Hello Members,

I have been a silent observer of this forum for a long time now...It has helped me a lot in my preparations and its time for me to give something back :)

I started my PMP preparations in September 2011 and was studying for about 2-3 hours everyday. Its is January when I really started preparing for the exam...studying for about 5-6 hours a day....a week before the exam I was studying for about 8-10 hours a day!!

Resources that I used:

• PMBOK 4th Edition - 2-3 time
• Rita Mulcahy 7th edition - 3 to 4 times (Highly recommended)
• PMStudy Exam prep with 4 Simulated tests - Once (Highly Recommended)
• PM Fastrack - Once (Highly Highly Recommended)

I did not read any other book or tried any other mock test. Above listed resources are the ones that I sticked to...But you need to commit to the preparation by making sure that you thoroughly read and understand EVERY SINGLE DETAIL in these book!

Make sure you make a list and read the ITTO from the time you start your preparation and revise it several times in between. After reading PMBOK for the first time in September 2011, the first thing I did was to make a list of ALL the Inputs, Tools & Techniques and Outputs for all processes and keep memorizing it over and over again. I would say 80% of the questions in PMP exam revolves around these ITTO's.

Once you do that everything else is a cake walk!!

Some people told me that the exam is very intimidating and tough! Honestly, I found it to be pretty easy...maybe because the preparation as mentioned in Rita and PMstudy is of higher standards than what actually comes in the exam...

Another important thing is to MANAGE YOUR TIME during the exam...I expected to finish the exam in 2:30 hours but it actually took me about 3:30 hours....I did not take any breaks in between..I personally prefer to finish the exam and then maybe take a 5 min break....

Make sure you get enough SLEEP the day before the exam. On the day of, my exam was at 1:30 PM...I just revised all the ITTO once...after that I was just focusing on relaxing my self before the exam so that I would be able to concentrate a 100% in the exam...

Apart from that everything else was pretty standard with a 15 min tutorial at the beginning and 15 min survey after the exam...

What helped me in my preparations was that I kept envisioning the word 'CONGRATULATIONS' on my exam screen and that kept me motivated to work hard...

Hope my experience would be helpful in some way for all of you preparing for the PMP Exam...ALL THE BEST!!!! :)