Just passed the PMP exam on June 2, 2012 during my first attempt.

Read PMBOK twice

Took PMP prep course

Practiced approx 1500 questions

For two months, I studied 2 hours a day with a target to answer 60 questions/day and/or read certain portion of the PMBOK/ PMP prep book by IIL. 

I think the key to the exam prep is to read the materials (PMBOK, PMP prep book e.g. Kerzner), practice questions, review the incorrect choices to understand the difference between your thoughts and PMI logic. When you read the materials again, it starts to make sense. Give particular attention to the page 43 of PMBOK. A lot of questions, you can answer primarily by memorizing which process fits in which group.

Since I did not take any such certification exam in the recent past, it was a little bit of a stress. You may get some questions that may derail your thoughts and/or you may find you are spending too much time. Pay close attention to the time, on an average, try to spend a little over a minute per question. You will get plenty of those 30 second questions and some that may not be solved for several minute by staring at two of those close choices. Just answer to the best of your ability/judgement, mark the question for review and move on. This is an excellent feature that will allow you to review your answer choices at the end of the exam.

You don`t want to spend more than 2 minutes on any question unless you are absolutely sure the question is one of those difficult ones and you are sure you can do it in 3. Else come back to the question during the final review when you have 30-45 minutes left after completing the exam.

Also I did the practice test a week before to gain confidence in my ability to perform on the exam day. I highly recommend taking a protein bar or something with you during exam, put that in locker and eat it during a quick 5 minutes break, which I recommend you take after 100 questions.

All the best

Kamal Kant