Ask HN: How do you study/learn new topics for competitive exams at a fast pace?

Some context, I did my bachelors in Electronics Engineering. In my country, we need to write an entrance exam (called GATE - Graduate Aptitude Test in Engineering) to do a masters. I want to get a masters in CS.

Syllabus for entrance PDF - http://gate.iitd.ac.in/Syllabus/CS.pdf

[Previous year question paper PDF](http://gate.iitd.ac.in/OldQP/2019QP_CS.pdf)

I can see that the syllabus revolves around a bachelors level CS education.

I read many success stories online about people who are able to prepare for the exam alongside a 9-5 job. But somehow I am not able to follow the pace at which they might have prepared/learnt the topics. [This](https://gateoverflow.in/blog/8146/gate-overflow-schedule-for-gate-2020) is a sample timetable that is popular online which is recommended to follow.

I notice in [reddit OMSCS](https://www.reddit.com/r/OMSCS/) people are able to balance 1/2 classes alongside of work, 12-16 weeks per sememster/class which seems realistic to me.

I have the last spent 3 months learning Discrete mathematics from Rosen. The past 2 months with Data Structures and Algorithms using CS61B (still ongoing).

I am trying to understand what I might be doing wrong/different compared to the success stories. Maybe it's the lack of background, maybe they're smarter. I don't know. What I do know is that I would like to learn CS both for the purpose of knowledge and for the purpose of the exam. I would appreciate any help/pointers from the HN community regarding this. Thank you.

EDIT: If anyone can point out how I can make the urls clickable, that'd be a huge help.

EDIT2: New to HN, I don't understand why I can't comment on my own post to make my urls clickable