Passed PMP exam! Mega Shout-out to PMI STUDY HALL!

Hi fellow PMP exam takers,

Long time lurker here. I just passed my PMP exam today and I want to 'pay it forward' to newcomers. This PMP reddit has been the most valuable resource to get on the right path, right "mindset" and right study material. I will repost the links others have shared on this r/pmp again for newcomers.

Long story short, this will a controversial shout-out to PMI study hall.

I studied the PMI agile guide, PMBOK 7th edition, bought AR udemy course, TIA mock exam -- scoring 90% average on my 2nd final attempt across all 6 mock exams. I took all of AR's YouTube 8-10 free practice questions in his recorded sessions-- getting 70-100% correct usually on the YouTube questions starting from his first YouTube session in Q1 2021. I like Andrew content especially mindset that helps to frame PMP answers but Andrew's mindset isn't 100% right for PMP, more like 70% correct (more on this later w/ study hall). The TIA exam video explanation is great but can make you fall asleep with Andrew's voice.

https://www.youtube.com/c/AndrewRamdayal

I took the 200 agile questions from David McLachlan https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tNIHysh2ZW4 great material, make sure you understand where you answered wrong to cover knowledge gaps. Ultimately great introductory questions to agile but questions too easy and repeatable format.

I studied free content from EduHubspot. Question difficulty is similar to TIA.

https://www.youtube.com/c/EduHubSpot

After TIA mock exam I was on the hunt for harder realistic PMP exam questions - based on a few unpopular feedback from this r/pmp I saw most people complaining about PMI study hall notorious difficulty. All users said the questions are same format as actual exam. This got my curiosity. Wouldn't the same PMI that issue PMP exam certification be the ultimate source of exam material?

I bought the study hall plus $80.00 to max out the number of exam practice questions available. My studying strategy is to take as much practice exams as possible and review wrong answers to fill knowledge gaps.

O'h BOY was my expectation correct about study hall.

Study hall expectation and Tips:

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  1. Goldmine1: make sure you read study hall answers.
  2. Goldmine 2: study hall dashboard for benchmarking ur performance. It tells you the percentile rank you are in compared to other study hall users or set sample target. highest score 99% percentile, I ended up 85% percentile. Study hall also gives avg score for practice question/exam category. This gave me confidence to take exam.
  3. Questions and multiple choice answers have double word count compared to EduHubspot, TIA, 200 agile questions or other sources. There's ALWAYS 2 answers that are correct, so it comes down to best fit. e.g. one is to assess, one is to take action. (AR says assess first before action, but study hall answers trained me to assess the situation, and if it's urgent/emergency take immediate action)
  4. Study hall question tip: Read the whole question front to back in sequence and then multiple choice questions in full! I don't recommend what others have posted - reading the last sentence of questions first, then reading the multiple choice answers and finally going back to read the first section of question. Study hall will trip you with tricky wording. The situational questions are long winded and sometimes add project constraints, action verbs at the start. If u read the end of question you can easily misinterpret.
  5. First round of mini-practice exam 15 Q's getting 40-60%. The explanation really SUCKS but here's the secret - READ the explanation as this is what PMI uses to deem correctness/best fit answers, you get to read PMI own reasoning for correct answer. It's badly edited answers and sometimes you can even see the question's author comments telling PMI to demote this question or promote this question for importance etc. Helpful.
  6. I applied AR mindset to study hall questions and exams, but only getting 60-70% correct on situational questions first attempt. I was worried and went back to read both the correct and incorrect answers of study hall. This was the breakthrough. There's some corner cases for escalation whereby assess ->review->action don't work for PMI, but it's action. I got the hang of it after taking multiple same situational questions in the 5 full practice exams. I got to see the examiner's mindset which is similar to AR but not identical in situational questions. in many study hall answers, I saw examiners point out the verbs, adjectives that they deemed correct which didn't match up with AR's simple answers in TIA exam or corner cases. This brought my final scores for easy/moderate questions to 90-100%. The difficult questions were 50-60% correct and expert questions 30-50%.
  7. I took most of the study hall full exams (I took 3 out of 5 exams), all of the practice questions and all mini-exams.
  8. Study hall categorises question difficulty. Make sure you aim for 90% in easy moderate and 60% in difficult category. Expert questions- I couldn't bring my scores up after multiple attempts as expert answers were wildly varied and all opinionated editorial responses that read like Harvard business review journal.

Finally I took my PMP exam today and passed AT. The study hall question format were identical to the exam. Study hall completely prepared me for PMP. I even a few study hall questions on the exam. As I took so many study hall questions, I could confidently speed read the questions and answers and see the pattern. the exam was so long and draining I didn't have any time to go back and review flagged questions, but I was confident about my answers.

In short, I recommend study hall if you want punishment but absolutely ace this PMP exam.