I just passed the PMP exam a few hours ago. I have been lurking on the forum for a month or so now. It has been a huge help and so I wanted to contribute back for any other aspiring PMP out there.

Some background:

I have seven years of hands on professional project management experience.

I took a Master's level Project Management course in 2005 and we used the PMBOK ed 3 as the text.

Recent events:

I registered with PMI and scheduled my first exam attempt about a month ago

I read the PMBOK ed 4 during the week before the exam date. I took the exam and failed miserably. I scored as follows:

Initiating                                            Below Proficient

Planning                                             Moderately Proficient

Executing                                          Below Proficient

Monitoring & Controlling              Below Proficient

Closing                                               Moderately Proficient

 I completely underestimated this test - and it cost me $275! I went into it thinking "I do this for a living, I read the PMBOK ed 3 and 4. How hard could it be?" By about the 20 question I knew I was screwed.

I immediately rescheduled the exam a couple of weeks out and started researching forums and such. I read Rita ed 6 cover to cover and referred back to the PMBOK on occasion. I did EVERY exercise in Rita. I consistently scored 70-80% on all of the chapter tests. After, I made sure I understood why I missed questions. I then took the 175 question Lehmann exam 2 days before the actual test and got a 70% - again I made sure I understood my errors. I took the 75 question Lehman exam and got a 62%. I was disappointed by this, but carried on. I then took a PMStudy exam and got 70%. I would have postponed, but it was too late.

I showed up took the exam for the second time and passed. I scored as follows:

Initiating                                            Proficient

Planning                                             Moderately Proficient

Executing                                          Moderately Proficient

Monitoring & Controlling              Moderately Proficient

Closing                                               Moderately Proficient

After Thoughts:

Take plenty of practice tests and make sure you understand your mistakes. I highly recommend Rita. It was very helpful - especially the process chart. IMHO, her questions are about the same difficulty, but she kind of goes overboard with trying to trick you.  Lehman questions are a bit wordier harder than actual exam questions. The PMStudy practice exam was spot on! The entire setup, the quality and difficulty of the questions - everything. Make sure you understand quality - really good. Make sure you understand the PMI way of thinking. I saw 15-20 PERT/CPI/SPI related questions - not always calculating, but you need to know this stuff. 80-90% of the questions were situational. Many questions will have 2 or even 3 correct answers.

Good Luck everyone!!!