ServiceNow CSA passed with 85% – here's my 6-week breakdown

Just got my results this week – 85% on the ServiceNow Certified System Administrator. Took about 6 weeks of prep starting from roughly 4 months of hands-on admin experience. Wanted to write up what actually worked since the study advice I found online was pretty scattered.

Weeks 1-2 were all Now Learning paths. I went through admin fundamentals and system administration courses even though I already knew most of it – filling gaps in SLAs and notification rules that hadn't come up in my actual work. Weeks 3-4 were practice questions, about 30-40 a night. Weeks 5-6 were focused review of weak spots: Import Sets and Transform Maps, Reporting, and Service Catalog configuration.

The real exam had more UI Policy and Client Script questions than I expected, maybe 15% in that area. Also a solid chunk of ACL questions. They're not trick questions exactly but they require you to know the exact behavior, not just the general concept.

PDI is my next target. Anyone have advice on how big the jump is from CSA to PDI difficulty?