Hi Anonymous,
I began studying in late July by reading a chapter a day of the Rita Mulcahy PMP Exam Prep (8th Edition) book. When I had made it through that book I registered for and began the PM PrepCast course (8 August). I dedicated any where from 2-4 hours each night to get though this course as I also work full time. I took the end of course exam for this on 12 September - so it took just over a month for me to complete the course - every hour worth it! After course completion I began reading PMBOK 5th Edition - a chapter each evening - and then when complete started over again with Mulcahy materials. I alternated back and forth until after Christmas (I had another certification I had to study for and renew mid-stream so I took approximately two and a half weeks off in mid-October to do that), when I activated my PM Prep Simulator and took a Simulator exam every Thursday evening and Sunday midday (my test was a mid-morning on Saturday so I wanted at least one day where it was near to test time). I supplemented this with a free app for my phone (PMP Prep I believe) where I took a 50 question test each evening in addition to reading whatever chapter was that evening. I dedicated a lot of followup time to those questions/areas that I had issues with in the simulator and last week focused my reading on those chapters in each respective book. In sum it was nearly 6 months to the day between when I began prep and when I tested. Well worth every penny spent.