So I just got my results last week and I finally cleared the NEAT on my second try. First attempt I went in pretty confident after just reviewing my textbook notes and honestly got humbled — ended up about 12 points short of passing. The nutrition assessment sections completely caught me off guard.
What turned things around for me was being way more systematic. I spent about six weeks this time, roughly an hour a day, and focused heavily on using a solid NEAT study guide instead of trying to piece things together from random sources. I also did a ton of NEAT practice test questions — probably 400-500 total across different question banks — which really helped me get comfortable with how they phrase things, especially the client counseling scenarios.
For anyone just starting out: don't underestimate the scope of knowledge assessment and the behavioral change theory sections. Those tripped me up badly the first time. Happy to answer questions about the process if anyone is in prep mode right now.