These answers aren't for Boeing or Airbus, but I think they cover it. My experience is with large corporate jets.
1. Not sure. Anything from 3 to 7 weeks depending on the aircraft and the thoroughness of the training. Check with individual training providers. Oh, and don't forget you've got to do circuits (for JAR) which could take ages to organize.
2. Sometimes you get some of the materials in advance.
3. Theory exams must be taken before doing the sim assessment. I'll give you requirements for my type. I think this is standard for all JAR: 7 exams. Fail up to 3 and you have to retake the ones you failed. Fail more than that and you have to retake them all.
4. Thorough breifing and some technical / performance type questions. Not super difficult, just stuff you should know.
2-3 hours in the sim:
- Start in a black cockpit and do a full normal sector. Hand fly the ILS raw data (no flight director).
- Next you'll do a departure with a failure before V1 (STOP) Then one with an engine failure after V1. See how you deal with that.
- Hand fly a single engine ILS with a go around at DA.
- Non precision approach to land.
- At some point there's a systems problem (hydraulic failure / leak / generator failure etc.)
- If you're doing FAA they'll want to see unusual attitude recoveries, stalls and a circle to land too.
- Thorough de-briefing.
A fail on a single area means that part only has to be re-done (a partial pass) Fail more than 1 area (or is it 2?) and you have to re-do the whole thing.
5. On the sim I worked on (not the sort of thing people had as a first type) 80 - 90% pass it first time (or partial, then pass) If the instructor has submitted you for the exam, he's confident you'll pass. People are more likely to get extra training before the test than to fail the test and then get extra training.
HTH