I failed my first CAE attempt back in November by 12 points. Honestly devastated. I'd been studying on and off for about three months, mostly just reading the ASAE Body of Knowledge and thinking that was enough. Spoiler: it wasn't. The question phrasing tripped me up constantly — they want you to think like a seasoned association exec, not just someone who memorized definitions.
For round two I completely changed my approach. I gave myself 10 weeks, did about 90 minutes a day, and started using a structured CAE study guide that broke things down by domain. The big game-changer was working through CAE practice test questions every single session — not just reading, but actively answering and reviewing why wrong answers were wrong. That reasoning piece is what the real exam hammers.
Passed last month with a 144. For anyone deep in prep right now, the financial management and governance sections hit harder than I expected. Anyone else have specific CAE exam tips for those domains? Happy to compare notes.