Passed CAA on second attempt — here's what I changed

Passed the Certified Acceptance Agent exam last week after failing by 4 points the first time. Total score was 82% on the retake versus 71% on attempt one. I want to write out what actually changed because I spent a lot of time searching for specific CAA prep advice and found almost nothing useful.

First attempt I studied broadly across the whole content outline. Second time I went narrow and deep on passport acceptance procedures and document verification. Those two areas together make up roughly 45% of the exam weight and I was treating them as equal to everything else, which they're not. I built a 200-card Anki deck just on document types, their validity requirements, and common rejection reasons.

The ID verification section has a lot of nuance around edge cases — expired documents, name discrepancy scenarios, damaged documents. On my first attempt I'd see these and second-guess myself. On the retake I had rules drilled to the point where the answer was immediate. That kind of automaticity matters when the clock is running.

I also spent more time on the federal regulations section. It's not the most engaging material but the questions are very literal — exact statutory requirements, specific timeframes, definitions as written in the CFR. If you know the regs precisely, those are free points. I probably picked up 6–7 points just from that area alone on the retake.