If you’ve just gotten started on your testing journey (whether for your ARE’s, FE, PE, NCLEX, etc) you may be trying to figure out the best study guides and what is the best delivery method for you. In this post I go into more detail about each of PPI2PASS’s study aids and how each one may work for you. But here I’ll go into my personal Learning Hub Review.
However, in this post, I wanted to dive a little deeper in their Learning Hub offering for you guys. To be honest it is a very new way to study for me. (I was pretty old school with my studying since only had copies of the Kaplan/Ballast books at the time!) So, I even wanted to see what all the fuss is about! Say SO LONG to boring and mundane study guides and testing materials and HELLO to the new age!
This is my honest review about the Learning Hub, as if I was taking the Practice Management portion of ARE 5.0.
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Ease of Navigation
Right when you first jump onto your Home page this will be the image you see:
Everything is well thought out and easy to follow through their tab system they have laid out. My recommendation is that once you’ve subscribed to the Learning Hub, you go ahead and “Set Up Study Plan”. As a person who loves to stay organized and plan her time efficiently, this was pretty exciting for me!
Create a Customized Study Plan
As you can see below, you then get to customize a study plan that’s right for you! You can customize what days you DON’T want to study and even add-in Black Out Days (for weddings, showers, vacations, and birthday celebrations, that you know are coming and would rather not study during.)
Once you import all your information, including the testing date (if you have it), then you hit “Create Study Plan” and…….BOOM! You have your very one study plan, that you can edit if you need to at any time. The first view of your customized study plan is actually showcased in a long, written Task view. I really like the Calendar view myself (shown below).
So, as you can see from my calendar, I went ahead and gave myself about One Month to study for PcM and my “test date” is March 31. This basically followed my study plan that you can read more about here. The Calendar is great because it is somewhat interactive. You can click on the Green task to find out more of what you need to do. once complete, you mark a task off and go to the next!
As a visual person (as I think most Architects are) this layout and plan customization is second to none. I kept saying to myself, “Man, I wish I had this Learning Hub thing when I was going through my exams!“
Products Included
So, what else will you get besides a customized study plan? You’ll get a Digital Copy of the ARE 5.0 Exam Review Book (or whichever test you may be study for), Digital Flashcards, a Quiz Generator (which I’ll go into more detail about), and Mock Exams.
Under your Products Tab you’ll see a list of everything included. If you don’t see something you think you’ll need, just pop over to the Resources Tab for more information.
Flashcards
My favorite….FLASHCARDS! I still think flashcards are hands-down the way to go when you have a few spare minutes during your lunch break (or when you want to take a break from Insta!) The screenshot below shows you the typical setup you’ll see when you open to the Flashcards portion under your Products.
It’s super easy to follow: once you think you know the answer, just click the card and it’ll flip around to show you the correct answer. You can then flag certain cards that are giving you a fit to focus more on later. These flagged cards will gather in their specific area on the right-hand side of the screen.
Quiz Generator
Have a little extra time and don’t fill like clicking through flashcards? Well say hello to the Quiz Generator! This, by far, was the best feature in my opinion!
You can customize each quiz you want to take by how many questions you think you’ll have time for, whether or not you want to be timed, if you want each question’s answer revealed immediately, or if you want it to feel like a Standard test and have your overall score revealed at the end. You can even select the subjects you want to focus on!
Standard vs. Practice Quizes
- Standard Quizes = Timed Quizes with Score Revealed at End
- Practice Quizes = Untimed with Answered Revealed Immediately
You can see by my example below I opted first for the Practice Quiz. I had time for about 10 questions and each answer popped up as I selected it. If you have a question with multiple answers (ie, select the 4 that apply, etc) the program will wait until you have selected the required amount before revealing the answer.
Once complete you can see the Knowledge Areas you may need to focus more on before exam time.
Digital Copy of ARE 5.0 Exam Review
The digital copy of the Exam Review book is great, but personally, I’ve just never been a fan of reading long text and pages of information through a screen (talk about eye strain!) I wouldn’t necessarily call this a Con because I know plenty of people that are not bothered by this type of reading. PLUS, PPI2PASS already thought about those folks like me and included the physical book in a Learning Hub + Print Bundle!
Practice vs. Diagnostic Exams
To put it simply, Practice Exams are just that: for you to Practice and build up skills and confidence. PPI2PASS has set up (in the case of PcM) 2 Practice Exams, that are 80 questions each, that you are able to take as many times as you like. The best part is, they even simulate the testing environment and schedule by timing you and allowing a “break” when you’ve completed half of the questions.
You’ll also receive Diagnostic Exams which will help you figure out exactly which areas you need to focus more on and which you are very competent. They recommend taking these exams at the very start of your study schedule to gauge where you are with each exam you take.
Cost
So after reading all the great things the Learning Hub can offer you, you’re probably wondering how much? Yet another great thing about PPI2PASS is they’ve made purchasing access to their products as easy and flexible for you as possible. You get 3 options if you just want the Learning Hub:
As you can see with the prices listed, the best deal for the money is obviously the 6 Month access ($21.50/month). Once you really start diving into taking you exams you may find a shorter amount of time is more to your liking.
PPI2PASS also gives you the option of having access to the Learning Hub and will send you a physical copy of the ARE 5.0 Exam Review.
- Learning Hub + Print Bundle: 6 Month Access = $500
- Learning Hub + Print Bundle: 3 Month Access = $475
Even though I like the idea of having a digital copy of the Review Book, I tend to want the actual book more. (This is why Kindles have never worked for me!) There’s something about highlighting sections manually and being about to flip the pages that make me focus more. (Plus, there are no open computer tabs to distract you!)
My Thoughts
Hopefully this review helps you in determining if the Learning Hub is the right way to study. After reviewing the amount and quality of the materials PPI2PASS gives you I can honestly say this is a GREAT resource to use in taking your exams. There are not too many other companies who can offer this amount of resources, as well as the Kaplan backing which is the renowned source for any and all professionals taking license and certification exams.
So what are you waiting for?! Click through one of my links and receive 15% off you order and get started! Soon you’ll be celebrating with a happy dance through the office hallway!
Until next time,
