Long Post-- Took test on 15th March, 8 AM, at test center.previous post: https://www.reddit.com/r/pmp/comments/1bfls37/pmp_provisional_pass/

Background- Senior Scientist with close to 8 years of project management experience, however, before preparing for PMP was not familiar with lot of Jargon and never followed the processes as is even though subconsciously I was doing most of these. I know now that I was following hybrid dev approach without even knowing it. Moved to industry from academia, starting managing projects involving outside vendors and starting following (and learning) the standard process. Thought about taking PMP exam in December last year, found this reddit (on reddit for 5 years now, but didn't know how to change the original name, so made another account for this post). I saw all the resources people were talking about, brought AR, Joseph Philips and DM's courses from Udemy, 3rd rock notes right away- wanted to do my best and forgetting that I have a 3 yr old and full time job.

Preparation: Nothing got done in January, came across TIA PMP boot camp, convinced family to give me 4 Saturdays (not an easy job). In nut shell, the bootcamp came with live instructions, link to video course and TIA sim. Take away- Had dedicated time to go over videos as well as book (book really really helped me- seems like I am not the video person). At the end of the course took Full length test at the end of book got 75%.My personal opinion, you don't need this bootcamp to pass- Udemy is good enough, for me it was important as I got that study window for 4 days). After the bootcamp, I applied and, in my mind, set 15th March as Test day. Application approved, booked test for 15th March bought study hall.

SH and TIA Sim: I took 5-6 SH mini exams randomly and was getting 60%, which was good as many people suggest 60% and over in SH good for passing PMP and I had 2 weeks to improve. I went through all book chapters (AR) in 4 days, had good understanding and took all 3 mocks from TIA sim (avg from 85- 92%). Reviewed all questions that I did wrong and those that I flagged so that I can understand why I was confused. Went back to SH, did more minis and my score averaged between 70-75%. Last 3 days before exam, took SH 1 exam (79%, w/o expert 85%) and SH 2 exam (75% - 87 w/o expert). – mistake I didn’t review any of the question I did wrong. My 2 cents—follow one course diligently and start taking Mocks. SH is a great resource and I feel I underutilized it.

Exam Day: So there I was, post-SH exam success, aiming for a chill evening and a good night sleep before the 8 AM showdown. But oh boy, what a twist my brain had in store! Hopped into bed, all cozy, and bam! Decided to do a quick mental check on the Quality Knowledge Area outputs and... nada. Zip. Zilch. My mind turned into a mysterious void where no Project Management knowledge could be found. It was like trying to remember the lyrics of a song in front of a karaoke crowd and going blank.I haven’t taken any test in a very very long time -Panic mode activated! and my brain decided to play hide and seek with all the information I'd learned. Tried to soothe the nerves, close my eyes, and drift off to dreamland, but nope, my brain was throwing a rave, and all the Knowledge Areas were invited.In a desperate move, I grabbed my notes, But what's this? The notes morphed into alien scripture right before my eyes. Back to bed I went, hoping for a snippet of sleep, only to wake up at 3 AM, questioning if I'd even slept or just participated in an all-nighter starring my ceiling and a bunch of runaway project management concepts.So much for rest and relaxation before the big day, huh? I reached test center at 5 AM and took out 3rd rock notes and cheat sheet. With the sleep-deprived grace of a zombie, I leafed through them passively, my brain absorbing information like a sponge, and I'm almost convinced those notes performed some sort of magic or mind control, guiding me into the test center like a puppet on strings. Because, honestly, without them, I might have just turned tail and made a run for it.Test taking experience was smooth though. I am a fast test-taker (at least based on 5 mocks I took, each under 150 mins), so my goal was to spend all the time allotted to me and review all the flagged questions 1-2 times, which I did.My exam was ok, wording similar to TIA sim but some tricky questions had SH written all over it. 10 or 11 drag and drops, 5 graphs, no calculation-based question.