Anyone found good free CEA study resources besides the obvious ones?

Same boat a few months ago. Here's what I'd tell myself:

The CEA exam is more application-focused than the study guides suggest. They test whether you understand CEA, not just whether you can define it.

My tip: when you see a scenario question, mentally walk through it step by step before looking at the answers. The wrong answers are designed to catch people who jump to conclusions.

Good luck — the fact that you're doing this level of prep means you're going to be fine.

Failed my first attempt, came back to this thread for motivation. The advice about really understanding why wrong answers are wrong — not just memorizing the right ones — is the single best piece of advice I've seen for the CEA. Rebuilding my prep around that principle now. Using certified audio engineer for the concept review.

For anyone finding this later: CEA is passable with consistent effort even working full time. I studied 43 minutes a day for 12 weeks. The free cea audio engineering principles kept me honest about my actual gaps.

Quick update: just cleared 88% on my most recent CEA practice set using free cea audio engineering principles. Sitting for the real thing in 2 weeks. Feeling cautiously optimistic.

Failed my first attempt pretty badly and honestly it was because I kept drilling the same practice tests over and over without actually understanding why I got things wrong. What changed everything for me was slowing down and working through the explanations, especially for recording techniques and equipment since that section caught me off guard. The cea recording techniques equipment 3 practice test on this site was probably the most useful thing I found that wasn't behind a paywall.

Second time around I passed with room to spare. I'd say don't skip the stuff you feel confident about either, because that's exactly where I lost points the first time. YouTube is fine for concepts but it's not going to prep you for how the actual questions are worded, so you really need timed practice under test conditions to build that muscle.