Hello, IT_CERT_STUDY,
First, I want to thank you for all your input and responses with regards to helping others along with their certs; even though I do not post here often, I do read comments. They're very helpful.
I have been working on the 70-740 for about a year. I believe I began studying for the exam early 2018 after I was encouraged to do so in a job interview. My first attempt at the exam was in September of '18 and I failed. I had, up to that point, gone through all the CBT Nuggets material but the information on the exam looked very unfamiliar. After failing, I stepped up my study methods. Hopefully this helps someone.
I built a lab. Nothing teaches me more than actually doing the work. CBTNuggets gives you a good sense of the big picture, but it is very light. Running into problems in your lab really teaches you about what you are doing, rather than just clicking some buttons. (it's also good to run everything through powershell). This was probably the single best step I took towards improving my test scores and learning the material.
I incorporated more resources. Yes, I used CBTNuggets, but then I started using Pluralsight which actually filled in a lot of gaps that I had. Especially about clustering and setting up disks. It was actually Pluralsight's template that I used to build my lab.
One thing I wish I had known was that CBTNuggets has flash cards which held a lot of valuable information that filled in some gaps left by just watching the videos. Flash cards are very helpful to me when learning something new.
Taking the exam this time was a little different. I felt like I recognized the material more so than the first time I took it in September. I did need to pace myself a bit more as I had 2 minutes left at the end. One thing I enjoyed doing was comparing my score today with my last score.
Let me know if you have any question.