11 Comments
 

The SIE is an intro exam that focuses on foundational finance concepts and fortunately, there aren't many tough rules/regs to know.

The S63 is pretty heavy on the memorization, but it's more about the content of the rules - you won't need to remember all the code numbers.

Most people here are A-listers and love to brag about how easy these tests are, but keep in mind that around 25% of people taking the SIE are NEVER able to pass it. 

On the other hand, almost everyone who uses our course (the one that WSO recommends) passes on their first try.

If you think you can wing it, go for it! But if you don't have that confidence, it only takes 20-40 hours of study time to be well-prepared.

Founder of https://achievable.me - modern test prep for the FINRA SIE, S7, and GRE.
 

How about the series 79? How long do you recommend studying? And do you recommend skipping reading the book (knopman) and viewing the videos instead and cranking through the question bank?

 

Yeah, it seems like most people use Knopman for the 79 and are pretty happy with it.

Personally, I would skip the videos, read the entire book, and definitely spend a lot of time on the QBank.

IMO videos are a waste of time - you can get through the content so much faster by reading.

Founder of https://achievable.me - modern test prep for the FINRA SIE, S7, and GRE.
 

Just passed the 63 today. Generally agree with folks above, but the SIE, 79, and 63 require minimum 20-30 hours of studying. Strategy that worked for me was watching the videos, and hitting as many q bank questions. I think reading the textbook is overkill, if anything you can skim through most of it. If you’re stuck on a concept, then I’d read the section of the textbook that addresses is. Good luck!

 

I haven’t used STC, so can’t speak to it. I used knopman - which I thought was pretty comprehensive. To further help strategize studying, prep materials usually give you guidance on how many questions to suspect for each unit. Some units can make up 30-40% of questions so best to focus more on those, while other units only have 3 or 4 questions.

 
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