My (limited) understanding is that the PTAL is a pain and can take months (just what I have read, no personal experience). My guess is that it becomes an afterthought for a fair number of IMGs that are focused on getting their ECFMG and are unaware they need the PTAL, or delay getting it and then when they apply, it is too late.
Start working on PTAL if you haven't already, and ECFMG so they are done when you apply.
SDN is predominately AMGs. There are forums that have a higher IMG presence like valuemd and usmleforum; I'm sure there are others. You may have more luck of finding individual success stories on one of sites.