I am very relieved to have passed on the first try. I did not try to study on a compressed crash course basis.

Instead, I read Rita's book at the rate of one chapter a week in 4Q2010. After that I took time off because I went out of the country for some time. I then restarted, but this time I read parts of the PMBOK. In April 2011, I started doing practice tests from Rita's PM Fastrak on Weekend mornings. I would go over all the errors and make sure I reviewed the questions, which I got wrong or questions in which I made a choice of one of the two most probable answers. In the middle of June 2011, I started the final serious assault. I started doing online simulated tests on Saturday mornings. The first one was from PM Study and scored about 70%. In the following week, I took another simulated online exam from Lehman, HeadFirst and Exam Central. My final simulated exam score was around  80%. In each case I would finish with about 3 to 5 minutes to spare. In each case I would make sure to read the topic and related topics associated with the incorrect answer.

Before the exam, I knew the order of all 42 processes, all formulas,including some I had derived on my own and had laid out specific inputs and outputs on their own specific matrices. These included Change Requests, OPAs, EEFs, PMPlan, PMPlan updates, OPA updates, EEF updates, Work Performance Inputs and Work Performance Measurements. This gave me a good pictorial view as to which processes these belonged to. From that I was able to have a reasonable idea as to which proceses had which of the above as Input or Output and which did not.

Between 6/20/11 and 7/7/11, I worked 12 hours a day Monday through Sunday. On weekends, I studied 12 hours a day . On week days, I spent 8 hours a day on my job related work but studied a few hours in the evenings for teh exam. By the time 7/7/11 came, I kne that I had done my reasonable best in the time I had spent and had the confidence that under normal circumstances, I would pass.

I approached the exam without fear, because in the best case ( 85% chance) I would pass and in the worst case ( 15% chance) , I would have to take it again. During the exam, I operated at a rate of about 50-55 answers per hour. I did not mark any question for review. I would "read the question" carefully, understand what they were asking and decide on the answer and move on to the next one. I never looked back and attacked each question as if it were the first one until the 200th one. If one can take a short break, it would be great, but other than getting up from the chair and stretching every 45 minutes or so, I took no breaks.

I finished in 3 hours and 57 minutes and before I pressed the button, I was fairly sure I would pass. The Congratulatory response came in a minute or so and I was very relieved.

I am hoping that I may have given some ideas that may be useful to others.

I thank the PMZilla community, from whom I got some ideas in the last week of preparations, when I first signed up on the PMZilla site.

Good Luck to all PMP Exam aspirants. It can be done. You can pass. All you have to do it prepare for it and stay fully focussed and alert during the 4 hour exam.