Failed CEM exam twice — what finally worked for me on attempt 3

I'll be honest, I was pretty demoralized after my second failed attempt at the CEM exam. Scored a 68 both times, which means I kept hitting the same wall. I'm an energy manager at a mid-size hospital and honestly thought my 8 years of hands-on experience would carry me through. It didn't. The exam tests you on stuff that's way more calculation-heavy than I expected — economic analysis, rate structures, demand side management math.

What finally clicked for me was ditching the AESP study guide as my primary resource and actually drilling with a solid CEM practice test bank. Doing timed problem sets exposed exactly where my weak spots were: life-cycle costing and financing calculations specifically. I spent about 6 weeks, roughly 90 minutes a night, just grinding those problem types.

Passed last month with an 82. So I wanted to share what worked and hear what strategies others used — especially around the engineering calculations sections. Anyone else find the economic analysis domain brutal?