You can prep for a written in an afternoon and with a few simple rules of thumb not even worry about the flight planning questions.
Written test results don't make a difference to a line of thunderstorms or a load of ice on your 172s unprotected wings.
DPEs still have their plan of action and give similar check rides with their favorite areas of emphasis. Of the candidate is strong on their bullet points then they'll not delve that deeply into every set of tasks in the PTS in order to complete the check. Send a couple students to an examiner and you learn their style in that regard. Send enough of them to get good at "accelerating" the training for the sake of passing the flight test and you're simply training them for a flight test. That's the nature of accelerated training.
I couldn't believe the lack of quality training being perpetuated at some of the quickie mart schools who advertise lots of multiengine time and preferential hiring agreements for their $40,000-60,000+ price tags. I had some issues back in the day when all the instructors were being sucked up into other jobs getting a local CFI to finish my instructor ratings. They were leaving in rapid succession and eventually the ones that were training initial CFIs and could sign them off were gone. I plunked down $7000 for a 2 week course to finish my CFI, CFII and MEI at a popular location. The training was a joke which revolved around their own test booklet which was itself developed from their "preferred DPEs" plans of action. In effect they gave the examiners this booklet who then used it as their checkride, question for question and nearly word for word. If you can answer the next question before you've finished the current one that's a problem. When I went to that class I had a full time flying job, had the highest time of the whole class at a whopping 800 hours and more actual instrument time than everyone else combined. Hardly confidence inspiring at the quality of instructor they turned out.
Like making a copy of a copy, each subsequent one is less sharp than the original. So yeah, accelerated courses get you through a flight test but they don't give you any advantages of preparedness or experience in doing so. It's up to the individual to make the most of that training and playing the odds log enough to get the required experience which will enable them to survive the times they scare the hell out of themselves.
Golfer
-Not a proponent of accelerated flight training.
