I did not mean to brag about the ATPL's, but I see many are very proud of their high scores (
myself included), until reality dawned on me, and I discovered how much I really had to know, learn, study!
As you say, anybody can get a good score after doing the QB 2 -3 -4 -5 times, (sorry I had a long christmas holiday, and there was nothing else to do, I know such bore)
And I also feel I did actually know stuff from the ATPL, not just the banging the QB, however after a friend of mine (747 Captain), took me to pieces in about 30 minutes, I understood few things, I knew very little, second formulating the answer in the right way is half the job, because many of these questions are much more than a one liner, if you do one liner answers, you end up getting bombarded with follow up questions which might make you end up in a dead end!
It was for me better to be well prepared, and start from the basic, covering all (much more than I had expected at first) - and rather they tell you to stop it, because they understand you know what you are talking about, than they start asking you loads of potentially horrible questions!
My point with the ATPL's, was that we can all come with those high scores, and say I got this that, whatever, meant unless some of the knowledge has stuck, it is just a number, that looks nice, but have no contents, and believe me, I had to really look hard at myself , same with my friend, because it always look like an impossible mountain to climb, however somehow, we manage to get over it, step by step! But for sure it is hard work!