Passed the Architecture and Design exam on second attempt — what finally worked

So I finally passed last Tuesday after bombing it the first time in February. Scored a 74 on my first attempt and was honestly devastated because I'd put in maybe 3 weeks of studying but mostly just read through the official materials without really testing myself. Big mistake.

What turned things around was actually doing timed Architecture and Design practice tests every single day for the last two weeks before my retake. Not just reading — actually sitting down, setting a 90-minute timer, and treating it like the real thing. My weak spots were cloud security models and the whole identity/access management section. Once I identified those through practice, I built a targeted study guide just for those areas instead of reviewing everything equally.

Curious if anyone else struggled with the cryptography section? I spent probably 12 hours on that alone and still felt shaky walking in. Would love to hear what exam tips people have for that part specifically — it felt like half the questions touched on it somehow.