I was unlucky with the weather for my IMCR course - it was good VMC all the way - and encountered the first real IMC on the test, ironically. That said, I felt well prepared and passed fine; but my instructor held an IR and flew regular air taxi/charter work for a neighbouring company in singles and light twins, so he had real IMC experience. Plus the school had an (ancient but pretty good) FNPT (a sort of sim without any visuals or movement) which I could use free of charge as much as I liked during the course - we practised procedures on it before flying them in the air so I didn't use MS FS much at the time, though I use it a lot to keep current since then.
Tim