Finally passed my CS exam after two failed attempts — here's what worked

I'm not gonna sugarcoat it — I failed the CS exam twice before finally passing last month. First attempt I went in way too confident, barely studied. Second time I used some random CS study guide I found on Amazon that honestly felt outdated and covered stuff that wasn't even on the test. Third time I actually got strategic about it.

What made the difference was drilling with a quality CS practice test environment. I mean actually simulating the real thing — timed, no pausing, treating every session like the real exam. I did this for about six weeks, two hours a night. My weak spots were distributed systems and algorithm complexity, so I focused hard there. Went from consistently scoring in the low 60s to hitting 78-82% on practice runs.

If you're currently preparing, the biggest exam tip I can give you is to stop just reading and start doing. Passive review will get you nowhere. What resources are you all using right now? Curious if anyone else struggled with the networking concepts section specifically.