Hi all,

yesterday I passed my PMP exam so therefore let me first of all say "Thanks to all of you within this group" who provided me a lot of useful tips during my preparation time. Especially, thank you Cornelius for your PMPrepcast and the PMStudy Coach. Both tools have been a reliable and very very helpful companion during my preparation time.

Also, I would like to give you a quick summary about my preparation:

On the 25th of May 2009 I applied for the PMP exam (yes, you read it correctly one year ago ). I started learning the PMBOK guide 4th edt. and Rita's PMP Exam PrepBook. I was thinking during the next 2 months I can "easily" learn beside my daily job continuously so I am able to take the exam in autumn 2009. I read both books and answered all questions from Rita's book. At the end of October 2009 I made my PMP exam, and I failed successfully. Yes, correctly I failed. I really completely under estimated its effort. So, after a few days afterwards I was able to motivate myself again. I started a lot of research on how to prepare, more questions to answer, etc.

This year in January I started my 2nd trial in learning for PMP exam. I chose following material:

- PMBOK
- Rita's PMP Exam PrepBook
- PMPrepCast (Cornelius)
- PMStudy Coach (Cornelius)
- Rita's PMFast Track for questions, questions, questions,.... (you never can answer enough)
- additional Internet websites like:

www.free-pm-exam-questions.com/
www.oliverlehmann.com/pmp-self-test/75-free-questions.htm
pmzilla.com/
www.project-management-opinions.com/inde...&cat_id=128&Itemid=8
www.testprepreview.com/modules/pmp.htm
certification.about.com/od/projectmanage.../a/pmp_test_whiz.htm
www.project-management-prepcast.com/inde...blog&id=39&Itemid=76
www.voightps.de/Free_PMP_exam.asp
gocertify.com/quizzes/projectmanagement/PMP_01.shtml
www.projectdecision.com/selftestnew.htm
www.itworld2.com/pmpq1.aspx
www.effectivepmc.com/simulated-exams

Well, I started after new year 2010 as I said and finished my preparation last week. I took this time more effort to be good prepared. To getting it better under one hat (e.g. with my job) I made a detailed plan for time-administration. I scheduled my trainings in advance, all over this period. In average I studied from MO-FR 2 hours/day. I did 4 full 4-hours PMP simulations and I received 80.5% on my last full simulation training. Furthermore I read the PMBOK 2-times, PMP Exam PrepBook 1-time and I completely accomplished Cornelius' PrepCast and Study Coach. Those 2 tools have been a very good support for helping me to close my knowledge gaps. As I am not a native English speaker I also have to mention, the PrepCast was for me a very good add-on to the PMBOK.

On the day of the PMP exam I was not allowed to take any drinks or foods into the room. So, I decided to make a quick break, if time permits it ) After the introduction of our official, I started the tutorial. Within the next 15 minutes I did my brain-dump sheets (all processes, formulas) - afterwards I pressed Start for the exam. After almost 3h 50minutes I had only a small amount of time available to check if I have answered really all questions. I was not able to make any break - I had no time for it. I marked some questions during the exam, but I was not able to review them all. So, I end the exam duly after 4 hours, answered the last administrative questions and got a PASS - thanks god.

So, again thanks to all for your useful tipps and I wish all PMP students good luck and all the best for their preparation/exam.

Gerald, PMP