A little background: I started my practice earlier this year, after getting licensed in NY. Some potential project opportunities came up in CA 4 months ago, so I decided to get licensed there so I could pursue them. Thankfully, the potential clients were willing to wait.
I took the test on Wednesday after studying for about 8 weeks. The first couple of weeks were fairly casual, mostly spent gathering and mentally organizing the various study resources. The last 4 weeks were spent doing more intensive review and practice exams. I was concerned that this may not be enough time, and after taking the exam, I think that it was the bare minimum required (for me, anyway). If I had to guess, I'd say I barely passed. I personally feel that the CSE was more difficult than the ARE. Last year I took 6 AREs in 5 months, and even with the truncated study time, I usually felt good during the exams. The CSE was different. There were points during the exam where I felt certain that I was going to fail, and at one point I had to look away from the screen and give myself little mental pep talk. I had to remind myself to read the questions carefully, and to not linger on the questions that were overly convoluted, of which there were many. I was definitely fighting the clock on this exam. In contrast, when I took the ARE I was always able to review all of the questions I'd marked, and never felt that time was a major factor. On the CSE, I was only able to review about half of my marked questions before the clock ran out. Many people on this forum have talked about looking for the answer that is MOST correct, and I don't think this can be overstated. There were some questions where I didn't think any of the answers were exactly right, so I went with the "least wrong" answer.
Overall, if I had to characterize the exam, I would say it's more general in the way it treats the material, and I think I should have spent less time focusing on minutia while studying. I don't think this exam is about memorizing details, it's more about understanding what to do in practical project related scenarios. There were a handful of questions concerned with minutia, but not many. I recommend studying accordingly. Just my two cents. Personally, I found this exam and preparation required to be exhausting, so I recommend keeping a list motivators that will pull you through. For me, it was the prospect of losing potential projects that could really help my fledgling company, and not wanting to have to study for a retake after my wife and I have our fist kid in January.
I used the usual resources:
WE guide, audio, project scenarios, and OMCES (main sources). Definitely click the links in the guide.
Woo guide and mock exams (hated the practice exams, liked the guide for review)
PassX Flash cards (went through them once)
CAB CSE test plan
CAB CSE reference material
AIA Contracts (very important)
Good Luck Everyone!