TOPIC: passed PMP exam on March 21st

just passed my exam on March 21st. All fields above target.

preparation time : around 2 months.

study materials :
- prep cast: going through one time
- PMBOK : read through 3 times ( including one time reading on PMBOK edition 6 as I misunderstood the exam request
- Rita's fast track book : 2 times
- PM prep simulator : ( try only one complete exam and then around 500 questions in learning and quiz part )
I would like to highly recommend the above material combination which is also suggested by PMprep. PMBOK must be the base , Rita's book helps to understand the PMBOK. Prep cast are something you can easily listen to when you are commuting or driving, ( in my case, even cooking and working out ).
This combination is good enough for you to be fully ready.

some suggestions for future exam takers:
- There is no single question asking directly about ITTO. True. However the exam actually requests deeper understanding of ITTO rather than simply remembering it. So make sure you know not only "what" in ITTO but also " Why " when you are studying. Logic relationship between different process is also critical. Treat all the ITTO as an integrated whole. ( I believe that should also be a requirement for PM in real work too.)
- the process cards in Rita's book is quite useful tool , try to play with them until you make no card wrong and also understand why each card is placed there. Learning from this, I myself also created ITTO cards to facilitate my study. ( just print all the ITTO items out and cut them off. ) I play with them once every day in the last week before exam, that really helps.)

Comparison between sample questions ( in books and simulators) and real exam.
- I didn't buy Rita's simulator as it is too costly. only used the sample questions in her book. Some of her questions are too lengthy and trickier.
- Prep simulator : some questions are too straight-forward ( such as asking directly about ITTO) , and some are still more lengthy than the real exam. But in general, it's a good simulator. Pretty similar in terms of difficulty level. This one only should be enough for you to use. A complete 4 hours for a simulator exam was too much for me so I used learning and quiz mode. turned out pretty ok as they are sharing the same question pool.

that's what I can think of right now. Hope it helps. Wish everyone good luck.