I reached out to a few people online who (as you said) passed after studying "only a few weeks" and found some surprising hidden facts.
For example, in one case the individual had technically studied for "only four weeks" -- yet when pressed he opened up and stated he had taken those four weeks off work, studied 10-12 hours per day nonstop, and had 18 years hands-on security experience at multiple levels. He also stated there was "no way" he would have been able to study "just a few weeks" while working a full-time job and not having that extensive experience behind him. Others had similar stories -- overstudied, many years experience, or some combination.
So I'm not sure I would completely accept public statements as the only source, since there will be a bit of availability bias there as well -- more people will want to brag about passing than admit failure, regardless of the test method used.
