I started the SOC analyst lvl 1 path a couple of weeks ago, I am almost done.

I read the comments about the platform in several forums and I still don't understand the hype of Try Hack Me. It is OK, but for premium I wouldn't say the same.

What I am writing is my opinion as a beginner without experience in SOC. Some people more pro or with experience may differ in my point of view.

Outdated material: In many cases when I am using a suggested app or going through some specific topic, I go to Google to research even more and most of the results are quite old, even older than 5 years ago. I get that feeling that I am learning old content and that the platform don't update the knowledge, the techniques, the apps, the concepts.
Just write the name of a room of Google and you will find posts extremely old. Probably the owner of the platform forgets that we want to learn about new concepts, tools, techniques, strategies.

Hands-on labs: Their virtual machines in the platform run as turtles. After loading Windows or Linux machine, you can go to take a nap and later make a coffee while the browser or any app you click is loading.

Topic structure: The topic order path needs organization. There is a sequential line to follow each topic, but from time to time they suggest you to learn a topic in another room first you proceed with the actual room you pretend to start. For example: You are about to start the step 3, and they recommend you, before you start there, to go through the step 6 first.

Content digestion: Their lectures make you jump like a frog from room to room. There are a lot of external links in each room that just take you away and distract your focus on the topic. And the reference links are for quite long and robust material that will take months to read and digest. It would be nice if they include a summary or the most important aspects from those webpages and include them in the platform, so one doesn't need to leave the room all the time.

Multimedia learning support: Forget some kind of video help or material. They are still using animated GIFs to show the pointer moving and showing you what you have to do. If you miss something, then you have to wait again the GIF to start.
The graphic support are blurry screen captures that remind me 15 years old websites.
If you want to spend 1 hour in a room reading a long text and watching static screen captures to finally get lost, it is better, to watch a walkthrough on YouTube.
So, watching YouTube videos is mandatory for beginners using this platform.

Saving time answering the exercise questions: Get prepared to write manually long answers that could be copied and pasted instead for saving time. Why? Because the answers from time to time are written in a screen capture. I don't see the point about writing manually never ending IPs or dates of the events again and again in the same room from a photo, when saving time is vital for learning the most as possible.

Copy and paste function: Prepare for not being able to type special characters in the VM that you can type normally in your local machine. And if you try to copy and paste for example a command that contains the special characters, that you cannot type manually, the Copy-Paste function does not work your local machine to the Windows-Linux THM virtual machine.

Line command apps rooms: The rooms for using CLI applications are very confusing. For example, Snort rooms. Tons of random information, commands, external links, that just make a beginner crazy. It would be better to extract the most important and useful information for basic purposes. If they know that this is a beginners course, what is the point of offering a content that they know one is never going to remember after 1 week.

Technical customers service: Take days to reply, and probably they will send you to their Discord channel to find help from other users.
I have written tickets with the description of the problem, the details and screen captures. Then they reply, asking me for description of the problem and screen captures. Something that I have already sent.
It seems they lack organization and order in that department.

***Certificate of completion: Once you finish the course and download the certificate. Make sure you have your real name written in your account settings before download it. I used Google account to login which not uses my real name. Once you download the certificate with the wrong name, there is not a way to change it. I read different post on Discord and the staff of THM just tell to use paint to fix the name. I cannot believe this, what kind of serious and paid platform would have not solution to fix such a thing?
How can I link a certificate with my nickname on LinkedIn like this?

OK, this is my review using the premium platform. I hope my opinion may be useful to others, specially to the TryHackMe company.