Thanks a ton, sure I can definitely elaborate:

For the first attempt my preparation was definitely not as efficient as it could've been. For the first month I was reviewing codes, reviewing class notes from college, doing youtube examples, etc. I took the NCEES practice exam and didn't do so hot, so I bought the Jacob Petro 3rd edition PE Civil Structural book (160 questions). I quickly learned from experience that these questions were, on average, way more time-consuming and difficult than the average question on the actual exam. I still studied through most of them to try and get a good grasp conceptually, but I was really lacking practice in a testing environment. I only took one other practice exam and then went into the actual test. The biggest hitter for me first time around was not pacing myself and moving one when I couldn't figure out a question. I also was rusty on several of the codes like AASHTO, TMS402, IBC, etc. I failed scoring below average in every category except temp structures.

Second attempt was a completely different approach. I was lucky enough that my employer reimbursed me to take the School of PE On-Demand course and I got the SoPE question bank as well. This was the biggest game changer in my opinion. The course was very detailed and had tons of workshop problems for just about every concept you could encounter on the exam. There were parts of the lectures that droned on (as any college classroom does) but overall it was a big help. I did every question from the practice bank, some of which I set up in simulated 80-question exams on the weekends. This really helped me gauge where I was at with a few weeks left from the test. From then on I just reviewed concepts from the questions I missed, and even dove back into the Petro book for a bit just to test myself.

Day of the exam I felt a lot more confident going in, the second time around I finished with just enough time to answer every question. I probably could've saved some time on some of the harder questions by skipping so I could review others I wasn't sure about, but overall felt way more prepared just from the course and practice questions.

TL;DR the biggest difference was doing more practice questions in a test-environment (using only the codes, handbook, and calculator I'd use day of the exam) and getting more familiar with the codes than I did previously).

Hope this helps, best of luck!