Passed CEP first try — how I approached the instructional support and behavior sections

Cleared the CEP exam last week with a 77%. The exam has four main domains and the instructional support section is where I spent most of my prep time — it covers differentiated instruction, modified assignments, and working under the direction of the lead teacher in ways that require you to understand your role precisely. I've been working as a para for 4 years but some of the formal framework language was new to me even with that experience.

The positive behavioral support section was more in-depth than I expected. Functional behavior assessment concepts, de-escalation strategies, and reinforcement principles are all in there. Not at a BCBA level, but enough that you need to understand the logic behind behavior plans, not just the steps. I put 4 weeks of extra focus into this section after struggling on it in practice tests early in my prep.

My study approach was 1 hour daily for 9 weeks. I was consistently scoring 68–72% on practice exams for the first 6 weeks, which was stressful, then something clicked in week 7 and I jumped to 80%+ on the behavioral and communication sections. The special education law questions — IDEA, IEP process, LRE — are definitely on there and worth dedicated review. They're not trick questions but they're specific about procedural details.