Hi all!

          Today I passed PMP on the first attempt, I've been more of a spectator to these forums and IZenBridge, they were for so much help so here are my two cents of LL :-). For me there were two critical factors to pass: The Mindset and the "How to read the question"

Some general advice: Each and everyone of us has an inhert methodology to study, I think that most of the people who fail these kind of exams (PMP, CISSP, CISA, CRISC) is because they think too much instead of focusing in one thing that is APPROVING THE EXAM.
You have to discover that inhert methodology in you, your OWN study strategy that allows you to really get it in the least time as possible.
Don't just copy and paste another one study strategy, go to your peace and achieve a mindset of success.
I knew people that prepared the whole PMP in one week and passed, there were people in the same study group that didn't. Same for people that have been studying for months.

In my case my method is to focus in the neccesary understaing to pass the exam, in this case you have to develope a way to think in order to pass. So that was my focus. I didn't have a formal study plan, neither a "Everty X questions I'll do Y".

My background: I'm 26 years old and have been managing projects directyl and indirectly for the past 6 years in the Information Security and IT Audit areas. I'm ITIL foundations and CRISC (ISACA) certified. Passionate about corporate governance, technology and risk management.

The 35 course hours: I attended a 51 hours course here in Argentina in 2013, didn't know anything about PMI neither PMP back there, just wanted to get training in Project Management. It was really good but apart from my notes I couldn't remember much. I did not attended another one.

The decision: I've wanted to nail the PMP since 2013 but never managed to gather the will. On October 2015 I decided to prepare for it, the acceptance process was kind of tedious since my application was rejected at first (Described my projects instead of using PMI words) and then it was chosed for audit. After being authorized for scheduled I scheudle my exam for December 23th. It was a nice date for me since I wanted to finalize my 2015 as it fullest :-)

The preparation (Less than a month): During the course I found that here in Argentina, even if we are PMs we have a whole different mindset compared to the PMI, so my first premise was to change to the PMI mindset. Until December I had two jobs + college so studing for PMP was kind of hard, I managed to get to the PMBOK once during that time and read Rita's book 1 week before exam. I took key notes for each process with the objective to form my PMI mindset, I wasn't memorising things at all, just filling a really big puzzle (The 47 process). I didn't completed the exercises in Rita's book, just the questios at the end of each chaper. Rita's book is a winner really, it's wordy but I highly recommend that you go through it at least once. During most of the month I studied for about 1-2hs a day, last week was like 5-7hs a week.

A key factor for me was to really get into the the domains interaction and processes: Understand the why's, once you achieve that it just make sense and its logical.

Close to the exam I was able to explain the Project Management Process to my grandmother with clarity.

The mocks: I began with these one week before the exam. Fundamental part of success, I did about 1200-1500 questions totally. I recommend that you pick Mocks that are highly tested by users (Some great sites in these forums). This advice is mainly because there are a lot of sites with bad answers and can really screw up your mind.
Some of my results
Oliver 175: 74% - This mock it's just cruel mainly because it use terms that PMBOK neither Rita mention, however it's a good stress test.
Rita's Book (All questions): Average of 80% - Really good questions
PMStudy free 200q: 63% (Did this first) - The closet as it gets to the real PMP exam
Exam Central: Average of 75% - Really good too

Most important think about the mocks and Rita's is that they teach you how to read the question and were to put your focus.
Remember about the mindset? Use the mocks to POLISH that mindset too, review your wrong answer and find out why you the PM has to resolve something instead of crying to the sponsor, or why Risk Management is the Messiah of the world, YOU HAVE TO THINK AS MR PMI.

Generally I found the exam to be similar to the difficult of Rita's and PMStudy questions followed by Exam Central.

The day previous the exam: Did some questions and scored similar as displayed results above, practiced my braidump, explained verbally the whole project management process to my grandmother and a friend and did some hobby stuff. My brain was kind of exhausted.

The grand finale: I live near the prometic center so getting there wasn't much of an issue, practiced my brain dump once more before the examen and reviewed some Risk Management, Quality and Procurement things. As soon as I entered I brain dumped formulas and the 47 proccesses. 2/3 of first 50 questions were "shoot to kill" I felt that I was being ripped appart by the PMI Sword, however it seems that the bot that was providing the questions calmed down. From that point questions were similar to the ones in the Mocks, there were some exceptions time to time. I managed to finish the exam in 3:30 hours, took a break to pee at question 160.

Generally the exam was head to head to the difficulty of the Mocks, sometimes easier sometimes harder.

Final tips

• The post with the 366 importat points it's really good to find gaps in your mindset.
• Go with a win attitude to the exam
• BELIVE in your mindset, you have been polishing it for weeks, you have passed mocks and reviewed them. Why should that mindset fail you now?
• Most of my marked questions stayed the same. In my case the first instic was mostly right.
• I'm a true believer that fail is part of success, this allow me to not worry about failure and focus on success.
• Advise from Rita's book: SMILE time to time during the exam and enjoy the ride.

Regards!