All,
I can say with my head held high, that I passed my PMP exam 25th August 2011 on my first try. I bought three study guides:
1) PMP In depth by Dr Paul Sanghera
2) Pass PMP on first try by Andy Crowe
3) Rita's PMP exam prep
I first starting reading Dr Pauls book but I realised its way too detailed for a 3 month time limit (I had 3 months to prepare and wanted to clear the exam change cut-off date), so I put this away. Dr Paul wrote a good book but it is layed out by process group not knowledge area which make it difficult to correspond and refer back to other books when multiple study guides are used and again if you're on a time limit, this book is not for you.
The best book is Andy Crowe, it is written is VERY plain easy to understand English but itself is not enough. This book gets to the point, explains the difficult in simple terms and is a must for a time limit based study plan.
I used Rita's book to finalise and prepare for the exam, excellent book but don't think it is a book that you can cover and prepare for the exam in 3 days, its detailed enough to acquire 1 month of your dedicated part time study. Like any book, you need to read at least once. The only problem with Rita's book is that she comes across as a pessimist in which she continuously reminds you are you really a true PM? and do you really do this in the real world? Are you sure?
Ignore her, I actually covered her photo on each page I saw her in the book and this made a bit difference to my confidence.
YOU WILL NOT PASS THE EXAM USING EXAM QUESTIONS OUT OF RITA OR ANDYS BOOKS ALONE, YOU NEED PM STUDY.
For final exam prep, I used PM study's four simulation tests, pay the money it's worth it! I did not buy anything else (like fast track etc) as it's a money making theme for these companies and I still passed.
As a matter of fact PM Study's questions are harder than the actual exam, so it builds very good mental muscle so when you're in the exam, its seamless (I mean that) Buy all four exams though and you WILL pass considering your scores are at least 80% and above for each exam.
If you think PM study's questions are exactly the same as the exam, you will be disappointed, but they are close enough for you to tackle each exam answer. So memorising answers won't get you anywhere. When you study hard using PM study, the exam questions will be easy.
Now about the exam:
First 15 min Computer Tutorial
4 hour exam
when exam is finished, don't think you will get your results straight away, you will need to participate in a 5 min survey. After the survey is complete, you will see CONGRATULATIONS YOU HAVE PASSED THE PMP EXAM!
Oh yes here is another tip, do not waste countless hours mastering the formulas, I think I had 5 questions that needed me to calculate an answer 1 of which was a 3 point estimate (easy peasy) and two using EMV = Probability x Impact (easy peasy again) and two to derive EV and CPI. I did not even get one question on calculating a procurement contract Final Fee! So don't waste countless hours, understand it and memorise the formulas but don't obsess over it.
Most of the questions were scenario based however you would typically get 5-10 very simple questions in a row such as what is an input to define activities.
Peter.