I have compiled all of my knowledge and experience using Knopman Marks to prepare for the FINRA exam, which I passed today. I aim for this to be the most comprehensive review on the internet of Knopman’s Series 79 package. In short, although Knopman’s user interface scores 6-7 out of 10, Knopman’s question bank, content, and Diagnostic/Benchmark exams are incredibly done; Knopman Marks really is the echelon / gold-standard prep material. If you have to pay the $600 yourself (myself included) because your firm won’t buy it for you, it is really well worth it.
DIFFICULTY: FINRA is ~6-12% easier than Knopman
- FINRA: I am guessing that I got ~84-91%. The FINRA exam felt a hair easier than Knopman's Benchmark, but acknowledging that the 10 hardest questions don't count at all, I assumed adding 3-6 points in addition to my perceived difficulty would be a fair estimate of my FINRA exam score. My perceived difference in difficulty of FINRA vs Knopman's Benchmark, in addition to considering Knopman's 99% statistics below, lead me to believe that scoring ~66% on Knopman is the bar to pass FINRA's exam.
- Knopman: I got 79% on the Benchmark 3 days prior and was generally averaging ~78% on more recent questions, so I estimate that the real exam is between ~6 and 12 points easier than Knopman.
- Questions are a little bit trickier, but not by an easily noticeable margin. One could infer that based on my hypothesis that if the real exam is ~6-12% easier, then each of FINRA’s questions is ~6-12% easier on average.
- My final KM statistics:
- 1000 questions
- 75% overall
- 79% last 250 questions
- 66% (Initial) Assessment (I already had 2yrs of M&A experience)
- 78% Diagnostic 1
- 79% Benchmark
- Full length practice exams first to last: 81%, 75%, 76%, 71%, 84%
- Variability of self-pooled questions: Creating your own pools of 85 questions can be +/- ~8 points off from your Diagnostic/Benchmark scores. Do NOT worry much at all about these pooled exam scores and just focus on learning from the questions. For example, I got an 81% after 1 week of study and then scored a 71% at the end of my second week even though I was studying every day.
EXAM TIMING: Right on the mark
- FINRA: I finished the exam with 42mins left to check answers
- Knopman: I finished timed full length exams with ~35-50mins left
- Knopman’s Benchmark exam had the super long ~6 sentence questions that the FINRA exam notoriously has as well so the Knopman Benchmark gives a great time expectation
- Several folks’ posts online claim that they finished Knopman exams with ~45 minutes left but finished FINRA with ~10 minutes left. I did not have this issue at all. Although Knopman’s general Q bank tends to be shorter questions (which they do on purpose so that you learn more in less time), I found that Knopman’s Benchmark exam was a very similar proxy for FINRA’s exam. I hypothesize that the main reason for the time discrepancy that folks claim is that those folks were more nervous on the FINRA exam.
KNOPMAN’S METHODS: Excellent questions and near-flawless results
- Replicating real FINRA questions: I talked to KM customer service a few weeks ago and have also spoken with IB colleagues and read from folks online (so an N of ~8-10 folks). The verdict is that KM tries to compile info from test takers. If for example 1 out of every 1000 s79 takers come back to KM with a question that they saw on the exam, Knopman adds it to their q bank. Compound that ratio by tens of thousands of test takers and now you have dozens of questions that are near identical to those on the real exam. I learned from KM that FINRA uses a large pool of questions and when you sit for the exam, it picks from 75 of those questions (with the final 10 being ungraded questions in beta mode).
- On my FINRA exam, ~4 questions looked eerily similar to Knopman questions that I had seen
- Outcomes: Statistics that Knopman had on their s79 webpage until Feb 2025 (their stats have always been similar but they must have taken them down recently for various marketing reasons)
- 99% of ppl who use KM for s79 pass first time ← proof that correlation does not mean causation
- 99% of ppl who score 60-70% on their first 500 practice Qs pass first time ← I am not sure what to conclude with this statistic
99% of ppl who pass the Benchmark exam pass first time ← most important imo! This statistic, combined with the "99% of people who simply use Knopman pass" statistic, suggests to me that ~95%+ of those who fail Knopman's Benchmark still pass the FINRA exam; this is because if we assume that ~80-92% of folks pass Knopman's Benchmark, the proportion needed to pass the FINRA exam in order for Knopman to have their "99% of people who simply use Knopman pass" statistic would have to be very high, likely somewhere between 90% and 98%.
FINRA’S FEAR MONGERING: They want you scared, but also want ~75-85% to pass
- The fact that they don't give your final score if you pass is to keep things purposely vague. Moreover, I still theorize that the ungraded questions that they are “testing out” are really just there to make the exam seem harder and scarier so that people take Series exams more seriously.
Based on the most helpful WSO content, here's a breakdown of Knopman Marks' Series 79 prep compared to the FINRA exam:
Key Takeaways:
Knopman Marks' Quality:
Difficulty Comparison:
Performance Metrics:
Exam Timing:
Knopman’s Methodology:
FINRA Exam Insights:
Recommendations:
Knopman Marks remains a top-tier choice for Series 79 preparation, offering a challenging yet effective path to success.
Sources: SIE , Series 79 and Series 63 Advice, SIE , Series 79 and Series 63 Advice, SIE, 63, 79 Prep Tips, Series 7 - STC vs KnopmanMarks, Ways to Pass the Series 7 Exam
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