PMP Exam experience - Aftermath & Before it !

For the readers who are relatively new to PMP or Project Management field in general, PMP is a world wide acclaimed certification for professionals in Project Management field. For more information, visit www.pmi.org
I wrote my credential examination today at the Glastonbury Center, Connecticut. For most part of it, the center was not what you would expect from a Prometric Center. The executives ( read as "ladies") were as rude as they could be. It appeared to me as if they were from some other country or rather planet all together, where courtesy was a less known term or distinctively instinct. I landed a little bit earlier--> I am phobic to see an entirely new area for the first time for one of the major examination of my professional voyage. I started a little bit earlier since some guy had not made it to his test in time.
Moving from from there, Exam was pretty tough. ( Equivalent to the first read of PMBOK for a naive--> ha ha ) the exam really tests your experience and your skills that you might have learnt mostly from the Experience at work and concepts from texts ( be it PMBOK or any other you might prefer to use). For last 5 months I have been preparing for the exam, quite intermittently sometimes and sometimes regulare. As you might be able to make it out that I struggled to be a regular at the preparation. Partly because it is summer ( travel time :D) and some because I have been traveling for work as well. Apart from this, my newly found fitness routine that keeps me busy for one & half hour at the gym, nearly everyday! Coming back to the point that I took nearly 5 months to prepare for this exam. While doing the exam, several times I doubted that was doing things right or wrong, like everyone else! PMP exam proved not to be that tough nut afterall. I aced the test.
Below is the strategy for all of the people who would like to know

Strategy:
My preparation solely revolved around PMBOK for the getting familiar phase! Once I read the whole PMBOK twice word-to-word then I used another text "Success project management" by Jack and Gido. You might have not heard about it. I used this book earlier as text for my PM class and I found it easy and helpful to understand Cost, Time and Scope problems ( number problems) and the whole concept of project management. You may want to consider one of the regular help books for yourself. I opted out for this book since I was familiar and adapted to this book' langauge and structure.
Give a test every two days to guage where you lack and what you need to polish more.

Preparation tips:
1. A word from the wise men( not me) --> Read PMBOK atleast 3 times word-to-word before the exam.
2. Test yourself as much as you can. May be 1K questions or more, should not stop you to try another 1K
3. Use free websites for test sample questions & try Rita Mulcahy book for tests
4. Read Vikram Gupta's book for delegation in project management from PMI.org, since it is not covered in pmbok and is asked several times ( 4 questions I myself answered in the test)!
5. Don't take PMBOK lightly. Read ITTO ( Inputs, Tools, Techniques, outputs) very carefully.
6. There is a significant amount of brain dump you might have to do ( I did), to remember all the sub-processes and their ITTOs.
7. Give fair time for cost questions. I encountered atleast 15 questions ( ya! thats' right) for Schedule Variance, Cost variance, CPI, SPI, Actual Cost, Planned Value, Earned Value, Estimate at Completion, Budget at completion, etc. You got the fair idea about what it is!

You may find these websites helpful
http://pmzilla.com/pmzilla-free-pmp-tests
http://www.pmstudy.com/practicetestsindex.asp
http://www.oliverlehmann-training.com/
http://www.pmhub.net/index.php
The last link is cool! check is out!

In last, folks you are best judge about your preparation. Please take time to prepare enough and then knock it down!