Struggling with COT exam on COT practice tests — any tips?

Quick data point: I spent 7 weeks studying, 1-2 hours a day, and passed with a 77%.

The section on COT exam took me the longest to feel confident about. Eventually I just drilled practice questions until I could answer them without hesitation.

What testing center did you end up booking? Some of them have much shorter wait times than others right now.

For anyone finding this thread later: the COT is passable with consistent effort, even working full time. I studied 56 minutes a day for 10 weeks. The cot - certified ophthalmic technician ophthalmic imaging and photography questions and answers kept me honest about where my gaps were instead of just drilling things I already knew.

Great discussion here. One thing I'd add that hasn't come up: sleep the night before is genuinely more important than one more study session. I went in fully rested for my COT and felt sharper on the cot meaning questions than I expected. Don't underestimate recovery time.

Just wanted to pop in with a quick update since I found this thread last week when I was in the same boat. I scored a 71% on my practice test yesterday which honestly felt like a miracle compared to the 58% I was getting two weeks ago. What clicked for me was slowing down on the scenario questions and asking myself what the examiner is actually testing before I even look at the answer choices.

I'm planning to sit the real COT in about three weeks so I'm doing one full practice run every other day until then. It's still not perfect but the trend is going the right way and that's enough to keep me motivated. Good luck to everyone else grinding through this stuff.

I was in the exact same spot a few months ago, working full-time and squeezing in study sessions on lunch breaks and after the kids went to bed. What finally clicked for me was stopping the timed tests for a week and just doing scenario breakdowns — like, after each wrong answer I'd write out in plain words WHY the correct answer made sense clinically, not just what the rule was. It felt slow but it rewired how I read the questions.

Also, the free cot jcahpo questions helped a lot because they're formatted closer to how the real exam phrases things. Honestly your brain already knows this stuff — it's just not used to recognizing it under those weird clinical scenario setups yet. Keep going, it does start to connect.