A big help for me was not having to read the entire scenarios if I didn't need to.
You can usually rule out some of the wrong answers right away based on guidelines/modifiers/etc. you can narrow down which codes in the answers are important and look those up (like if you have the same ICD-9 or CPT code in all four answers (or all of the remaining ones you haven't ruled out), you don't have to worry about looking that one up.
Usually, there will be a key phrase that will differ between the remaining codes (you should have these highlighted/marked in your manuals so you can quickly notice them) so you can skim through the scenario and look for the phrase which will tell you what the correct answer is.
Also, if there are modifiers on the codes, you can rule out answers that way by determining whether or not the modifier applies.
Another tip is to answer the "easy" questions that don't involve codes first... like the practice management, anatomy, terminology, etc.
You should also have important guidelines pages, appendices, pages with key figures/images or whatever else you want to have a quick page-flip away. Supposedly you should be able to answer all of the questions on the exam with your manuals.
One thing that really helped me out was the Coding Blitz exam prep videos on codingcertification.org. Laureen does an excellent job of preparing people for the exam, she takes it section by section and goes over what she feels is most important and might draw questions on the exam. She also provides videos of her CPT manual to see how she has everything bubbled/highlighted/underlined and where she has key notes to help things pop out. There are also a bunch of free tools/videos on that site that might help if you aren't interested in purchasing the full video package. However, if you do have interest in the video package, let me know because I have a referral link for that site so we can help each other out if you do make a purchase.
Were there any specific areas of the exams where you felt you had the most difficulty? Or was it mostly time management?