Failed my first attempt with a 71% and was pretty frustrated. The MCC exam covers way more liturgical theology than I expected, and I underestimated the catechetical methodology section entirely. I'd been spending most of my 2 hours a day on scripture and doctrine, which is only about 35% of the test.
For attempt two I switched to a structured 6-week plan. Weeks 1-2 were all methodology, weeks 3-4 on sacramental catechesis, and the last two weeks doing mixed review. I also started timing myself on each question block since I nearly ran out of time in my first sitting.
The thing that really moved the needle was reading through the National Directory for Catechesis more carefully. A solid chunk of the questions trace back to that document specifically, and just knowing the chapter structure helped me eliminate wrong answers faster. Ended up with an 84% the second time.
That tip about the National Directory is gold. I didn't even own a copy before my first attempt. Got one for round two and it made a big difference on the harder application questions.
The methodology section is no joke. I went in thinking it would be the easy part and it tanked my first score too. Spend at least a third of your prep time there.
Six weeks sounds about right. I did 8 weeks at around 90 minutes a day and passed with a 79%. Probably could have done it in 6 if I'd been more focused early on.
Congrats on passing! Did you find the ethics portion to be heavily tested? I'm retaking in 5 weeks and that's the area I'm least confident in right now.
I failed my first attempt too and honestly the biggest mindset shift for me was stopping to ask myself "why is this wrong?" for every answer choice I eliminated. It sounds slow but it forced me to actually understand the content instead of just pattern-matching to familiar phrases. For the liturgical theology stuff especially, the distractors are really cleverly written and they'll catch you if you're just going off vibes. The mcc sacred scripture exegesis section tripped me up bad the first time because I thought I knew it, but I was just recognizing terms not understanding how they connected.
Second attempt I went through every practice question I got wrong and wrote out in my own words why each wrong answer was wrong, not just why the right one was right. It's tedious but it completely changed how I read the questions. You start to see the traps before you fall into them. Give it a shot especially on catechetical methodology — that section rewards understanding over memorization more than any other part of the test.