Finally passed my CTR exam after two attempts — here's what actually worked

So I've been a trauma registrar for about three years now but kept putting off the CTR certification because, honestly, the amount of material felt overwhelming. After failing my first attempt by just 12 points last fall, I sat down and completely overhauled my approach. I scored a 78% on the second try, which was good enough to pass, and I want to share what made the difference.

The biggest change was ditching the textbook-only method and actually doing timed CTR practice test sessions every single day for the last six weeks before the exam. I was doing about 30-40 questions a night, reviewing every wrong answer before moving on. The staging rules and abstracting operative procedures were my weakest areas, so I focused my study guide work there specifically.

A few exam tips that helped me: don't spend more than 90 seconds on any single question, and flag the ones where you're second-guessing yourself — the flagging strategy alone probably saved me on this second attempt. Anyone else have specific weak spots they struggled with heading into the test?