TOPIC: How I passed the PMP on the 1st try in 2.5 months

So Excited that I passed the PMP yesterday on the first try!
I decided to pursue this certification at the beginning of June. Took 2.5 weeks to get through the all the PM PrepCast lessons; then it took 2 days to complete the application and 4 days to get a response from PMI with a registration code. I signed up for a test date 2.5 months out to give me enough time to review and study.

Here are my studying tactics:
1. Made flashcards for all ITTO's, took these with me everywhere and reviewed during down time.
2. Made sure to take all 9 practice tests in the PM Simulator and review wrong answers.
3. Googled for some free sample tests - Oliver Lehmanns was pretty similar to the actual test and downloaded a few free apps on my iphone with practice questions.
4. For calculation questions that I still did not understand, I youtubed i.e. 'schedule network diagram pmp"
5. Googled PMP glossary and reviewed those terms; google passionate pm - there are some good distinction of terms on there too
6. Practice your brain dump
7. and make sure to read the PMBOK at least once (you probably won't remember anything after cause it's so boring but the PM PrepCast would then be more of a review instead of learning the concepts for the first time)

My advice is to not only memorize the formulas but understand how to apply them/which one to pick in complicated situational questions (the PMP isn't going to give you AC, EV, etc... you are going to have to figure that out yourself). That was my most difficult struggle on the PMP.

The day of the test:
I went to a test center and it took them 1 hour to seat me at a computer, it was packed with people taking other tests.
The test center provided a physical basic calculator and also one on the computer.
There was no real 15 min brain dump session. The brain dump time started during the 15 min tutorial so I had to do it quick.
Also, take advantage of the "mark" question function, I used all 4 hours and reviewed these at the end.
Once you click submit, a white screens appeared and a survey came up that I had to take about the test center (this was before receiving my score, you can just imagine how quickly i wanted to get thru the survey!) and white screen appears for another 1-2 min. then "Congratulations" appears.

So in my case, I did a very accelerated PMP process. If you come up with a study plan and stick with it, you can definitely get through the whole process in 2.5 months like I did!
Hope my experience helps! Good luck all!

Hi,

May I know how many hours you have invested everyday and before exam to complete your PMP Preparation?

Best Regards
Ashish Sharma