Blog posts

 You won't pass the exam because you are listening to people who took the Series 7 exam 5,6 or even 20 years ago. The advice most of my students get is "just take a lot of questions,don't read the book" That is a sure way to fail,yes there are some people who can just take a lot of questions and "game" the exam but they are the ones you were always envious of in school, they looked like they weren't trying and still aced the exams. Almost every single student of mine says that is the advice they get from their supervisors. I have even heard of a few getting yelled at because they were reading the book.

Some of those people took the exam in the 90s,when the exam questions were drastically different and the Vendors were actually helping write the questions on the exam. FINRA (formerly NASD) ended that practice a long time ago and there may have been some lingering questions from the "good ole days" they are pretty much gone now. This is not your father's Series 7 exam. The questions have evolved over time to be more about suitability and less about definitions and easy math problems. FINRA drastically changed the exam in 2011 after a massive study of RR activities in the years prior. The amount of option questions dropped from 40-55 down to the mid 20"s and the test was slanted more toward suitability and situation questions. Now its a split exam..   SIE exam which is basic info   ( rules, regulations, customer accounts and product basic info) and the Top Off Series 7 ( mostly suitabilty and a deeper dive into the products)

This test is not an IQ test it's a work test,if you do the work a majority of you will pass but quite a few students have priorities reversed. Weekends should be the time when you can make the most headway in studying. You get to sleep a little later,start studying while rested and not after a long day of work and really get some good solid studying in.

I can't stress enough the importance of reading the books PLUS using other FREE resources such as Khanacademy.org (update not free anymore ugh) (which has amazing videos) When scheduling a session with one of my students isn't feasible I send them links to the specific topics they are struggling with. YES that hurts me in the long run but the bigger deal is they are learning. Use Investopedia or Testopedia plus the FINRA website,which has great FAQ's. Most people just power through the books and just try to memorize the material,good,which is a near Herculean task. I am not saying shoot for a C- but in reality that is all you need. so do NOT try for an A its a waste of time and will add unnecessary weeks to your study schedule. (update FINRA offers a 75 question practice exam for the SIE now..which is pretty amazing)

Do not let the books scare you ,they all make certain topics overly difficult for some reason I just don't understand. Margin on the exam is extremely simple and straightforward, the books make it seem like some incredibly cumbersome and difficult process then they ask you questions with so many confusing variables a margin clerk would have difficulty. On the test they need you to understand the impact of certain basic actions on your equity and leverage. I feel they do the same with taxes and then ask a question on some obscure point buried in the text of the book that the actual test will never even come close to hinting at, leave the crazy tax questions to the CPA exam.