I am new to the site but wanted to post my PMP experience. I had a non-traditional route to obtaining the certification. I knew that I had to study for the Professional Engineering exam (which I constantly argue with my accountant and lawyer colleagues that this is the toughest licensing exam other than maybe a medical board exam) this spring so I took the CAPM exam in December 2012. I studied for about 8 weeks from the PMBOK and pmeducate notes. After my engineering exam, I started studying for the PMP early May. Fortunately, I wasn't starting from scratch so it didn't take much additional effort. I took about 5 mock exams.

Study Schedule:
-Read PMBOK once
-Read Rita 6th edition once (did all chapter problems)
-Did chapter problems for Kim Heldman's book. (really tough)
-Mock exams (pmstudy, head first, simplilearn, oliver leahman, Rita)

My scores ranged from 68% - 83%. As others have stated, it's more important to understand why you get problems wrong.

Test Day: I had an 8:30 am appointment but didn't get seated until 9:44 am. If you have a choice, DO NOT take the exam on Saturday. I didn't want to but it was the only available date during the last week of June. The testing center was inside of a corporate building which was of course closed on a Saturday morning. Luckily they provided ear muffs because doors kept opening and closing and airplanes were landing every 5 minutes (Literally). Even though I had taken the CAPM exam, the waiting time between pressing submit and getting your results is very agonizing.

I am looking forward to contributing to the Project Management profession, so if there's anything I can provide then please let me know. I personally feel everyone has different learning styles. I only read my material once, but that is because my brain will reject it if I read it multiple times. Luckily I have experience managing large projects so the biggest challenge was just learning PMI's terminology. I can't give an opinion on whose book is the best, but I read through the reviews on Amazon and made the decision to go with Rita. I finished the exam with 2P's (Initiating/M&C) and 3 MP's.