Studying for a written exam on your own is a slog, and the most common way people fail is by quietly stopping. Achievements and leaderboards exist for that reason and no other.
Achievements
Badges for things worth doing: finishing courses, passing practice exams, keeping a drill streak going, working through the interactive load chart lessons. Each one carries points, and your total sits on your Operator's Dashboard with the rest of your progress.
The full set is on the Achievements page, including the ones you have not earned yet — so you can see what is there rather than being surprised by it.
Leaderboards
The Leaderboards page shows the top 10 students over the last 30 days, on practice exam scores and on drills. Students are shown by their display name, the name they chose for themselves; a student without one is shown as Anonymous, and real names are never shown.
What they are not
Points, badges and rankings are study motivation. They are not a qualification, they are not seen by the certifying organization, and they have no bearing whatsoever on your real exam. Somebody at the top of the leaderboard who has not booked a test date is further behind than somebody at the bottom who has.