Figured I'd post an update. Today, I completely removed my test site (database, files, everything) and basically made a mirror of my live site to upload to my test site.
Downloaded all files/folders
Compressed all files/folders and uploaded via CoreFTP to /testvb/
Extracted files/folders via SSH
Went into my vBulletin Settings in my AdminCP of my live site and changed "Site Name / URL / Contact Details" to reflect the URL of my test site
Made a backup of the live database via SSH
Imported the backed up database to the database for the test site via SSH
And voila! DEFINATELY went a lot faster than the way I WAS doing it lol. Thanks again for all of the suggestions!