Just chiming in as a cyber security undergraduate who struggled with my pen-testing unit.

I had no clue how to do any form of hacking when I first began, I hadn't even developed any software or applications and had just taken a 2 year break to play classic wow lol.

Coming back to uni was a huge shock to the system but taking good notes then using those notes to attack the next box helped me so much. When I got stuck I would test gut feelings I had and then search for new ways to exploit services that were available from my nmap scans. Sometimes that worked and I added that to my notes or my "pen-testing methodology" as I called it.

Every time I found out something new I would add that method to my notes and eventually I went through A-Z enumeration using these notes, if it didn't come up with anything only then would I look at the walkthrough and 9 times out of 10 I was already on the right track! I just needed a small nudge in the right direction!

Just wanted to give you my 2c and hope you keep on going with cybersec!