I passed my PMP Exam this Friday, October 10th.I scored moderately proficient  on all areas,but felt satisfied for my one and half month effort.

Iam posting this lengthy LL for one reason, i have learnt most of my Tips/tricks from the others LL,i want to pass that back to the community.Take time to read it.

Following is my lessons learnt.

I attended 35 hours training on August'08 and started my preparation from September'08,roughly one and half months as part time activity and one week continuous study before exam date.This is more important, you might have prepared well month before,can forget these concepts when exam nears you.

I started with following material

1) HeadFirst PMP(3 times)

2) Most of the reference books from PMI -24x7books section (this is available as free for all PMI members,use this effectively).

3) PMBOK (at least 3 times,page by page,word by word ,reason being).
For example i found term called "Hammock" in one of the sample test  question,really did not believe it unless i found it in (Bar Charts section in  PMBOK guide).

Here is the definition

Hammock activity, is used between milestones or across multiple interdependent work packages, and is displayed in bar chart reports

-refer Page 161 from PMBOK

Always refer the glossary in PMBOK throughly to be familiar with all terminologies.

This is the sequence i followed, started with HeadFirst PMP,i liked all of their series,their presentation is amazing,i can still remember the risk management concepts ,one of the well written chapters in Head first PMP.Started reading it for first time,moved to PMPBOK second ,again went  back to Headfirst second pass so i can get both perspectives.As referred above use the vijay verma's books from PMI website for additional reference, topics like delegation,team motivation etc are well explained.I  wonder why PMI - 24x7books section did not feature Andy Crowe's book,its also very well written book,i read few sample pages from google books,but did not buy it.

You need to be thorough in understanding the Processes group interaction diagram(page54,PMBOK) ,page 82(all the 44 process and Processes group  chart,this is mandatory).

Time management strategy is needed for passing this exam ,you need to takeup the questions which you sure ,instead of getting stuck to one question (you will find most of the questions like that).

I almost skipped first 25-30 question during my first hour of test session and took all the one-two liner easy questions then came back to lengthy ones.This gave me more time to deal with lengthy  and confusing questions.If you have done thorough preparation you can even sense
the 25 pretest questions,this is my experience .

Wear the ear phones during the exam so that you can avoid surrounding keyboard noise.

I had more questions in Earned value,no questions in PDM,ADM or Network diagram,few questions in probability,monitor and control.Professional responsibility and code was toughest area i believe in the test.I had more questions in this area,real brain teasers.

Since i did not find more sample questions in Head first or PMBOK or any other resource for Professional responsibility,I used Rita's PMP fast track ,only for professional responsibilities section,other sections i already followed Head first,i do not want to over load with too many reference materials.

I think Rita's questions are more tougher than real exam questions.i took head first free online mock exam score 90% and pmpstudy i scored 75%,oliver lehman i did not take.

Please refer Jim Owens notes on different knowledge areas ,its very crisp and useful for last minute reference,you can find it in Jim Owens section in pmhub.net.

Used RajaRani Notes during last minute reference,amazingly compiled.Thanks to both King and Queen :-)

I also referred following sites for others LL's,question discussion etc.,

1)PMZilla

2)PMhub.net

3)Headfirst PMP forum.

I sincerly thank all the community who have contributed to the above sites,which has helped me to pass the exam.

Few more cents

1) Read others LL to get more motivation,tips and tricks.Have rough time line for final exam.

2) Read regularly, minimum one hour a day,carry PMBOK guide or PDF with you always ,glance during commute or whenever you find time.

3) During Practice tests, go back and see the answers to wrong questions and try to find out how you selected the wrong choice and try to
thinkthrough the right answers.Even if you see some tough question and you have answered rightly ,analyze your thinking process how you
selected the right answers with supporting reference books,guides.you might have by hook or crook marked it right without basic understanding.Take more time in doing this,don't rush,it will give you clear understanding of some difficult concepts.

All the best for future PMP's.

Sundar,PMP