I have been getting stuck into my Met book the last few nights and making good progress
Greg, for the sheer volume of things to learn Met is possibly the hardest exam, I left it until last. I think it helped as i had the 'rhythm' of the exams and had 'stretched my brain' so it could take on the extra info.
Met also has some icing questions which are easier to answer if you have already done Air Tech.
I did independant study for the exams, but for Nav i did a few impromptu ground school sessions with a friendly instructor. I'm not sure i would have passed Nav without those sessions, you really need somebody to check your answers and have them throw you some curve balls, you'll find them in the exam!
I used a modular approach, set goals (this week i will do chapters 1-5) do 1 chapter at a time, do the review. Then when you finished the book do each of the reviews without re-reading , sort the ones you missed, then do the exams. lock the door and time yourself. review the questions you missed. try and do the practice exams as close to the real one as you can. worked for me i didn't get 95% everytime (barely scraped through on Nav) but i didn't miss one!
Good Luck mate... i don't envy you doing School and PPL study.