Finally passed my HACCP exam after two failed attempts — here's what worked

Okay so I've been in food service management for about six years and my company finally required everyone at my level to get HACCP certified. I failed the first two attempts honestly because I underestimated how specific the questions get — I thought my on-the-job experience would carry me but the exam really wants you to know the formal definitions and the exact sequence of the seven principles cold.

What finally clicked for me was drilling with a HACCP practice test every single morning for two weeks straight. Like, not just reading the material — actually doing timed question sets and forcing myself to figure out WHY I got something wrong. The critical control point questions tripped me up way more than I expected, especially distinguishing CCPs from prerequisite programs.

I'm sharing this because I see a lot of people ask whether the exam is hard and the honest answer is: it depends entirely on how you study. Anyone else recently go through this? What did your study timeline look like?