I bought Rita Mulcahy's PMI EXAM PREP (Sixth Edition) in April of this year (2010) primarily based on the excellent reviews that I read on this site.

I took and PASSED the exam today.Here's what I will share in hopes you will be able to pass the exam as well.

1) If you follow Rita's instructions in the book you WILL pass the exam on your first attempt.
2) I read the book (cover to cover)(3) times, took all the exercises and end-of-chapter tests witheach reading.
4) On my third reading I was able to achieve scores on the end-of-chapter tests in the 80% - 90% range.
5) Don't obsess about the formulas too much.Rita says in her book there will be 8 or so questions that require calculations and she was right on the money.
5) Ignore the negative reviews that have been posted on this site.It is true that Rita does some self-promotion in her book and that she reminds readers that they are probably not doing PM the "correct" way.I interpret this as coming from one who is confident in her PM expertise and is goal/success oriented.

And last, but not least, I discovered that Rita passed away earlier this year.For some strange reason I felt a personal sense of loss and I never met or talked to her.May she rest in peace.

  This book has great excercises and covers a wealth of material quickly.If you've had previous training, then I would recommend this book, if you haven't, maybe you'd want to look for a book that goes into more detail about the knowledge areas.

The author drains any pleasure or appreciation you can have for her.You'll quickly learn that she is great and all other Project Managers are incompetent.However, this is the only book I used immediately before taking the exam aside from the PMBOK.

I did take the 200 question exam at the end of the Crowe book and found his questions to be incredibly easy in comparison to Rita's.Rita's is more representative of the actual exam.I didn't read the Crowe book so I don't have any comments on his material.

Just took and passed this exam yesterday.I studied this book exclusively for about 50 hours over the past month.I used no other training materials, no test simulations, no classes - not even the PMBOK!I am fairly experienced, so your hours may vary, but everything you need to pass this test is in this book.
First the book from an editorial view:I have taken literally dozens of IT certification exams and have used at least one book for every one.Most technical books, IMO, are written in a very sloppy fashion - typos, grammar seemingly from a language other than English, non-functioning code, etc.Not Rita's book.Rita's Exam Prep is easily the highest quality certification book I have ever read.I found only two errors in over 500 pages of real content!Ok, so now you know the book is well constructed, highly edited, and you can trust the content to be relatively error-free.Let me now explain about the actual content and how it matches to the test content (it's relevancy, if you will).
Rita obviously understands the PMP content and exam objectives exceedingly well.But just as importantly, she understands how to present the material in a way that allows to reader to concentrate and absorb the important points.I have taught before and there is a world of difference between someone who knows the material and one who can actually teach others the material.In my opinion, this book is as good as it gets for those on a self-study certification path.If you follow her study plan, there is no reason for you to fail this exam.

Out of the 200 questions on the exam, I would estimate that you should be able to successfully answer 180-190 of the questions with just Rita's book.You only need ~61% to pass, so you should have a high degree of confidence that you will pass this exam on the first try if you read and understand what Rita is presenting to you.

One final note:I read where some people thought this book was expensive.This is a high-end certification and has a high-end testing fee to go along with it.You don't want to spend ~$500 on an exam and then skimp out on test preparation!Many people spend thousands on a class and won't walk away with as much knowledge as what is in this book.For what you are getting, this book is a bargain!

  Give me $100 to buy books to study for the PMP, and I'll buy this book and pocket $37. Rita's book takes the arcane wisdom of the PMBOK and translates it into real english to help practitioners pass the test. I'm now a certified PMP, and I give 80% of the credit to this book, and 20% of the credit to the RMC online course that cost my employer almost $1000. This book alone should be enough for most project managers to pass the exam and become certified.

The good:
- Quick explanations of difficult concepts
- Breaks down the PMI methodology into easy to follow steps
- Reinforces those topics really necessary to understand the PMI process
- Gives helpful hints on the type of material likely to be found in the test
- Exercises, exercises, exercises! Practice makes perfect. Most of the PMI methods are no-brainers, but you have to learn everything exactly the way they want you to. Best way to do so - use this book!
- Quick exams to capture your knowledge before the chapters. If you understand it, don't waste your time.

The bad:
- I didn't buy it before signing up for her online course. Definitely grab this book.
- It's not recommended by PMI over the PMBOK. I bought both and was depressed whenever I had to open the PMBOK.

  This book was suggestedand you'll pass.Best bang for he buck!