Okay so I've been lurking on this forum for months and I figured it's time to give back since everyone's posts helped me so much. I work for the city and needed to pass a DCAS exam for a promotion to Administrative Manager. First attempt I went in basically blind, scored a 68, which wasn't enough. Embarrassing honestly.
Second time around I actually treated it seriously. I spent about six weeks studying — maybe 45 minutes a day on weekdays, longer on weekends. The biggest game-changer was finding a solid DCAS practice test that actually mirrored the real question format. Multiple choice with those tricky "which is MOST appropriate" questions are no joke. I also worked through a DCAS study guide that covered written communication, supervision principles, and basic math reasoning.
My exam tips for anyone starting out: don't skip the data interpretation section thinking it's easy, and practice under timed conditions from week one. I scored an 84 on my second try. Happy to answer questions if anyone is prepping right now.