Just left the testing center a few hours ago and (by the grace of Almighty God) I passed the pmp exam on my first attempt. I've been a long time lurker and owe alot of thanks to the pmzilla family for sharing experiences, study tips, and general encouragement. For what its worth, I thought I'd share my experience:

Prep

My prep originally started almost a year ago when I took some pmp courses at Georgetown U. However, I didn't start really studying for the exam until roughly 6 weeks ago. At first,  I purchased Rita's 7th ed and read through it from cover to cover and did most of the activities. The chapter end test scores ranged from 75 - 90.  I falsly thought I was close to ready at that point but thankfully started reading this forum about the importance of practice exams. I took all free exams (exam central, pmstudy, head first, oliver, simplilearn, ect) My scores were all over the place so I had no idea if I was truly ready or not. I never really read though the pmbok but did reference it when reviewing my missed questions on the practice exams (huge help). I then read through most of Rita's book again (amazing how much easier you retain the second go around). All this I did in about 5 weeks. The last week of prep i spent mainly Chowdary Rajesh Nair's Notes (very helpful for me to learn some of the ITTO's) I never did learn them all, not even close, just the ones that are mentiond in the last chapter of Rita's book. My approach was to learn exactly what each process tool was used for  and its importance in general, then use logic to determine the answer on the exams

The exam

The first question people want to ask is "was it hard?" I would say both yes and no. When it was difficult, it was difficult, but that is offset by a good number of questions that are straightfoward (if you've studied). I'm not going to offer anything that hasn't been said before but I can confirm:

1) The test is indeed mostly (close to 80 percent situational). "what is the first thing to do if....." I don't know if Rita's book is the best source (I didn't try any other exam prep books) but it did do a decent job of prepping me to "think like a project manager". However, some of the question were  pretty difficult as many had 3 seemingly "right" choices

2) A small percentage of formula, but most were straight foward

3) More WBS and Network Diagrams than I anticipated bu those too were mostly straightfoward

4) Don't know if it was due to anxiety or by design, but the first 50 questions or so really threw me for a loop. I marked almost half for review, but by question 75 or so, started to feel a little more confident.

Advice

Study hard but I wouldn't focus so much on ITTO's. Remember the critical ones but  more importantly understand them or when you would use them logically.It has to make sense to you, not just memorizing. If you get there, the test will not be anything too daunting. In fact,  I'd estimate only 8 - 10 questions aksed a direct question about an ITTO. Mostly, understand what a PM is suppose to do and what to reference when during a project.

Thanks again for all thpse who have posted thier own personaly experiences...it helped me to know that other people were able to get over the hump, whether first time or second.

If anyone has any other questions let me know..i'll do my best to answer - otherwise, know that the test is to be respected but certainly not feared.

God Bless,