Visit ATC Days.
Vegancruiser,
As with many exams, RT only bears a limited resemblance to the real world. But you probably know that already. I’d agree with comments from the posters above about getting a hand held radio and listening to comms. I’m not convinced that you will pick up bad habits, but I’m sure you will soon be able to identify them.
You might like to take advantage of a ‘Visit ATC Day’ as mentioned elsewhere on the forum. Although this doesn’t have an immediate effect on your RT Exam, it does show why your RT should be of a good standard.
On a visit to Farnborough the ATCO who was showing us round gave us a quick ‘test’ at the end. Everyone was given two flight progress strips. We filled in the first one with him pretending to be a ‘normal’ private pilot. The second one we filled in with him doing the call in the approved format. Guess which one was filled in better…