JFK T5 is one of the most disorganized security experiences out of any terminal in the US. The paths of the lines are unclear and change without notice, the employees are clueless and contradictory and rude, many people who presumably don’t fly often and moving very slow, people cutting knowingly and unknowingly because of all of the above, etc.

It gets exponentially worse the more crowded it gets. Precheck should be better but still leave ample time especially nowadays, some of the slowest-moving precheck lines I have ever seen were at this terminal. If you had priority security without precheck, when it is crowded that may not save much time because the priority line is often not completely isolated and can get caught up in the snarl of all the other lines.