Passed PMP today, very relieved as I was worried and stressed for the past few months. I have been a silent visitor to this site, but have manage to gained a lot from the experience of the contributors to the forum. Knowing how useful it would be to the future PMP holder, I'd like to share my thoughts and experience as well although my results are not too great (2P, 3MP).

1) I started with Rita book before reading PMBOK and I find this useful because Rita book has more explanation and more interesting to read thus making it easier to understand the concept. However, you need to make sure to read line by line. It's important to understand the project management process flow, the purpose of each process and what's done in that process. After doing practices, I realized that some questions/answers use the exact term from PMBOK since PMBOK is the standard book. So my last 3 days before the exam was spent to read the PMBOK line by line. By this time, it's not that boring to read PMBOK because you already know what you are reading and more to revising.

2) Be consistent in preparing for the exam. Spend at least 1-2 hours a day studying because if you leave the book for a few days, you may lose track of the project management process and need to start all over. You may start scheduling for the exam when you complete reading and understanding the flow. It can be 1-2 months after that, depending how long more you need to prepare and practice. By setting the date, you will discipline and push yourself to make sure you prepare as much as possible within the time frame. Do not use too long to prepare or set exam date because you may lose the momentum and end up giving up the exam especially if the exam is paid by company.

3) Do a lot of practices from various sources. Don't be demotivated when you get low marks from mock exam but make sure you learn from the mistakes. Jot down those notes so you can revise later. From my mock exams, I got between 60% to 80%. I got lowest for Pmpforsure exam. I thought of buying the exam set from Pmpforsure but was advised to try other sources to get a range of possible questions. I took free mock exams from Christopher Scordo, PMStudy, PMPforsure, Oliver Lehmann, Simplilearn, Head First, Kim Heldman, Andy Crowe, Rita Fasttrack and some quiz tests from the internet. Trust me the questions did help me in the real exam as some are similar. Those questions will train you how to look at situations and what to do in a particular situation. Take those tests that come with explanation only so you know why you got wrong and why that answer is chosen.

4) Not all actual exam questions are difficult. Even those questions about ITTO have quite obvious wrong answer. Fyi, I didn't memorize the ITTO. If you can score the easy questions and use you best PMI judgement for the rest of the situational questions, you should be able to pass.

5) During exam, do not spend too much time on a question. In my actual exam, there were a few tricky calculation questions at one time and took me some time to answer. And when I look at the time, I was about 10 question behind schedule. I got panic for awhile and fasten my pace. So it's better to start answering fast from the beginning because you never know which question will take more of your time. I have seen a comment where the applicant didn't manage to complete all the questions and left with about 20 question unanswered. So you need to focus and answer fast. I manage to complete with only 4 minutes left.

My study plan:
Total time - approx 3 months
Took my PMP training to obtain PDU in mid Oct.
Study in detail Rita 8th Ed and browse through PMBOK - 2 months
Do practices including mock exams, chapter exercises and quizzes (total >3000 questions) - 1 month
3 days before exam - read thoroughly the PMBOK
1 day before exam - study ITTO and the notes taken when taking mock exam
On the exam day - my exam was scheduled at 9am and I had to wake up at 4.30am to drive to the prometric center. I was asked to be there 1 hour earlier. I was worried that I am going to be sleepy and can't focus. Thanks God I was able to focus and everything went well.

Above is just to share my experience but some people may have their own method of studying. So you may get others' input but do what's right for you because only you know yourself better. Another way is to to reference to how you study for your high school or degree exam. You should know what's your style of studying and how to score in exam.

Lastly, all the best to future PMP holder! Just try your best, stay calm, be confident and focus. :)