I just passed my CRI certification last week and honestly I'm still a little shocked. Failed it in November and again in February, both times scoring around 68% when you need a 75 to pass. The second failure hit hard because I thought I'd studied enough — I'd read through the CRRA manual twice and felt pretty confident going in.
What changed for the third attempt was switching my approach completely. Instead of just reading, I started drilling with a CRI practice test every single day for the last three weeks. Found that doing timed question sets exposed gaps I didn't even know I had, especially around the revenue cycle and denial management sections. I also worked through a structured study guide that broke the content domains down by percentage weight, which helped me prioritize where to spend my time.
My biggest exam tips: don't underestimate the compliance and regulatory questions, they show up more than you'd expect. And do practice tests under real time pressure — the clock was my enemy the first two attempts. Happy to share more specifics if anyone's prepping right now.