I passed the PMP exam in my first attempt! I started out by taking a prep course. After the course was done I spent a few days working on my application and submitted it to PMI. Within a few days I received the approval letter. I booked my exam for May 28th - this gave me a solid 6 weeks to prepare. Since I had already read the PMBOK during the 6 week course period, I decided to read Rita's book from front to back. I found this book very helpful - it made many concepts clear for me. After finishing the book I started doing all the end of chapter questions.