they definitely have questions on material not in the curriculum, although sometimes these are "research" questions and are not counted in your score. they also throw in extraneous information to distract you (e.g., the helicopter) when it is often not relevant to the answer
i agree with some of the other posters...most of the time it's not the test questions that are tough, it's the anxiety of the test taker. I also find that people tend to overthink the questions...
definitely don't overthink the question! many of the questions are straightforward, but they put in extra information/details to distract you (or make you think too much!)
it was explained to me that the test is a "computer adaptive test" (or something like that) where it varies the questions based on your responses to previous questions. so if you are asked several questions on a particular topic, and you answer them correctly, it won't ask you anymore...but if...
i always try to be respectful of their experience, but try to convince/educate/enlighten them to other techniques that may work better in various situations. if i go into it with an attitude that i am dealing with dinosaurs, i won't get anywhere.
online courses
Online courses are not for everyone. I have some experience taking some nursing courses online...while I did well with them, many of my classmates liked the classroom versions better.