I went through almost the same thing - failed the first time, barely missed passing the second. Honestly, the handbook alone didn’t do much for me because it’s just dry theory. What really worked was grinding the
Ohio permit practice test online, like every single day, multiple times. At first it was super frustrating repeating the same mistakes, but eventually my brain started recognizing patterns, and on the real test the answers came out automatically. Highly recommend it - it feels like training before a game: the more reps you do, the calmer and sharper you’ll be when it actually counts.