Okay so I've been lurking here for months and figured I owe it to this community to share my experience since y'all helped me so much. I took the CAL 1 exam back in March and bombed it — got a 68 when I needed a 75 to pass. Honestly I went in way underprepared because I thought my on-the-job experience would carry me through. Spoiler: it does not.
Second attempt I completely changed my approach. I spent about 6 weeks doing structured study sessions, roughly 45-60 minutes every weeknight. The biggest game changer was actually doing timed CAL 1 practice test questions instead of just re-reading the reference material. I was averaging maybe 71-72 on practice sets at first, then climbed to consistent 80s by week four.
The domains that really tripped me up the first time were compliance frameworks and risk assessment — anyone else find those sections brutal? Would love to hear what study guides or resources people found most useful, especially for those two areas specifically.