Some
of you have contacted us asking about how our software compares
to the FAA written test prep programs offered by intensive ATP programs and heavily advertised nationwide schools.
| "Excellent software for a fraction of [competitor's] price! And this time I actually learned the material instead of cramming for a test!! Probably spent about 20-30 hours studying in a 2 week period and scored a 99 on the FEX and was able to relax in comfort of my own home during my self paced study plan." - MH, GroundSchool User |
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| "I studied for 3 days using your wonderful software. The questions were identical and with many questions I could recall the answerers from memory alone. When I sat for my actual ATP test I scored very highly which was quite amazing as it was achieved with just 3 days study. At the test center before taking the test I took a CBT based course of questions, answerers and explanations. This cost $295 inclusive of the test fees. I can tell you that their software was no where as good or as informative and the Dauntless software is certainly excellent value for money. Thank you Dauntless team and keep up the good work keeping students passing the ATP examinations at affordable prices." - PT, GroundSchool User |
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To
be clear: We think AllATPs is a GREAT place to FLIGHT train for
your ATP or multi-engine rating. The professionalism of their
instructors and efficiency of their program are second to none.
We highly recommend that you do your FLIGHT training there. Several
of us did ratings there, and for this we give it a big thumb's
up!
However,
we are confident that you will be MUCH better off using our software as far
as preparing for your written test
goes.
Frankly, if you go to such places for your written test prep, you are WASTING YOUR MONEY. Sure, you might know somebody who went to such a place and passed their written test, but that doesn't mean that it was a good use of their time or money.
Ok - that's a pretty bold statement. Let
us explain why.
Basically,
our software costs a small, fixed price to prepare for the ATP or FE written
(and there's even greater deals to be had if you buy both together or in one of our available combo packages).
Their programs, the last time we checked,
cost $295, or $200 if purchased with a flight course. I don't
know whether this fee includes the testing center fee or not,
but in either case, they charge a LOT MORE THAN WE DO for their ATP and/or FE written test prep. A LOT MORE.
What
do you get if you pay more money?
AllATPs
claims on its website that it has gone through the test bank and
pulled out only the questions that you are likely to see on your
ATP Part 121 test (they mostly do Part 121). For example, they
claim that they have removed the 135 and helicopter questions.
Well
guess what: we've done EXACTLY the same thing. In fact, we work
FULL TIME on categorizing the questions and keeping them up to
date. It's very simple - in our software, just select "ATP
Airplane - Part 121" (or whichever test you are interested in) and voila--the questions are filtered.
We have people working FULL TIME on getting
the best current FAA questions for you to study. Tens of thousands of people have used our software to take and pass their FAA written tests.
But
I heard that they break this down further into studying some "current
FAA" question pool...
We
are not sure if AllATPs claims this or not, though there have
been some flight training organizations that have claimed this
in the past.. basically, they've claimed some mystical link with
the FAA to get you studying the "current" question pool.
Such claims are absolute nonsense. The FAA question
pools simply don't work that way and (and again,we're not accusing
AllATPs of this - we've heard this claim elsewhere) anybody who
claims otherwise is basically lying. What they are trying to do is confuse in your mind the issue of having "filtered" the ATP question banks, by, for example, removing the 135 and helicopter questions from an ATP 121 Airplane test and some vague notion that they have the mystical FAA set of magic questions. Virtually everybody we have spoken to who did written test prep at such organizations had the misconception that such services were helping them in such ways. Basically, those people got taken for a ride.
That said, our software does* (note: we are depreciating this feature and it may no longer be available in all or any versions due to a small number of people who failed to take the time to read about its clearly stated limitations) feature "crucial"
question pools that you can study from. However, if you use these "crucial" pools, you must do so only with full awareness of their strengths and SIGNIFICANT limitations. Our "crucial" question pools are reduced set
of questions that have been chosen by our editors as the MOST REPRESENTATIVE of the question pools
in general, such that if you are really limited for time and can only study a small subset of questions, do that. This does not mean that the questions in the "crucial" pools will necessarily be the exact ones on your test. Quite often, you will see relatively very few of them. However, the "crucial" questions are chosen such that they cover a vast majority of commonly seen content. However, the fact is that you will need to really and truly know such questions deeply to get benefit from them, and, really you can not expect to perform at your maximum if you study only the "crucial set." In fact, you might even fail. It is always better to study the complete bank of questions.
