Greetings to ALL and sundry,

I cleared my PMP exam on July 11,2013 without much fanfare and drum rolls

I am an average test performer. Never had 5 P's as my target. 

My score: Initiating  - MP,  Planning - P, Executing - P, Monitoring & Controlling  - MP , Closing - MP

I have been a passive partcipant in this forum and realized it was payback time. Ignorance is bliss as they say and I accidentally came across pmzilla while googling (for lack of better words). Everyday I would read the forums with someone stating I passed with such and such score and I read X,Y, Z books and A,B,C practice tests. It was more like progressive elaboration for me after a while reading these testimonials and below are my thoughts ! 

I had roughly 4+ weeks to prepare with a  full time job and toddler to take care of. I am sure other might be more slammed for time than I have been. Used to study 3 hours on week nights and 8 hours on weekends (including tests)

1) Week 1 - I read Andy Crowe and took a test (Got about 55% and realized that there were gaps in my knowlege (Rita Mulcahy's words)

2) Week 2 - Picked THE textbook (PMBOK ) and read and end of week scores were 65% .I knew my fundamentals were not clear yet.

3) Week 3 - I only Skimmed through Rita ( forum members unanimous vote on book choice ). Rita's book  does not explain the "ITTO way"  but you need to decipher and connect the dots. I felt it was NOT meant for a dummy  like me, but I paid atention to her ' Tricks of theTrade' and 'PMIisms' and I did the questions at the end of each chapter. (I was hovering around the 70%  mark on tests , back of each chapter)

4) Week 4 - Went back and re-read PMBOK which I could understand better although I knew if I re-read a couple of more times, I could easily understand the logical flow.

In between and last 2-3 days , Did the Scordo 10 sample questions for each knowledge area (avg score : 8/10) , Scordo tests 15-18 as someone suggested  (avg score : 36/50). In between attempted Oliver Lehman 75 and 175 questions (avg score: 65%), pmstudy, edwel, simplilearn free tests (avg score: 70%). Read Abhishek/Rajesh notes (great recap of all the materials).

NOTE: As someone mentioned, if you cannot afford PMP Fasttrack worth $300, please read these notes. Abhishek/Rajesh have summarized all the important  points from those 1500 questions and other sources too.

Q. Should you memorize ITTO?

Majority answer is NO. Try to logically relate the flow of knowledge areas and process groups. which is the best. BUT if you can memorize them , its a bonus !  When faced with a question w.r.t. ITTO, if you can brain scan in a minute and retrive the answer, you can get about 10-15 questions right.

Q. Is Rita/PMBOK the right combination along with a few paid tests and softwares like pmstudy, PMPFastTrack ?

It totally depends on you. I initially picked head first PMP (great book to undestand  project management in a simple way) and switched to the plan above due to lack of time (all free tests). Whatever book/material you are comfortable with, as far as you can crack the answer , simply  follow that.  In terms of relative difficulty: Head First PMP, Andy Crowe, PMBOK and then Rita.

I observed that the exam is geared/biased towards PMBOK. I dont blame them. SO do ensure NOT To skip the textbook. The more you read it, the further you will benefit. Dont skip any section of PMBOK. Knowledge area chapter introductions,  outputs like proj document updates  or EEV/OPA (all common input, output are not the same, dont skim the in between content ).

Everybody's mileage varies !!! Cerebral power,  retention capability, comprehension ability is different. Follow your instincts and do what works best for you. YOu WOULD know where you lack if one technique is not working for you. Once again thanks to everybody who contributes here for the benefit of others.

Regards.

Srini, PMP