Just got my passing score notification this morning and I'm still kind of in shock. I failed my first attempt back in March by just 4 points, which honestly stung more than failing badly would have. After that I took a month off before diving back in because I needed to reset mentally.
Second time around I completely changed my approach. Instead of just re-reading the SAFe materials, I started doing a PAL practice test every other day and treating the wrong answers as mini study sessions. That shift made a huge difference — I stopped memorizing and started actually understanding why certain PI Planning decisions get made the way they do. The Lean-Agile mindset questions tripped me up the first time but once I understood the underlying principles they clicked.
Happy to share my full study guide approach if anyone wants it. The exam is beatable but it's genuinely not easy — you really do need to know how a RTE operates day-to-day, not just the theory. Timeline-wise I studied about 3-4 hours per week for six weeks before attempt two. What areas are people struggling with most right now?