Yay!
The materials I used besides the PrepCast were:
1) Rita Mulcahy's PMP Exam Prep - Seventh Edition
2) The PMP Exam: How to pass on your first try by Andy Crowe
On a whole, I think I preferred Andy's book, but I think it was useful to use both books because the combination helped me solidify the material in my head. I also liked taking the practice exams in each book. Sometimes Rita would explain a concept better, other times Andy would.
I thought the math in particular was better explained in Andy's book.
That's it! I have to confess, however, I was really quite nervous during the test and felt like it could have gone either way. I would have liked to have felt more confident during the test and maybe I would have gotten that by studying more material... we'll never know.
A few lessons learned:
1) Cornelius Fichtner recommends signing up for the exam so you have a date to work towards. I think that's a fine idea, however, PMI just changed their rules and now you must pay $70 to reschedule your exam. I rescheduled it 3 times! I didn't anticipate getting sick one week. My daughter had pink eye and couldn't go to day care for 3 days. Things happen. And honestly, studying took way more time than I anticipated.
2) There was less math than I anticipated.
3) During the exam, I couldn't believe how many tricky questions there were. As in, I couldn't figure out the difference between 2 possible answers. The wording... it was so tricky! Hats off to the non-native English speakers who pass this exam. I'm a native English speaker and I really struggled sometimes to understand what the heck they were saying.
Best of luck to everyone out there! This is a tough exam, but you will feel amazing when you pass it.
