or by thinking of it I knew what falls under what and also it helped to remember what comes next. If you noticed the practice exams it asks this, give a  situation and  what is the next step?

Think of the whole book as project and you break it down chapter by chapter and further each chapter by points till you get clear picture of it. Before you try to memorize there should not be any confusion on what is what. Practice on Network diagrams,EVM, and wherever calculations are there practice.

Note down inputs and outputs and be comfortable with that. I noted down all in xl and my hard drive crashed and I had no back up. So I did it again, this time paper and pen not on computer.

Don't be in hurry to get qualified, its not going to get you a PM job right away or your boss is going to give you a raise based on this. This is added qualification to show we have some brains :-) too. 

When I took the practice exam I felt sick, 4 hours - its hard to sit and focus as it is I have dry eye problem. I wondered how I can manage the actual exam. Trust me in between this so called 2 month preparation I got sick of it. So for few days I took a break- did not study & had nice wine, my favorite food and movie …. enjoyed it as if I got certified. It worked well,  I was able to focus again. Then I called special accommodation help line to get permission to take my eye drops in side of the exam room. On the first call I did not get good response when I called second time the guy at Prometric asked me to call PMI help line. PMI emailed one form to fill it up and informed me it takes 5 to 10 days to come up with a decision whether to allow me to have my eye drops with me in the examination room. I decided to go without it, too much hassle. So if you need any special accommodation, first call PMI help line and then decide when to schedule the exam.

Examination day: I went early (thank god some one mentioned its hard to find the place and gave some tips on how to find it) even though I have GPS I did not want to totally depend on it, so searched for the address and reviews on the prometric center. So I reached 45 min early. The guy asked me to come back or just sit there doing nothing. Luckily there was a Pizza place in the same complex so I had a slice and drink. To prepare for 4 hour marathon I took my 5 hour energy shot ( I use it once in a while when I need it, if it is first time for you don't use it) and put my eye drops  and all set to go.

I locked up my bag, and put the eye drops on top of the cabinet since the guy told me I am not allowed to reach to my bag in the middle of the exam, you can get out of the exam room but again go through the security check. So much for PMP they asked me to pull my pockets out, scanned with a detector, allowed me only my glasses and gladly they allowed me to keep my sweater on. Ok I am in the room, went though the introduction stuff, people told me I can get some time before actual exam starts so that I can write down all formulas and other stuff,  but I was not good at it I guess, I clicked on done I guess, my exam started, in the corner the digital clock is running, first few seconds I got lost. Then I decided not to pay too much attention to the digital clock on the screen, and tried to focus on the questions. Took my time to read it (tricky questions, so understanding the question is very important) and answered each one and marked the ones I was not sure of.  Of course in between I checked the time, I kept telling myself focus, focus.. In the end I had 45 min and 30 questions left, my heart beat went up, my brain froze for a sec. OMG can I finish it? I calmed down right away otherwise its going to bomb. Answered some questions really quick, fortunately they were straight forward and by the time I finished all, I was left with 5 min. So I reviewed the ones I marked, when I was reviewing the warning message popped up saying my time was up. I clicked on OK. The screen was blank for a few seconds, I thought for a second I lost all the work I did since it timed out, then the survey started - click click click, then I saw the End button and clicked on it.  Wow. then the beautiful screen said 'Congratulations' I thought 'Thank God.'

End of the story. Lessons learned, doesn't matter how much you get prepared if you panic in the exam room you can't remember any, even a simple question. Be prepared for the exam, make sure you are NOT  troubled by hunger or any other issue. Sleep well before the exam day. Be in good mood even if you have things not working out that day, don't think the days started bad and I am going to fail. Reach early. Keep your mind under control, read each question carefully, don't think you know the answer if you see something like the one in the practice exam, it may look similar but may be asking something else. It happened to me but I went back quickly and read it again.