My experience with studying and passing the PMP exam was really interesting. First I want to say that it surely do with experience and how involved you are in project management in your practical life but it is not a must for passing the exam I would say. Before I started the first step to take the exam I had a lot of doubts because everywhere I read forums/ discussion boards it says you have to have at least 10 years of experience. Well I had experience of course and a record of projects that I have delivered but when you start studying you will realise that the PMBOK is like the constitutional law,but you will need to understand the heart of the law to use it efficiently, this is what you do in that case, as it is a guideline and it is so well formulated and sequenced to be the ultimate guideline for several industries so you have to keep this in mind. you will need very good training to pass the exam, why? Because through training you will be able to understand PMI's view of why things were set out this way, and only then you will start absorbing the material in PMBOK and start thinking of taking the exam , and for this I would say RITA MUlchay's fast track is your ultimate companion, it is so helpful and will show you everything from PMI's view, l read PMBOK once then read RITA then PMBOK again, then read them in parallel, before taking the exam. My husband really helped me great deal with the reading as it really feel very tense at times with all the tools and techniques so I would recommend studying with a friend one friend only as it will really help . PMP precast was an excellent choice, I would highly recommend it, as it helped me great deal with the PMP Podcast and the exams were of great help to get me in the exam mood, I spent three months practicing taking a full exam before the exam day, and it really helped immensely and the exam questions on Prep cast are really good and high level questions, the good thing is you have 9 different exams you can take which is a huge deal. Managing your time is the key to passing this exam, as you need to have a study plan in place, it's a must and always update the plan and review progress, I mean isn't this what we really do as Project managers. I Used the PMfast track for the last two exams before the exam date which was a wise choice I would say. On the exam day you have to sleep well and be as relaxed as you can, Do your best to read quickly and carefully the questions as one of my point of weakness was that I need to read the question several times as I can get distracted, so keep a pace of time and I felt I will not make by the end of the second hour of the exam time, but you have to keep pushing, your key is to stay calm but aware of the time and questions at hand, try to leave 10 mins for review if you can. I would also recommend a cab, don't drive on the test day, and have a good light breakfast it will really help.
