Hi PBD,
I think that, to take and pass exams, you have to be a bit ruthless with yourself. It can be a slog, especially if you have many other things to do in your everyday life, as I do, and all the more so if those other things are not associated with flying.
My method is:
Read the Trevor Thom Book. Do every test question it sets for every chapter, or part-chapter, and write your answers in a book. The ones you get wrong, you correct your answer, go back, read the relevant para/s and understand why the answer was wrong.
When you have got to the end of the book, go back and read it again, but you can skim through it because you will remember much. Do the questions again - yes, again! Write the answers down, so that it’s a real test for you.
Make a short-list of the questions you got wrong the second time, and test yourself again on all of those wrong ones. When you have all of the Thom questions right, get someone to select any question from the book, and answer as in a conversation. Then move on to the Confuser.
Compile your own exam from the Confuser - in Met there are 109 questions, and like questions are grouped with like, and you need to separate them. 109/20 means select the questions 5 numbers apart, ie, the first exam is Q1, Q6, Q11, Q16 etc. Your next exam is Q2, Q7, Q12, Q17, and so on.
Those questions you have wrong in each of your own exams, read the Confuser answer - not always exactly the same as the Thom books, as has been said by others here (and, yes, I remember that question, the answer was nowhere to be found in the Thom, only in the Confuser!). When you have done all of the exams, do them again. Your pass mark will be going up. Then, make a list of all of the questions you got wrong. That is your last test. When you can answer all of the Confuser questions and get all of them right, that is the time to go and take the real Met exam. Not before.
You will by then have a pretty thorough knowledge and understanding of the subject, and will have the confidence of having sat your own exams and done well in them.
And, all through the studies, pull off the 214’s and 215’s, and the TAFs and the METARs, every day from the MET, and study them. It becomes fascinating.
I find I have to work at these exams. It can be hard work. But, I enjoy it, and I like to learn; and I love to fly.
Met is tough, but it will all fall into place. Don’t let it discourage you!
TP