So I just got my results back last week and I finally passed the CIEE on my second attempt. Honestly I was pretty devastated after failing the first time because I thought I'd studied enough, but looking back I was totally wrong about how I prepared. The first time around I basically just read through my notes and figured that was good enough. Spoiler: it wasn't.
What changed for me the second time was actually doing a CIEE practice test — multiple ones, timed. That alone showed me exactly where my weak spots were. I was consistently bombing the written expression sections and didn't even realize it until I saw the pattern across a few different practice runs. I also found a decent CIEE study guide that broke down the grammar components in a way that actually clicked for me. Spent about 6 weeks, maybe 90 minutes a day.
Has anyone else found specific exam tips for the reading comprehension portion? That section still felt unpredictable to me even after passing. Curious what strategies others used, especially for time management when the passages get long.