Chocks,
What an excellent post!
A couple of very minor points which you've reminded me about, though. Two relating to R/T:
The list of things which you need to learn exactly for R/T is spot on, but I just wanted to add, with regard to position reports, that yes you must learn them for the exams, but then forget about them afterwards, because no one makes position reports the way you're supposed to, or that you have to for the exam!
Also, you say there is no R/T exam in the Confuser: this is true of the latest version of the Confuser. But see if you can find someone who did the old CAA exams, and borrow their Confuser from them, because there is an R/T exam in the old version.
And finally, re. the Confuser, it is an excellent book for checking that you're up to speed before going into the exam. But there are a small number of questions which they've got wrong. If the Confuser disagrees with Thom or Pratt, then Thom and Pratt are right.
FFF
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