So here's my story.

Passed PMP with 3P's and 2 MP's in about 3 hours and then took about 30 minutes reviewing. About 3:30 total.

I took a boot camp in September. I received the PMBOK a week before the boot camp and memorized the process chart but didn't know much else. The Boot camp helped a lot and I studied everyday while in the course.

After the course I spent a couple weeks with the PMBOK and Andy Crowe's 4th Edition. Crowe's book was based off PMBOK 4 but I found it a great resource to read side by side with the PMBOK and with Scordo's book available on PMMI's Books24x7. I would read the PMBOK chapter, then the Scordo chapter, then the Crowe chapter one after the other and then take the Chapter test in Crowe. I found this very effective.

Once I made it through the book I began taking tests from the Exam question book also available on PMI Books 24x7. I was scoring in the 80's and felt good. I then went back and looked up every question I missed and thought about the question and why I missed it. Most times, it was because I had highlighted only parts a paragraph in the PMBOK and then only reviewed the highlighted areas of each paragraph. This was a mistake. The whole PMBOK is important to read and study carefully.

Once I made it through the PMBOK a couple times I started having a deeper understanding of the process and philosophy and started asking deeper questions, such as "Why is Control Quality after Validate Scope if an output of Control Quality is an input to Validate Scope"? I won't give you the answer here but you should clearly understand what I am talking about if you really grasp the process.

After I thought I was ready for the test I still had about a week and a half to go to test day so I found a copy of Rita's Book. I did not like the book at all. Maybe it was because I really felt I was already proficient enough to test. Maybe if I'd got a copy earlier I'd like it more.

Random Notes:

- 4-5 questions about Tuckman, very minor nuanced differences in the stage you are in. It is not enough to memorize the 5 stages. Look for the differences especially between Forming, Storming, and Norming.

- NO PTA, FV, PV

- 3-4 questions on N2-n/2. One question asked about a person leaving a team and asked how many channels that you personally lost. Not how many total or how many taken away, but how many that the PMP himself lost. Trick question. Read them carefully.
- EV and PV. I had a hard time calculating EV and PV. Make sure that you can take the paragraph and calculate EV/PV, as well as plug those numbers in the formula.

Some things that worked:
1. Read PMBOK 2-3 times. By the time you read it the 3rd time you should be asking questions about the processes that you could not even think of on the first read.
2. Brain dump. I didn't use it much at all but it did help me calm down and help me think through 1-2 questions. My dump was nothing special, Process chart, 10-12 formulas, and then I took a few minutes making random notes on the page such as circling the process that build the baselines and then accumulate to the PMB. It didn't help me though.

3. Practice tests. Take a lot.
My scores:
Lehman 75 - 76%
Lehman 175 - 82%
Scordo 1-12 80-80%
Scordo 13-18 68-80%
Crowe. In the 90's

4. Study in different ways.
-I read the PMBOK with other books at the same time
-I created Flash cards with random facts
-I created flash cards for each process with the ITTO
-I took voice notes to playback while driving
-I talked myself through each process by explaining what was needed for the process, what tools were used, and what outputs were generated and where those outputs went. This was very helpful.

Some things I did not do.
-Pay for anything but the Crowe book. No paid tests or other learning materials.
-Study with a group (none available)
-Pay attention to any website or person that was trying to market their services to me.

Final thoughts.
The test was just about as hard as everyone makes it out to be and I can't really think of a single test that I took that I think was just like the exam. I'll give all the credit to Scordo and Lehman though in ensuring that I had taken enough tests to feel that I really knew the material.

Don't ask me for any study notes. My notes will not help you. Your notes will help you. You have to struggle with the material the same way I did, take your own notes, and question and have conversation with the material to really get a grasp on the material in a way that will allow you to answer the situation based questions.

Good luck.