Finally passed PL-300 after failing twice — here's what actually worked

I'm not gonna lie, this exam humbled me. Failed my first attempt with a 680 (passing is 700) and thought I had it in the bag the second time around — nope, 692. Almost gave up but I just passed last week with a 756 and I feel like I can finally talk about it without cringing.

The thing nobody tells you is that the DAX questions are sneaky. It's not just "write a measure" — they give you a scenario and you have to pick between four measures that all look almost correct. What turned it around for me was grinding a solid PL-300 practice test set that actually mimicked that format, plus going back to basics with the study guide on data model optimization. I spent about 60 hours total across three attempts, probably 25 of those hours in the final push.

Anyone else feel like the Power Query transformation questions were underrepresented in most prep materials? I got way more of those on the real exam than I expected. Happy to share what resources helped if anyone's in the same boat I was.