E20-515 Exam

I will try to answer one by one

how much time it will take to prepare:

It depends on how much exposure you have had with Symmetrix. Try the practice test on EMC edu website. You can analyze your weak areas.

I personally feel that if you have 6-12 months of hands on experience on VMAX config/Time Finder/SRDF then prep shouldn't take much time.

mode of preparation: If you have the $$ then buy VILTs and Elearnings from EMC Edu. Else, product guides on powerlink are the way to go.

difficulty level:

Try the practice test and your result will tell you the difficulty level. The actual exam is more or less of the same difficulty level.

focus areas:

See exam details on edu site

type of questions:

Again , practice test tells you all

any exam tip

no special tips. Just fyi, you will have to pass E20-326 too.For achieving  Symm TA specialist certification , both 326 and 515 need to be passed.Not to discourage you , but 326 is a hard nut to crack unless you have a great deal of experience in sizing and performance analysis of Symm.