I am in MO and just took the AICPA ethics exam. It was about $100 for the paper version, so I am not sure about VA. But in terms of preparation, I started out reading/skimming the book. You can do the exam online for immediate scoring. It is MC and not difficult, but do note that you need a 90% to pass. The exam was 40 MCQs, so this means you can only miss up to 4 questions. After a while, I just started looking at the questions and then going and finding the answer in the text. It is open book and compared to the other exams, it is pretty simple. Also, I think you can try to take the exam online 3 times and if you don't pass by then, you need to send in the answer form via snail mail. Good luck!
FAR 82, AUD 91, REG 83, BEC 85, ETHICS 98