I passed PMP in Chicago on 6/17/14 and I can't believe that I finally got done with this Beast.

My journey started sometime in October 2013, when I decided to sign up for the pmp bootcamp through pmstudy, thinking it should be easy and I can sit for the exam in a couple of weeks after that. I got the PMBOK guide along with the slides and chapter online access. I went unprepared and the bootcamp lasted for 2 weekends and the 5th day they expect you to be ready for the exam. Everyone in my class had registered their exams in a couple of weeks, they started emailing saying they passed. But in my case, once I started reading the PMBOK after my bootcamp, I thought it was no way I can be ready soon. After reading a few chapters and researching about other LL, I bought Rita book from amazon and started reading that instead which I was enjoying, but felt that I was missing out on reading PMBOk. Then I started reading both side by side, which was too timeconsuming and I was getting very disappointed as the other people were already clearing their certification. So I made my timetable from December to read atleast 3 hours a day, and came up with the date of April 20h for completion. But as I went about it, it took longer and longer and I ended up taking 1 extra month to complete reading both books side by side. I scheduled my exam on may 29th and started taking Mock exams 1 week prior, but slowly learned that I was too stressed about the exam and felt unprepared since my score wasn't any higher than 65%-70%. So I ended up rescheduling my exam to June 17th and was gonna stick to it. This time I started revising my chapters and taking mocks alternate days, soon I was studying for 8 hrs/day. Still scoring only 65-70% on mocks )
Study material used:
1. Rita
2.PMBok
3. Izenbridge (youtube videos)
4. PMstudy bootcamp

Mocks used:
1. PMstudy,(One of the LL had this PMstudy link posted, try it and see if this is still working(looks like a glitch in their system):
http://www.pmstudy.com/PMPonlinecourse/Chaptertest.asp
2. Oliver,
3. FastTrack
4. http://pmstudycircle.com/pmp-questions/
5. http://www.free-pm-exam-questions.com

I found this review site very very helpful in last couple of days :
http://sridharpeddisetty.blogspot.com/2008/05/my-notes-on-pmp.html

Exam Day:
I scheduled my exam in the evening since that was the only option available online, but when I checked 2 days prior to my scheduled exam, they had morning slots available so I called the customer service and reschedule to morning 9 am instead of evening 4pm, since I wanted to take when I was fresh.
I ate good protein breakfast, 1 sneaker bar(chocolate to make me feel happy), arrived 1 hr early at Prometric, read my notes in the car, and went in 30 mins early to get settled.
I took Lord Ganesh's name and braindumped(PMstudy process chart, and all the formulas) for 10 mins, relaxed and deepbrething for couple mins and started exam. Questions were way too simple:one liner q and I felt very confident and couldn't believe how easy it was. There were bunch of EVM calculations, critical path, pert simple math calculations, lots of Tuckman scenario based, lots of ITTOS, contract typed, conflict resolutions, motivation theory, decision making techniques. A few really lengthy questions with the calculations never seen before so I assumed they were dummy ones, so I marked them and moved on. I was behind scheduled 25 q/30 mins with 15-20 marked questions. I speed up after 2 hrs, was actually enjoying all the math ones, since they were straight forward. Got a chance to view and correct few marked ones, but ran out of time for the rest of the marked ones.
The survey was quick , but long pause for the result after that. I closed my eyes and prayed to god, waited and waited and got the screen CONGRATULATIONS! with 4 MP and 1 BP. I had tears in my eyes, and walked out with a big smile on my face.
Thanking god & my family to support me during this journey!
I want to wish all pmp aspirants luck and don't loose faith! Its not difficult if you understand the processes and don't try to know it all, just enough to pass :) Much hard work, it will definitely pay off!!!
Good luck and God bless!