I PASSED! Here's What I did!
About 2 months ago, I posted in this group saying, "What's next?" I had read my Kaplan book as well as LEM. Did all the tests etc. I still didn't feel ready. So after some recs from people here, I bought STC and supplemented with that. Read the whole book and did the quizzes in about 2 weeks. I took the official test about a week after I finished the STC book. I did not pass. I missed it by 5, and it was all economics that got me. I passed every other section. I didn't focus very hard on that section during studying, just due to thinking it wouldn't be so prevalent (dumb, I know but I really focused on the math side of things. You live and you learn).
I also did not beat myself up over this. The test is difficult but not too daunting if you just take a breather. Remind yourself it is passable. You gotta give yourself grace, especially if you have zero finance background. I came from the medical field to finance. While I did do the double major in college, finance still felt pretty foreign to me when I made the switch - so you just really need to give yourself grace. Being hard on yourself is just going to make this process harder.
So what I did was rebook my test a month out, immediately. Having a goal date helped me create and stick to a study plan. I read the STC book again. I took an econ quiz EVERY DAY on Kaplan, and then I redid every chapter quiz on STC. I filled up another notebook of notes. At this point I have 2-3 notebooks full. I remembered on my first test there was a ton of TEY, so I made sure my dumpsheet had little notes on that as well. News flash - literally didn't need it once the 2nd time I took the test. I studied for at minimum 3 hours every day. 1 hour in the am 2 in the evening etc. I split it up.
I also kept all of this a secret. The only person who knew I was even thinking about taking this test this year was my fiancé. My boss is very chill and didn't want me to stress about this test and planning a wedding in the same year. I took this as my opportunity to study on the DL without people constantly hounding me with "when is your test?" etc. I think this honestly helped so much. No pressure at all, then when I passed on a Saturday, I came into work that Monday and showed my boss and basically said, "surprise" lol
One thing I did not do that everyone else seemingly did- take a simulated exam. Whoops. My hot take is that I am a nervous test taker. I somewhat knew the setup from my SIE, I knew what I was getting into after my 1st attempt. I also knew what I needed to work on. So instead of adding more stress of "oh shoot I didn't pass this practice one, but I am passing all my quizzes with 90% or better" I just did multiple quizzes a day, and on the day of testing I broke the test up into "quizzes" in my brain so it felt more like what I was doing every day. 5 quizzes instead of a 3 hour test. To me, that made it feel easier.
A week before the test I practiced my dump sheet at least twice a day. The day of the test I sat in my car and practiced it for 30 min. I also 100% studied up until the night before. Everyone says don't - I say do it. Just review. You're not going to learn something new that fast, but you absolutely can review and keep things fresh in your mind. I listened to M-90 on the drive down to the testing center (2-hour drive) to just keep things fresh in my brain. I went in and just did what I could. Honestly, at about question 86 I thought, "man idk if I got this one" but now, looking back I think just accepting my fate actually helped me relax because, at 3 hours on the dot, I didn't go back and review; I didn't second-guess myself I just trusted what I thought was the answer, and I submitted and saw the magical "PASS".
My biggest take is: lean into what you know makes studying more comfortable. Not everyone's method is going to work for you. Study every day - even if just for an hour. This is a big "catch-all" test so you're not going to be able to cram. I also 100% recommend starting with Kaplan. They're much more detailed, and then supplementing with STC. Theirs feels broader, but the language is easier to understand. Lastly, the fewer people are involved, the better. Keeping it a secret really helped keep the pressure off me. I hope this is helpful to someone! Good luck!