201 exam without the use of study aids

First time poster here.

I'm currently going through the 201 objectives and for each bulleted point. For each topic, I'm writing up notes, information, etc, etc.

For example, on 1.1 Differentiate among various systems security theats, for a rootkit I would note what it is, various types of them, etc

I'm wondering if anyone else has taken the exam and followed this approach. Did it work for you? Am I on the right track, recommendations, etc? I haven't bought any external aids like study exams, books, etc as quite frankly I'm didn't want to buy a book just for a certification exam.

I've got about 5 years of security experience just been slow to the certification race.

Any and all comments are welcome.