TOPIC: Long due but finally Done, First Attempt...

6 months from Exam and earlier (non-serious study period):
I had been planning to do my PMP certification for couple of years. I made few attempts to study the PMBOK guide 5th edition, but didn’t managed to go beyond Integration Management. I eventually did complete it over a period of 4-5 months. After that went through Rita Mulcahy's PMP exam prep book (casual reading), and when I started going through that, it helped me get a much better understanding of the entire PMP preparation process. It gave a good overall idea about the concepts and approach to be taken for the exam preparation. In spite of that I was still not very comfortable with my progress, that's when I came across PM PrepCast. I went through the website details for a long time, read through reviews before finally decided to go for The PM PrepCast 'Elite' package in Aug ’17. I've to admit, PrepCast has finally helped me get everything related to PMP study & exam into a single platform, gave me the confidence that my preparation is moving in the right direction and I'm not missing out on anything for the exam. I realized going through the videos on your phone is much easier that carrying a book or hooked up to your laptop for long hours.

2.5 months before Exam:
Soon after I purchased the PrepCast, I submitted my application for review – which got done in about a week and then I booked a slot for the exam for mid Oct ’17. I finished all the modules of PrepCast, code of ethics, didn’t go through rest of the material due to lack of time. This took me about 4-5 weeks. I also did the assessments after each module and used to take 1-2 simulator papers on the weekend as this was the only time when I could spend 4 hours non-stop, and then used to go through the explanation for all questions which takes a lot of time, but helps in multiple revisions as the PMP content is exhaustive.

1 month before Exam:
Once I completed the PrepCast and took about 3-4 simulator exams, I still had about a month for the exam. This is when I decided to pre-pone the exam by about 2 weeks as this whole preparation was getting into my head and I wanted to just be done with it ASAP I went through Rita (complete) & PrepCast (only about 40% and some major areas) again, along with continuing to do the 1-2 simulation papers on weekends + the sample Q&A at the end of each chapter in Rita’s book. This took another 2-3 weeks. About a week before the exam, I went through the PMBOK guide 5th edition again. The only reason I did this since most of the PrepCast simulation questions have strong reference to the content of the PMBOK, so I assumed there will be a similar pattern in the real exam. I took the final 2 simulator exams 4 days before the real exam, thereby completed all 9 papers. My scores were in the range of 78% to 88%, was able to complete in 3 – 3.25 hours and overall I felt comfortable in terms of my readiness for the real exam, except the ITTO part

Day before the Exam:
I got a reminder from the prometric center same day morning. Just did some light revision of the Formulae, HR theories, Knowledge Areas & Process table, made one last attempt to understand the ITTOs on a high level in the evening, had dinner and slept. My exam was in the morning of a Thursday.

Exam day:
Reached an hour before the appointment time, they just don’t let anything else inside apart from my ID and locker key, did some frisking & other checks. One person provided me with one sheet of paper / calculator / pencil and escorted me inside to the system and asked me to follow the 15 min tutorial. You cannot write anything in the paper before the actual exam start, so this was news to me. The exam starts soon you end the tutorial.

I found the real exam to be much tougher than the simulator samples I took, the question details are kind of vague and found lot of questions where seemed 2 answers were correct. There were not many questions which had direct reference to PMBOK, there are not many formulae based questions or related to ITTOs. I just started marking wherever I had any bit of doubt and also I marked some questions separately in the paper on which I was not confident at all. I could complete the exam in 3 hours 15 mins and then started going through the marked questions in the paper only, I did change some of my responses, time was up, was extremely nervous, skipped the survey and when I saw “Congratulations”, felt really good, got 4 Above & 1 Target, which was definitely a surprise to be honest.

My learnings from this journey is that –
• we need about 8 weeks of overall good preparation (of course varies from individual), PrepCast (in terms of preparation conciseness), the Simulator (how to sit for 4 hours, manage your time/breaks – didn’t take in real exam), gets your 35 PDUs, gives you control how of your preparation.
• I felt writing down the formulae, the knowledge area table sequence, etc is a myth and it is really not needed (my personal opinion) and anyways doesn't make sense as per new process
• just finish off everything in not more than this timeline as it is too much content and we tend to lose out what we studied in our everyday life work, family, any emergency etc.

Bit long but hope is useful; good luck!

Great details! Congratulations!