I started studying in January in most evenings and some weekends.
Here is some details:
-I did not read the PMBOK
-Read "PMP Exam Prep Simplified" by Andrew Ramdayal. This book was very easy to read. I read it twice and did all questions in the book twice.
-Downloaded the Pocket Prep PMP app on the iphone. I did all 800 questions and then would redo the questions in my free time. The app is a bit slow sometimes, but I think it helped a lot.
I attemped the PM Prepcast simulator after I did all the questions on the iphone and read the book by Andrew once. I scored a 68.5% and then on the second exam I scored 64.5%.
It was at that point I realized I needed to study more. I reread Andrew's book and did the questions again. The second time I read the book everything was starting to make a lot more sense.
So I wanted to try the exam simulator again. I got a 74% on test 4, 75.5% on test 5, 73% on test 6 and a 70% on test 7, During all the mock exams I would describe them as "hard" but to my surprise
I passed a 4 mock tests in a row.
At the exam I wrote down the process charts and formulas. I don't think I used the process chart but did refer to my formulas.
I would say that the actual exam questions are less lengthy than the simulator, allowed me to finish within 3 hours. However, even though I found the questions less lengthy it didn't make picking
the correct answer any easier. Before I saw that I passed and actually did well I can say that it felt like it could have went either way. I thought that there often was many "right" answers, but I did
my best to pick the best answer. I ended up with above target on all areas but Monitoring and Controlling.
In summary I highly recommend Andrews book and the iphone app as I was able to pass the exam above target without opening the PMBOK Guide!
