I've been a follower on this forum for about 3 months now and have gained quite a bit of knowledge that helped me to pass the PMP exam today. My background is as an IT manager, but I've been in small IT shops where I've basically had the opportunity to lead and participate in many projects over the last 15 years. My latest was a Windows 7 Office 2010 migration for 325 users in 10 offices across the country. Thanks to many of the things I have learned in training for the PMP it was a great success. This was my first attempt with 3P's In integration, executing and monitoring and controlling and 2 MP's in Planning and Closing.

I started with the online video's at Simplilearn and watching some of the online video's by CBT Nuggets. I then took the PMP Bootcamp by Simplilearn for 35 PDU's. I did read the PMBOK for the first time during the class and although it was a difficult read I did learn allot. At this time I still didn't feel I was prepared for the exam as I made a 58% in their paper test in the classroom.

I was pretty disappointed at this point and wondering where to turn when I found this forum. I read repeatedly in forums to use Rita's book, Head First PMP so I started with these two resources. I read Rita first and was taken back by the negative tone at first and I read in this forum that it was negative but was the best book out there so ignore the tone and continue reading. I did just that and read through it in about two weeks. It helped me to gain allot of knowledge.  I then read the Headfirst which was refreshingly different. It was easy to read and the activities were fun. I then read the PMBOK and Rita together, over another two weeks,  based on a suggestion in this forum, and it helped me to put the two together.

While I was reading I was also taking lots of online test, I started with the 5 simplilearn test and started scoring in the high 60's low 70's. I improved those test to the 80's, however I found it was because I was memorizing questions because I was spending so much time studying the questions that I got wrong.

I tried PMStudy and started off scoring a 68% and tried the PMZilla tough questions and scored a 61% I was only able to get my practice tests up in the 70's and again I was memorizing the questions due to studying the results.

Based on my low test scores I wasn't confident so I purchased Brainbok and started doing the flash cards and their quizzes. I started off scoring in the 60's but quickly got it up in the 80's. I retried to take some of the online practice test but was still scoring in the 70's. My studying duration was about 4 months and I studied for about 4 hours per day everyday. I went back into Rita and PMBOK but as I read I just felt saturated, and everything I read I felt like I knew it so I went ahead and scheduled the exam for two weeks. I was feeling nervous until  I read last week of another IT person that did great even though he wasn't scoring well on the practice test and this gave me confidence.

Today was test day and I felt very confident. I arrived at the testing center for my 8:00 am test about 7:15 after stopping for a good breakfast. I did scope out the center about a week prior. I saw people going in so I went ahead and went in and I actually started my exam about 7:30am. It started off with some pretty challenging questions, one of which was to calculate NPV which I was told wasn't on the exam, but as I went through I felt confident on most of the questions. I did notice allot of questions on risk management and about 5 PERT calculations. I finished about an hour early and although people say to use all of the time and review your answers I felt like I either knew them or I didn't and I risked changing correct answers if I went back through them. After a few minutes of contemplation I noticed my heart started beating quickly and I hit end exam and did the survey and was very thrilled when it came up saying congratulations you have passed.

Thanks to everyone here for posting your experiences which helped tremendously, thanks to God for providing me the opportunity to take the class and the exam, my company for paying for it, and my family who put up with me studying for it the whole time.