First of all a big thanks to all of you who have contributed to this site. I got a few tips and tricks from this site which was helpful and would like to contribute my little bit.

I passed the PMP exam today with 3 Ps and 2 MPs   and yes in my first attempt.

Was a bit disappointed with the scores as I was aiming for 5 Ps  The exam turned out to be more tougher than I thought and would have helped if I had prepared a little more.

Here is my study plan which I used. It took about 4 to 5 weeks of preparation which I started almost one year after I had taken the course:

1. Read PMBOK Once - Understood only 50%

2. Read Rita chapter by chapter and then did the questions at the end of the chapter

3. Practice Exam - PMStudy.com - Scored 66% - Took only the free test but was very helpful.

4. Then read PMBOK again chapter by chapter and did the Rita Fast Track but only 50% of the questions

5. Last Two days - Material from the PMP course I took which was a good summary and Rajesh Nair's notes which are a good summary of the whole PMP books plus some good tips. Thank you Rajesh for this fantastic effort.

What I would have done differently or Lessons Learnt -

Should have spent more time with Fast Track or should have taken more simulation tests.

Also should have spent more time with Rajesh Nair's notes

I spent too much time on one formula question which I got it right in the end but if I had not spent so much time on that I would have got more time to review and could have corrected a few more of wrong answers.

I also didn't mark all the answers that I wanted to. This was a mistake because if I had not spent that 5 or 6 minutes on that formula question and marked say around 5 to 6 more questions and got a few more correct I might have scored a few more Proficient.

General Tips for the exam:

There will be questions that you will not know answers for. The key to do well in exam is not to Panic and mark them and keep going ahead. Also mark the questions that you are not able to answer in two minutes as in the second chance you might think differently and may be able to answer it easily.

Try to take your time while answering the questions the first time itself but make sure that you keep some time for the marked questions.  When you browse them second time you will get a few of them correct, increasing your chances of passing.

Another important trick is not to take the same test twice or if you are using any paid tests then not to rely on scores which you get when you take the same questions twice. Getting high percentage on second attempt at the same questions may hint your good memory power but may not prove that you are improving. So the best is to take one test and then read through the explainations of right and wrong answers and prepare the areas where you got answers wrong. Then take a new test.

Best of Luck.