Just passed my ABAT last Thursday after about 9 weeks of prep. I want to give an honest breakdown because a lot of advice I found online was either super vague or clearly written by people who hadn't taken the exam recently. The first-time pass rate seems to be around 60-65% based on what I've heard through NBFAA, so it's not trivial.
I spent way too much time on the electrical theory sections expecting them to be heavily tested. They showed up but not as much as I anticipated. What actually dominated were alarm signal transmission, false alarm management procedures, and code compliance questions tied to NFPA 731. If you're skimping on the code section because it's boring to study, don't. Those questions appeared more than anything else.
My prep routine was 1.5 hours a day, 5 days a week. I went through the NBFAA study guide twice and did practice questions every session. By week 7 I was consistently hitting 80-85% on practice sets. Scored an 83% on the actual exam.
The hands-on experience requirement really does matter for the conceptual questions. People who've done actual field installations will recognize scenarios that pure book study won't fully prepare you for.
The NFPA 731 code questions were the ones I was least prepared for too. I treated them as secondary and got burned. Second attempt I made them the priority and passed with a 79%.
9 weeks sounds about right. I tried to do it in 5 weeks after a buddy told me it wasn't that hard. Failed by 4 points. Took 8 weeks the second time and passed comfortably.
The false alarm management section surprised me with how detailed the questions were. You need to know the specific procedures, not just the general concepts.
Did you use any supplemental materials beyond the NBFAA study guide? I'm 4 weeks out and feeling shaky on signal transmission. Not sure if I need additional resources or just drill the guide harder.
Electrical theory questions seem to vary a lot by exam form from what I've heard. Some people say it was heavy, others say light. Worth knowing it reasonably well but not obsessing over it.