Hi All, 

Glad that I could be part of you all writing a LL for the PMP certification. 

I cleard my PMP certification on 19th Jan 2015 :) !!! It feels great and a lot relieved. 

I am compiling my LL below. Sorry for making it a long one. 

I took a external PMP training to obtain the 35 contact hrs which are a pre-requisite to apply for the certification. Did this in the month of May 2014 (4 full day contact classes). This did help me to give a orientation, esp because I had no information on the certification prior to that. 

Read all the 10 KW chapters from HeadFirst in the month of  June 2014. I had been scribbling a few points as notes while doing this. 

I was planning to take the exam latest by Aug 2014, but didnt manage to. 

Did not even study beyond this effort spent in Jun. 

Starting Dec 2014 started skimming thru HF, the notes I had scribbled earlier. This was a very hotch-potch reading. But I did it only to make sure I come back to the PMP context before I start giving the exams. 

I took a Exam date. This was the most crucial step :). This helped me focus on studying with a deadline. 

I then started giving full PMP exams and also Scordo Tests. Gave the below exams - 

1. Rita Mulachy Fast Track (full exams twice) 

had scored around 65% to 70 % in both.   

2.  Scordo PMP Lite Exam 1 to Exam 7. I had not timed these. But gave them to understand the nature of questions to expect. 

3. PM Study full exam (the free one) - 70% 

4. HeadFirst Online full exam - 77% 

5. Scordo Exam 14 to Exam 17 - 76% 

Timed this one. and I think this was the closest to the actual one that I gave. 

I was planning to give some more exams (Oliver Lehman 75/175, all of the remaining Scordo exams, Simplilearn. but never managed due to the lack of time). 

Once the exam was completed, I would go back to all the questions (thwe right ones too), understand the explanation. If it would refer to PmBok, read that section from PmBok. This I think helped me a lot. while doing this I was practically reading the PmBok. 

After giving a few exams, I figured out which KAs am I scoring low in. Went back to reading those chapters from PmBok. By then I had realized quite a few questions were being framed on the text from PmBok. 

So reading the PmBok carefully is a real boost. I recommend reading the PmBok twice (read it, give a few exams and then read it again. HELPs !!!). Understand the concepts and the relativity amongst the different processes. you can then easily answer the ITTO related questions. Learning all the ITTOs is not practically possible unless you understand the relativity among them.  

All in all, I had only read HF and a few chapters from PmBok. had I read the entire PmBok, it would have helped me further. 

I other thing I want to mention.Have heard rave reviews about Rita Mulachy book. Unfortunately I did not find time to go thru it. But if you happen to be in a similar situation, its ok if you score less on the Rita Mulachy Fast Track exams. Those exams are really though. The actual PMP exam isnt that tough if you have understood the concepts well. 

Hope this helps ! 

All the best to all the PMP aspirants !!