I'm not going to sugarcoat it — this exam wrecked me the first two times. I went in both times thinking I'd studied enough and walked out feeling like I'd never seen COBRA before in my life. The continuation coverage rules, the qualifying event timelines, the employer notification requirements... it all blurs together when you're staring at a question under pressure.
What finally flipped things for me was ditching my outline-heavy notes and switching to active recall. I started doing a COBRA practice test every single day for the last three weeks before my third attempt, reviewing every wrong answer the same night instead of moving on. That feedback loop was brutal but it exposed exactly which gaps I'd been glossing over.
I also found a solid COBRA study guide that organized the material by scenario type rather than just statute, which matched how the real questions are phrased way better. Ended up passing with an 84. Happy to share more specifics on timeline and which topics to hammer — just ask.