I'm going to echo my "learned" friend, OldRetSWO...I've been an ALO for 25 years, and in that time I've probably averaged 25-35 candidates each year. I can count on both hands (once) the total number of candidates that the CFA was an issue for: those are the failures. And I knew they would fail, and I think they did too. Most just worried, overthought (as he ☝ said) the entire thing, and ended up doing just fine.
I'm a grad...and all I can tell you about my CFA...both of them (one the year I didn't get appointed and the next year when I did) was that I freaked the officers scoring me and the others (a bunch of us were testing) with my basketball toss. I was (back then) ranked in the top 100 high school shot putters and discus throwers...throwing something like a basketball was not a challenge (on one toss I hit the far wall of the gym so they weren't sure what score to give me). The rest...I honestly don't remember. As I recall I asked my track coach to "test me" one day after school...and we did all the events. I think he said something like "Ah, you'll do fine." And that was that.
I describe the CFA to my candidates as a bell curve "pass-fail" exceed all dreams challenge. MOST of the candidates will take it, fall in the "middle four sigma's" and be fine: they get a big "checkmark" and move on. The other "two sigmas..." the bottom end are the ones that fail one or more event...they hope for a retest. The others? They're the "where did this person come from" types? You know the kind...they walk in, do more than the max on every event because they say "it's the challenge..." they get (I'm guessing, I don't know this) some sort of "gold star" mark someplace such that if they come up tied with someone...that "might" be the decider.
Don't go crazy on the CFA. Make sure you're fit, be ready, know how you'll do before you go out to do it (that means practice it a few times), and then just follow the Nike phrase: "DO IT." Better to do as OldRetSWO said: put the extra time into the SAT/ACT and crush those!!
Just my opinion...which with $1.09 should get you an XL Polar Pop at Circle K.
Steve
USAFA ALO
USAFA '83