One more reply and that's it. No one is saying here that one should not be prepared. That is obvious. Do as much preparation as possible. Don't go to your upgrade interviews etc, unprepared. The question? Prepared for what? How does one prepare for subjective material such as personality, body language and weaknesses exposed on an outdated psycometric test. "Do you hear voices?" "Would you rather get sick on a bus or hit your thumb with a hammer?"
If the product that EK delivers for training is so good, then why the proliferation of the study guide, the guide of all the questions ever asked, the systems guide? Is that the kind of preparation you guys are talking about? If it were the random failure no angst from anyone. But from the line perspective there appears to be a systemic failure of training, mentoring, and motivation and more of an atmosphere of paranoia, fear and intimidation.