I'm not going to sugarcoat it — I bombed the TPS exam twice before I finally passed last month. First attempt I scored a 61 when I needed a 70, second time a 68. I was ready to give up honestly. What finally clicked for me was stopping the random YouTube video approach and actually committing to a structured TPS study guide that walked me through the material in order instead of jumping around topic to topic.
The thing nobody tells you is how much the exam emphasizes practical application over memorization. I spent weeks drilling definitions and it did almost nothing for my score. When I switched to working through a TPS practice test every other day and really reviewing why I got answers wrong — not just what the right answer was — my retention shot up dramatically. Last four weeks before the exam I was consistently hitting 74-78 on practice sets.
If you're just starting out, I'd say budget at least 6-8 weeks of serious study time. Don't underestimate the time management section either — it caught me completely off guard on attempt one. Happy to answer questions if anyone's in the same boat I was.