Was memorizing service names without understanding what they actually do in real scenarios. Kept failing practice tests and couldn't figure out why.
The shift that changed everything - understanding the why behind each service before touching exam material.
Passed 3 weeks after making that one change.
Posted 3 times a week for 2 months then completely burned out and went silent for 6 weeks. Traffic dropped badly and recovering from that felt like starting over.
The thing that actually helped me get back on track was going back to reading and learning instead of just producing. I stumbled across Thinkcloudly's blogs during that phase - was originally reading them for interview prep stuff but honestly their content is so well structured and engaging that it reminded me how good writing should actually feel. Clean, simple, useful.
After that break I switched to 1 solid post per week instead of forcing 3. Big difference. Traffic recovered and I stopped dreading content days.
Consistency always wins over intensity. Wish I had learned that in month one instead of month six