PMP Certified !

On Jan 10th , I passed my PMP Certification exam on first attempt. I started preparing in Sept 2010 with the 4 day mandatory course at PMI, Bangalore Chapter. But , to be honest, my actual preparation for the exam happened in Dec 2010. The last week being a holiday season, there was slowdown of work and i could take time off to prepare for my exam.

Below are some of the steps which helped me :

1) Attend 35 hour preparation course from PMI,Bangalore Chapter
2) HeadFirst PMP text book- This is the only referance book i used. Some friends recommend other text books , but i didnt bother to check them.
3) PMBok guide provided by PMI - be thorough with this. Go through this as many times as possible.Really , revision of this helped me.
4) Be generally aware of all ITTO - Its not possible to memorize this. So dont waste your time and effort to mug up the ITTO. Instead, I tried to follow each item and ask myself relevant questions which made me think further and cross refer other processes. This actually helped me in co-relating all the processes and get the big picture.
5)Take as many mock tests as possible. Atleast 2 full length ( 4hr ) tests.
Time your mock tests so that you have atleast 30 mins to visit the marked questions.
6)Watch out for tricky questions with words "Except for" , "Next step" , "Including" , etc
7)Questions which involve math are good ones to score. On exam day, write down all the formulae in the 15 minutes instruction time before start of the test.
8)Plan your commute to the exam center in order to be atleast 15 minutes before your appointment time.
9)Being relaxed helps to a great extent.Initially, its natural to be a bit tensed and so the first 10-15 questions took me more time. As the number of questions increases , i felt my confidence level rising.
10) Finally , i didnt take any break during the 4 hour exam.For some people , its pretty difficult to sit for long hours with focus , but this is where the full length mock tests helped me. I could complete all the questions within 3 hrs 20 mins , which gave me 40 minutes to revise the marked questions. Ample time.