TOPIC: Passed the PMP exam on the First Try

I passed the exam yesterday on my first try!

Below is a description of the process I followed to prepare. It took me 5 months to prepare.
1. Purchased the PMBOK guide. Found that it read like stereo instructions. After some struggling, decided that I needed some other resources.
2. Attended a boot camp. While it was good to have time to focus on the material, the focus was too much on ITTOs.
3. Listened to the PM PrepCast. Bingo! Finally the PMBOK started making sense. In a lively and engaging manner, Cornelius took me through all the processes on my commute to and from work. I learned not only what I needed for the PMP exam, but also what I needed to make me a better project manager. Kudos, Cornelius!
4. Read through PMP Exam Prep, Sixth Edition: Rita's Course in a Book for Passing the PMP Exam - twice through pretty thoroughly and scanned a third time. Since I am a visual learner, and since Rita's chapter end exams were pretty tough, this was an excellent tool.
5. Sample tests - did several but never did 200 questions at a time. I probably did answer over 1000 sample questions though in total - this was vital in showing me my knowledge gaps.

Now let me tell you about the test day itself. I got to the test center 30 minutes ahead of my appointment time as is suggested by Prometric and to my delight, they took me right in to get started. That saved me 30 minutes of getting more and more jittery. I found it hard to concentrate on the first few questions but kept taking deep breaths and trying not to panic...finally I settled down and got focused on the questions. I was confident of many answers and others were much tougher. It took me 3 hours to get through all the questions, then I went back and reviewed the many I had marked. After I clicked the button to submit the exam, I thought I had goofed...a blank white screen came up for what seemed like forever. Finally the survey screen came on. After submitting the survey, another blank screen and finally VOILA! The congratulations screen came on.

By the way, I have managed mostly small to medium projects so if you have read that this will cause you to fail, that isn't necessarily so. I would say that it's definitely more of a challenge though!

I am appreciative to all who helped me pass and for my husband's endless patience with me during my study process.