I only printed out the pages mentioned in the study guide, which in some cases, was like 10% of an entire chapter :P Plus I did it at work, so it didn't cost me anything fortunately!
All the previous comments are correct, the initial test is just to gauge where people are at and who might need a little extra help in the theory block, and they reteach everything over the first 8 weeks anyway. One person on our course never looked at the pre material, barely looked at the books at the college, and still passed :P Not saying that's the way to do it, just an indication :P