My work was very generous and allowed me to take multiple prep courses before I took the exam in April '13. My thoughts:
The online PPi Civil Course was ok. The instructor (Andy) is a great teacher. The layout of the class was not as helpful to me as the School of PE (see last paragraph). The examples in the notes are just taken from the CERM, so you're paying a lot of money for little (to no) extra information. They made me buy other books (Timber?!) as part of the package, which was a waste of money. And, I got into an administrative-type arguement with them at the end of the course because they shut-down the class recordings before they said they would in their documentation. The poor customer service left me with a bad impression.
I also took the new online PPi WR/Env't Depth course. The instructor was knowledgeable but his accent was difficult to understand at times. Again, the notes are taken directly from the CERM. I don't need to pay to have someone read them to me. And again, they require you to buy other books (along with the course) that are unnecessary. Complete was of money.
I also took the local School of PE exam this Spring. It was EXCELLENT. I was hesitant to give up 5 entire weekends, but it's a great crash course. You can tell their goal is to get you to pass. Each week is a different instructor. I thought all but one were really good/great. The notes are great and give you only what you need for the exam; i.e. it weeds out all of extraneous information that can make the CERM too cumbersome. I used them solely for some parts of the exam. SoPE provide a LOT of examples. And, the best part of the class is the Sunday workshop. They recreate testing conditions, and all you do is work problems. Honestly, it was tough but worth it. SofPE all the way!
