Hope another one of these posts is okay, I passed the SPHR today and wanted to share the study tricks that worked for me 🥳
I have a degree in business administration, around 10 years progressive experience in HR in companies with <250 employees and my SHRM-CP certification since 2019.
I started by studying the Sandra Reed Complete Study Guide back in January and doing some Pocket Prep questions. I got about half way through reading and highlighting the SPHR relevant sections of the study guide, but by February I got lazy and basically ignored studying until April. I wish I hadn't done this and just started in March. Oh well - sometimes we get excited about things and then put them off until the deadline is looming. I got serious about studying again about a month before the exam and powered through every question in the Pocket Prep app after reading the relevant chapter in the study guide.
What was most helpful was using ChatGPT to really drill every unfamiliar concept that came up in the prep questions/study guide until I got it. It's a seriously powerful study buddy and helped me make sense of content that wasn't sinking in and retain it in a useful way--explaining it with examples I understood from my own experience, giving me mnemonic devices and mental pictures. It also gave me great practice questions and test day strategies at the end. I know AI is controversial but this is a use for good, I swear. I studied probably about 10 hours per week in the 5-6 weeks before the exam.
I scored confidently on the three final mock exams in Pocket Prep, but went into the exam feeling less confident just due to my inconsistent studying. Most of the questions are more about business strategy than what year this statute was enacted or which OSHA form has to be submitted every year. A lot of "which is the least wrong answer" and "what is the highest level / most strategic action that could be used here" type questions. In the end I'd rate it as about 10% or 20% harder than the Pocket Prep mock exams. I had taken advantage of a free second chance insurance promotion but was relieved not to have to use it.
Anyway thanks for reading and letting me share my success, I hope my experience is helpful to some of you! 😊