By GOD's Grace, I have passed PMP Exam on my 1st attempt on Jan 11th, 2016. Some of my lessons learned may not apply due to changes made in exam starting Jan 12th, so kindly do your research as well
Lessons learned / my experience are/is:
0) You need to have 35 contact hours to be eligible (apart from other eligibility criteria). I had used prepcast to acquire these. Check out these links also:
www.edwel.com/Free-Resources/PMP-Certifi...quirement-Myths.aspx
edward-designer.com/web/pmp/
1) PMBOK is the main key for success. If you have read it thoroughly multiple times then you should be fine.
To understand PMBOK, I had used Head 1st & Andy Crowe. Both are phenomenal books. Head First is very detailed, easy to understand and shows you pictures/scenarios of almost everything. Whereas Andy Crowe is concise but complete, to the point but again easy to understand. After reading these two books, I never had any issue in understanding PMBOK. Once you know how to understand PMBOK then you probably do NOT need study aids: books / videos. First I did Head 1st's each chapter with each chapter of PMBOK and then I did each chapter of Andy Crowe with quick read of each chapter of PMBOK.
After doing above, I again solely read the PMBOK cover to cover and then did a quick read again.
I never tried to remember ITTOs during my preparation except the very last day before exam. Please note that exam questions are very situational, so even if you do not remember ITTOs but you have thoroughly read & understood PMBOK concepts, you would be fine.
2) Do as much questions as possible (like few thousands) from different sources. Being part of this group, I would assume that you already know these resources. If not let me know and I'll try to share.
3) Read lessons learned from others. I had read lessons learned on this group and on prepcast.
4) Balancing time among work, family & study is another key.
5) If you have done sincere effort then remain relax before/on exam day & with GOD's grace you'll be fine.
6) Thank everyone whomever has helped you but make sure to thank GOD regardless of the result. GOD always have a better plan.
Note: Thanks to everybody on this group and especially Cornelius Fichtner.
