Regardless of whether we believe the examinations are impractical (or not), the fact is pilots are expected to be able to study, sit and pass - or fail, and move to another occupation.
It's one of the "cull factors".
If, on the other hand, the story refers to the practice of using past examination questions for practice, after having studied the syllabus, then I see no difference to the techniques used the world over. Even recognising a certain question, was no guarantee that the numerical values from past exams would be used to give the same answers provided in the test runs - what was necessary was having the know-how to work through to the correct answer.
However, if pilots were provided with the EXACT Q&A's and told that "these are what you WILL be getting", then that IS cheating.