hussam wroteIt must be close to 20 years since I did my Brevet exams
Same thing here.
Back in "my days" it was crazy. My friend told me that the person who was supposed to watch the class made him stand up and recite the answers to the rest of the class. I don't think he's lying. Enough said.
I've heard that it's not like that anymore, or at least is not supposed to be like that anymore. I studied for my brevet. I used to spend lots of time at my neighbors house, there were a bunch of girls, one of them was almost my age, and she helped me. Sometimes her older sister helped me. Around that time I saw her older sister in her bra (by accident). But that's off topic.
A lot, no, leave that for the bac, but it's surely not a vacation, or fun in any way, and don't count on the cheating. It's not that hard you can study it.
What I had most trouble with is the Arabic stuff, especially history and geography in arabic. So it was not easy for me. I can imagine it being easy for someone who is good at arabic. But any person will still need to study.
Good luck. It's not too difficult or intense but yeah you need to study for a while (like a week at least), at least like two hours a day, I think. Realistically more, and it probably also got more difficult since.