Passed CTB on first attempt — 6 weeks, about 80 hours total, here's the breakdown

Got my Certified Transportation Broker credential last Friday. I've been brokering freight for 3 years, working mostly in dry van and some flatbed, and I decided to sit for the CTB partly for professional credibility and partly because my agency has started requiring it for senior brokers. Total study time was roughly 80 hours over 6 weeks.

The exam covers a lot of ground — regulations, carrier selection and qualification, rate negotiation, liability and cargo claims, load documentation, and operations. The regulatory section is heavier than some people expect. FMCSA rules, broker licensing requirements, carrier vetting standards — you need to know the specifics, not just the general concepts. I'd been doing this work for 3 years and still had to memorize specific thresholds and requirements I'd known roughly but not precisely.

Cargo claims was the section that surprised me most in terms of question difficulty. The Carmack Amendment stuff, liability limits, the claim filing process and timelines — there were probably 15 to 18 questions in that territory and they were specific. I'd suggest treating that as a high-priority section even if it doesn't come up much in your day-to-day. The rate and market analysis section was more straightforward if you're actively brokering, since a lot of it maps to real experience.

Passed with a score of 79%. The exam is 100 questions and you have 2.5 hours. I used about 2 hours, flagged 22 questions, came back and changed 4 answers on review. Don't rush the first pass — the scenario questions have a lot of detail and it's easy to miss a key fact if you're moving too fast.