Good luck with the test. I'd encourage you to focus on the first part of your post. Get out and meet people, learn from each other. Sure, knowledge and credentials help, but the connections you can make can really help carry through for job opportunities, mentorship, or just a fellow sympathizer on those bad days.
Here's an observation: if you look at the messages posted here and elsewhere, those asking for help usually are about 60 percent "how do I get a job?" and 38 percent "how do I pass this test?" Very rarely, anymore, are there questions like "How do I solve this?"
Maybe some of that is all certs and tests: To every problem there is one correct answer. In truth, nearly every problem has multiple solutions, but what's really cool is when people who know their stuff see not just different solutions, but also different problems. A data leak may have been the issue, but someone sees an encryption issue, another sees an authentication one, and someone else sees a governance one. My big knock against the industry is we job-descriptioned out that creativity.
