I'm sorry ... did you say the CPAT is a "pretty rough test"? I'm just not sure I read that correctly ...
Apparently I did ... If you think the CPAT is pretty rough, then you've got a long way to go my friend. I'm not trying to be mean, I'm being god-awful honest. The CPAT is, in my opinion, a joke. However, it serves it's purpose ... a base-level fitness test standardized so departments and districts need not spend the time nor man-power holding their own.
You are allowed to take a practice day, so if the CPAT is worrying you that much DO IT! You'll know right away whether you can pass it or not, and what you're weak on. Most folks I know struggle on the stair portion. So, get at least a 75# weight vest and hit the stair-mill, or find a high-rise in your town and hit their stair-well, or go to the Lyon Street stairs in SF or Baker Beach in SF. Keep your balance and go, hold dumbbells too to add the blood rushing to your arms and make it harder, simulate carrying tools and shit up those stairs, just make it harder than the CPAT and the CPAT won't be shit.
The hose drag is the only portion you can run, so fucking run, it's only like 50 feet or something, start making friends in the Fire Service and get yourself some decommissioned hose, I've got two sticks of 2.5inch, you can attach a weight to the end to simulate more length. Sprint 100 feet with that shit then drag it to you, once done fucking do it again. Oh yeah, keep wearing that vest too. Want to make it more interesting? Like I said, make them friends in the fire service and get yourself a SCBA mask and wear that shit while you do this (not attached to an air tank), limit your available oxygen. Don't have access to an old BA mask? Use a snorkel (Wanderlei Silva anyone?) If you use a tire or someshit to simulate the drag, keep dumbbells at the end and do those pushup row things until you can't anymore, then get up and pull the fucking tire again. That fire isn't going to wait for you to catch your fucking breath, so don't.
Are you afraid of the dark? Get disoriented when you can't see? work on that shit. A lot of people panic in the confined space portion, even though it's shaped like a U. Two right turns and you're done. Close your eyes and crawl from your front door to the farthest point in the house, using the wall as a landmark ... oh, too hard? too much shit in your way? welcome to search and rescue. Learn how to orient yourself by feel so you don't get lost in a U shaped box ....
The dummy drag can be awkward for people. It's different than dragging a sled, you don't get to put your body in that nice powerful position and go. You can grab on with two hands and drag backwards or you can grab with one a go forwards. If you've got a training partner drag each other backwards not by bear hugging them under their arms but keeping your arms locked at 90degree angle like you're about to do a *cough* a curl, and drag them that way and they mustn't help you. Otherwise get a harness of sorts, use a heavybag, attach extra weight somehow and pull it with one arm going forward. Assuming you don't have the 600+ dollars for a weighted mannequin.
Sprint your ass off. Fuck long distance cardio. It won't do shit for you as a firefighter. Fighting a fire is like an all out sprint, not a slow cool jog. Sprint hills, sprint straights, sprint til you puke, and sprint some more.
Now that you have a goal, all this training here is nothing. When you try to convince yourself to quit while you're crawling up that seventh flight of stairs with 75+ pounds addition to your body, or when your on the verge of puking sprinting up that hill, or when body is so tired all you want to do is sleep while you're dragging hose, remind yourself why you're there .... why you're doing this.