Passed PMP on first attempt without proper .
Exam was very easy and quality of questions were excellent. I never felt the pressure during the 4hr testing even though i was well below the 50questions per hour mark for first 3hrs.
I started in March 2015. I got to know about PM Prepcast through some of Lessons learnt. I purchased PM Prepcast/PM exam simulator and collected lot of books and mock tests. My application was selected for audit and I was prepared for it. so it was a simple process. I could not study due to work and family commitments.
I started listening to Prepcast videos in May 2015 and I planned to listen to 2 or 3 Processes per day(out of 47 processes). Initially the subject was boring(due to enterprise environmental factors). Took few weeks to reach Project Scope Management.(Note : I skipped Integration chapters).
Cornelius's voice was very inspiring. After watching the videos twice back to back for every chapter, I took chapter end tests provided along with Prepcast videos.
It was very difficult to find time and balance between work/family/studies. First week of june I scheduled my exam. still no signs of PMBOK/Prep book. I had completed listening to Risk management knowledge area.
started with mock tests by 10th of June. I started referring to google/various forums/youtube videos. 1 week before the exam i attempted pmstudy mock test 200 questions and scored 78%(This was not time based and I answered the questions over a span of 8hrs) I made sure i attempted 50 questions everyday.1 day before the exam i stopped mock tests as i was constantly scoring 75% and i felt this was enough for 5MP (worst case I expected 1BP in executing or Monitoring and controlling). The final results were close.
Materials :
PM Prepcast videos/Youtube videos.
PM Exam simulator/PM study free tests/Scordo mock tests. chapter 1-6(average 80%) chapter 13-18(average of 72%).
PMBOK used as dictionary only to refer answers to mock tests.
No books used.
Tips
1. Spend quality time before starting the PMP Journey. Be familiar with PMI website, PMBOK(Basics. atleast names of Knowledge area and process groups) and lessons learned. For quick reference use Headfirst PMP book. you can also refer to youtube videos for basics of PMP and Pmbok.
2. Take a mock exam of any numbers to identify your current status.
3. This will help you to decide your perfect study plan. Read few pages from different prep books and choose the one which is comfortable for you to read. I am personally dont suggest Rita Mulachy or Fast track. They are very tough and sometimes demotivate or derail the pmp journey.
4. PM simulator is best choice for mock exam combined with Pmstudy free or paid ones.
5. I tried few of oliver lehmann questions. they are good.
6. There is no benchmark scores for mock tests. keep it above 70% plus some % of buffer which suits you.
7. Dont memorize the ITTOs. just understand the flow and it will do wonders.
1. Deliverables are output of Direct and manage project work which goes to control quality for verification. output is verified deliverables which goes to validate scope and comes out as accepted deliverables and goes to close project or phase. this simple understanding will get you answers for 5-8 questions.
2. Change requests are output for most of control process. they go to Perform integrated change control and come out as approved change requests(all change requests either approved or rejected goes to change log for tracking) and finally go to Direct and manage project work for implementation.
3. work performance data is input to all control process and output is work performance information.
4. Quality assurance is related to processes and Quality control is related to the product.
5. Issue log is output of manager stakeholder engagement.
Try to identify the flow instead of memorizing the ITTOs. also ensure you are familiar with charts/diagram and when they are used. I was given a chart and asked to identify what was wrong in the chart. I knew the defnition and purpose of charts throughly which helped me to answer the questions.
The exam questions are nowhere close to the online questions. If you have attempted pm exam simulator and pmstudy tests, it will be more familiar. during mock test i used to finish 50questions in 30 minutes and this helped me to concentrate on questions without any pressure in actual exam.
I never attempted 4hr exam as i struggled to cross 1hr continuously. However in actual exam i took one break of 6 minutes after attempting 75 questions. at this point i was confident that i will clear the exam. I had 15 minutes left after completing 200 questions. Plan the mathematical questions during the actual exam. If you dont figure the answer in90 seconds, mark them and move on. I completed 42 questions in first hour, 87 in end of second hour, 133 by end of 3rd hour and 200 by end of 3hr45minutes. I had to answer 25 mathematical questions. most of them were direct questions with few lines of unrelated sentences.
I didt practice any memory dumps and didt fill anything instead attempted the survey.
Finally i thank cornelius and other group members for their comments/suggestions/support.
and thanks for the comprehensive details. 
