1) AQP is coming
2) I study and have never felt threatened in a training event
3) I've flown with and heard of folks who fail who are lazy, don't prepare, have a lax attitude, etc etc etc.
4) FAA shutdown over failure rate?! That's laughable. Take a look at some of the names on the training list. I assumed it would be higher than 25%. I know several in that class personally. One who failed said it was a legit bust and purely on him.
Show up prepared, put in the work, do your job right and you won't fail. Simple as that. And I'm pretty sure no one has been fired lately.