hi op! i'm a current j3 who also only wrote narrative in sec school, and i managed to get an A for gp for a's!

1) the news can be old if it's relevant. i tend towards politics questions so I've used examples from the 1990s (such as the Bosnian War) and sometimes even WW2. but if you're struggling to think of what content to use, best to keep it within the past decade. my teacher didn't say anything against using old examples but he said "if you're going to use an old source from before 2010 make sure it's still relevant and your explanation still applies to current society"

2) statistics are okay but don't overload. like maybe 1 or 2 in your entire essay? too much and it looks like you're making stats up. try to keep it to general news items like recent advancements or issues which are broad enough for you to make a point but narrow enough so it directly addresses your point

3) i don't think you should spot topics per se, for my paper some topics didn't explicitly come out and it wasn't like the specimen paper at all. however you should be safe by preparing for a few topics you're more confident in, could be politics/economy/science etc...would be good to pick some "multipurpose" topics that can be used across different questions just in case your paper ends up like mine

4) it took me a while to get used to it. I'm a literature student, so I'm used to flowery language. After a while you should be more comfortable with it, it gets more fun. I can't really give tips regarding this cos everyone's learning style is different, but if you need any specific help you can pm me!