So, why do we include such a "crucial" set. Do AllATPs or other organizations do anything different?
We include such a crucial set because people find it useful:
- maybe after studying the complete bank, they do their last reviews on the crucial set
- maybe somebody really really has little time to study, in which case studying the crucial set is about as good as he can do, though it is certainly no guarantee of success.
The problem with the crucial set is that the people who have little time in the first place often do a sloppy job of studying the crucial set. Again, we repeat: study the whole bank if you can.
Please note that we are doing EXACTLY what other organizations our doing in this regard except, perhaps, that our crucial sets are done by our editors who breathe this stuff day in and day out. At the end of the day, by using our software, you will save money and time.
Just to reiterate: it would be unfair of us to claim as some do that
we have access to the "current" set of questions being
used from the current FAA question banks. We have the current
FAA question banks, and then our instructors make intelligent
analysis of them.
Don't be fooled by the innuendo and nonsense coming from other test places. There's no way around studying for your ATP or any other FAA test. Yes, once you know how to solve, say, a given weight and balance problem, similar questions will be easy for you - but this means you must really take the time to completely understand the given problem.
But
certainly for that money you get some great training method, right?
Basically,
what AllATPs does is sit you in front of a computer where you
intensively go through the question bank. There's no magic - it's
a bit mind numbing, but good enough. Basically, you sit there
for hours and do your best dippy bird impression. The water is
the ATP Part 121 (or whichever) question bank.
So
you sit there for the bulk of the day pressing the space bar or
whatever until the questions get lodged in your head. Then you
go take the written test where you do a brain dump of what you
just memorized.
Here's
the key: if you want to study that way, OUR SOFTWARE WILL LET
YOU! You can install our software on your PC and then sit there
playing dippy bird. Try it! Schedule a written test at your local
FBO for as late in the afternoon as you can. Load up our software
and sit there learning the answers and by the afternoon you will
be just as ready to pass the written test as if you had done the
same thing at AllATPs. We can't say we necessarily recommend this
method, but it certainly will work. Additionally, our software
is at least as time efficient as theirs is, so per minute of study,
you'll get at least as much into your head with our software as
you might with theirs. Except, oh yeah, you'll be at minimum $100
or so richer for the trouble (and possibly $200 or more!)
Please
remember that there is NO SIGNOFF necessary for your first take
of an ATP written test. You only need a signoff if you failed
the test once.
But
our software offers much more...
But
maybe you don't want to be a dippy bird. Maybe you actually want
to learn the material. Maybe you don't want to spend a whole day
sitting blankly at a screen. Our software can also help you there,
too. You can configure our software to suit your needs
- you can use it to study 'dippy bird' style AND/OR you can use
it to thoughtfully learn the material - it's your choice! You
can use our software on your schedule to study for the written...
be it a few minutes or hours every night, on a "break"
at work, or all in one go. Additionally, our software features
actual EXPLANATIONS to the questions - so you can learn the WHYs
of the material.. pretty useful for that checkride oral
that you are pretty likely to face soon enough.
Additionally,
it stands to note that while many people pass their writtens using
the dippy bird method, you'll probably pass with a higher score
if you spend a good deal of time studying and take several practice
tests over a period of a few days. Our software lets you do this.
It's always nice to show a high score on the written to an examiner
or interviewer.
Additionally,
because we offer free lifetime upgrades, you can always go back
and review the material using our software, should you want to
for whatever reason in the future.
Try
it out!
But
don't take our word for it.. you can download our software yourself..
right now and try it out. What you download is a demo version
which has only about 1/20th of the total number of questions enabled.
If you like it, pay for it, and you'll get an unlock code emailed
to you that will give you full access to ALL the questions in
moments.
We've
had people buy the software in the morning and take their written test
that afternoon.
Should you take the Part 121 or Part 135 Airplane written test? Basic or 'added rating?'
In
Conclusion ...
Our
aim in this piece is not to denigrate AllATPs. Again, we think
they are a great organization and encourage you to consider training
with them for your advanced ratings and career prep programs.
However, we do think that you can do far better with our written
test prep than their quite expensive program.
Blue
Skies!
The
GroundSchool Team
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