I failed my first CMRP attempt back in February by 12 points, which was brutal after three months of studying. The problem was I was treating it like a memorization test when it's really about applying reliability principles to real scenarios. My maintenance supervisor told me I needed to rethink my entire approach, and he was right.
Second time around I built my study schedule around the five knowledge domains — maintenance strategy, work management, asset management, reliability engineering, and business leadership. I spent about 8 weeks total, roughly 90 minutes a night. The biggest game-changer was finding a solid CMRP practice test resource that actually mirrored the question style. The real exam loves to give you two answers that both seem correct and make you pick the "most correct" one, which is a very different skill than just knowing the material.
For anyone working on their CMRP study guide right now, my biggest exam tip is to focus heavily on RCM concepts and the P-F curve — probably 20-25% of questions touched those areas in some form. Happy to answer questions if anyone's in the thick of prep.