I'm sure there are many ways to prepare. I can't answer you directly. I can say I used PPI, and went through their practice exams, diagnostic exams and programs extensively until my pass rate went from 50%, to 70% to 90%. I used the practice exams to find my weaknesses, then drilled down and...
Correct, half of your screen is the questions, the other half is the reference materials. If you put in the time in advance, and know where to look then there are no issues finding what you need. I used the NCEES reference manual for 85% of the questions, and the OSHA CFR's for the other parts...
I took my CBT exam last week in Civil: Construction. I used PPI to prep, the downside was that the focus was still on using the CERM, not the NCEES reference manual. I focused for 3 months on only using the digital versions of the available codes and practising which key words to know to quickly...