Hello Everyone,

I'm really happy to be in the PMZilla group which was so helpful during my preparation. Here is my journey:

I've started preparing for PMP on Sept 6th.
I took PMPrepCast for 35hr education and added simulator for practice(simulators are okay, not so great but worth for practice).
Got a PMBOK and started studying which took almost a month to complete(around October1st).
I've started giving exam online sample questions and the result was around 63% - 65%(not more than that). But this gave me the idea on what questions will be asked and how they framed.
The same case with simulator and the result is not more than that 65%.
I read the book again which gave enough confidence, started giving exam which results eventually bumped between 71% - 83%. so, conclusion is skim the book as many times as you can until you are comfortable.

Suggestions:
I'm not sure if any other books are good.. but I followed only PMBOK(the bible). Study as many times as you can ( I skimmed atleast 4 times).
Take the sample exams as many as you can. After each sample exam, analyze your weaknesses and read them again.
Regarding ITTOs - this was really bothering part for me :(.. I've posted couple of forums for suggestions and tried to memorize it but couldn't succeed. Here is what I've done - I started analyzing it in the data flow diagram for each chapter in PMBOK and that helped a lot(especially if start with Integration as these process groups inmput or output will be shared across many. For eg: All control process groups(in monitoring and controlling) will take work performance data as an input from direct and manage project work and output Work perf information to M&C which will output Work Perf reports etc.,)

Real Exam:
Coming to the real exam, After a long security entered into the seat.
First 10 questions, I answered it pretty fast and after that I was real slow as each question was really took too long and I was thinking to put the best answer. So, at the end of 2 hrs - I was just completed almost 100 questions marking few mathematical questions for later. So, I took a break (exact 3 minutes) and started again by putting the limit 1 min(or less) for each question.. so, I completed all 200 leaving 26 minutes for the 25 mathematical questions. By that time, I was done with all questions - I was just left with 4 seconds. Click end and there you go - PASS :), best moment :).

Type of questions you can expect and timelines:
There were lot of mathematical questions (25 - 30): SPI, CPI, EMV etc., and lot of S-curve graphs asking whether project is behind schedule/cost etc., All were easy - average except 5 which were difficult.
Histogram, RACI matrix questions: I remember one RACI question asking which task is correct RACI Matrix(one was correct answer as rest of the tasks has 2 accountable persons which shouldn't be).
Stick to the timeline like 1 minute or so and move on to the rest.
In mathematical questions too - lot of irrelevant data for couple of questions.. so read and make sure to consider only relevant data.

Conclusion:
Overall, the exam has real time questions, you have to think and do for sure(no direct questions..)
I remember question groups which might be helpful:

Bruce Tuckman questions - Atleast 8 - 9 questions (forming, Storming etc.,).
Conflict - 5 - 6 questions
Quality tools - 7 - 8 questions
ITTO - 6 questions or so

The main reason for this posting is not that I've passed but to see someone will gain something out of this(just like I did). I hope I've covered everything.. if anything missing or have questions.. please reply, I'll try to answer. Again, thanks so much for the forum and people!

Hope this is helpful and all the luck everyone!!

Thanks,