How to go about PMP Certification

Have given brief guide to PMP certifictaion below. Hope this is useful for PMP aspirants. I'll try to spend some time preparing Exam tips later.

• 35 Hour PMP training from PMI recognised institutes/associations.. It is Mandatory!!
• Form a study group of 3 or 4 of like-minded people (only) who are really interested. This would help a lot since PMP is not subjective but about dealing with practical situations. So as a group you can discuss/argue/analyse and finally have better understanding.
• Plan for at least 3 months of preparation for exam.
  Materials
• PMI would provide you Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK) guide, which is like a bible for PMP.
• Get a copy of Rita Mulcahy's PMP Exam prep book. Use this material for preparation and use PMBOK only for reference.
  Fees
• PMP Exam Fee - 555 USD For Non PMI members and 405 USD for PMI Members PMI membership can be obtained by visiting www.pmi.org, annual fee 129 USD.(as of Apr'08). Checkout their site for any changes.
  Exam
• Exam is not an easy one, but don't worry its not that tough either! put your sincere effort in preparation and get into the groove of PMI philosophies, execute a mock project yourself from the Project-initiation till Closure following all processes. This simulation exercise would help a lot!
• Exam duration is 4 hours and it consists of 200 objective questions, with 25 of them are pre-test questions that are not included in scoring.
• 61% score is required to clear the exam.
  Remember
• When you're into PMP, you should always follow what PMI says is right and not from your own experience or the processes from your company.
• Read Rita Mulcahy's PMP Exam prep book at least twice.
• Read PMBOK at least once.
• Do a lot of practice Exams yourself, lot of exam-simulation software available in the market( e.g. Rita Mulcahy's PM Fast Track ).
• Try at least once by sitting 4 hours at a stretch! That would help gain confidence and patience :)

For Chennaiites, Below is the PMI Chennai-chapter web address. This is run by PMP professionals, associated to PMI institute, USA. You can contact these people for more details on training programs. Fees would be less for such programs than other private training centres.http://www.PMI-Chennai.org

There are other training institutes for PMI in Chennai. You can enquire locally there.