There is no substitute for doing the theory, but the question banks do help familiarise yourself with the weird and wonderful ways that the JAA can manipulate the english language. Some of the questions are so badly worded and phrased that sometimes even if you do know the answer you can still end up choosing the wrong one because you've misunderstood the question!
As many have said and will say again these exams should be a test of your knowledge, not a test of your ability to interpret their badly phrased questions.
Use the question banks as an additional learning aid, but under no circumstances use it to "Parrot fashion" learn the answers (except for Air Law!
) all it takes is a few number changes and you'll have a completely different set of answers.
I've done hardcore studying, but also completmented it with the question banks and have got all first time passes with a 95% average. There's my pennies worth!!