Take SIE Early?
Starting off cycle in late January. So far my bank has said nothing about exams and providing knopman/kaplan but I know they do from talking to other first years. That being said, I have nothing to do until I start, and I've heard the time tables can get crunched between SIE/63/79 and actually FT work. Thought about just paying Knopman $250 for their SIE course and taking SIE before I even do training/hit the desk. Thoughts? Has anyone else done this? Anyone willing to share SIE study materials?
Your firm will cover all of these costs later no need to start early on your own
You didn't feel at all crammed doing SIE/79/63 in the allocated time?
I did - especially off cycle I agree you should take the SIE / S63 before you start
your training timeline might be not be the summer live instruction course with everyone in the summer
i have new books for knopman in shrink wrap if you want to DM to lower costs
I felt extremely crammed, but the SIE is easy and I did not study at all.
Series 79 is a different story. Trying to find the willpower to study after working a 16-18 hour day is brutal.
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It can suck if you're on live deals and need to take these tests. I'd recommend reaching out to an Analyst on the team and asking for the materials they used to prepare. You can self study on your own while waiting for official guidance and reimbursement from your bank.
Ask your bank to send you the materials, which they should, and take it in Jan. Yes, you can get it done later, but it will be nice to get one of the tests off your plate. Shouldn’t be too bad, especially if you’re a finance major; maybe 10 days of studying.
Ignore the people telling you to wait, they might just be masquerading as bankers.
Studying for the SIE/79/63 while working full time will be tough even if you start now, I know people who are literally comically smart who almost got fired because they could barely juggle their work load with studying.
My firm gave us 2 months of basically no deals to study before and people were telling us to take that time to relax because the tests were easy, well I did not listen to them and passed on my first try but it was not easy by a long shot, my colleagues who did failed, some even more than once and almost got fired because it is hard to allocate time to study since the content is so much and like I said these guys are nerds I might even call some of them full on geniuses who went to top schools and double majored.
Bite the bullet and pay for the program now if you can afford it and start.
OP here - that's what my thinking was. Knopman is like $250 for SIE. With a month of nothing to do but move to NY I thought why not.
Yeah if you can afford it its worth it, I added some more details in my answer to drive home the point.
Another piece of advice is to do the SIE first( I think thats mandatory), then the 79 and finally the 63(by far the easiest paper).
Material from the SIE and 79 overlap and they are very difficult so get them out of the way. Its much better to have 2 weeks to study for the 63 than 2 weeks to study for the 79 at the end of your grace period.
Dude it’s just exams. Take the allocated time and use it, you have years of grinding ahead. Don’t burn up before you start
What? No. Appreciate the hustle but you'll be given ample time to study and plenty of resources. Just enjoy the fact that you've got a job and do what you want to do. For the next 2 years you won't have that freedom, so embrace it while you can
Sie is so easy and practice guides r cheap I think it would be smart to knock it out!
Just ask HR if you will have time once you start allocated for training / tests (which everyone starting over the summer gets) or if you will be hitting the desk on day 1 and it would be beneficial to study before.
Be honest and say you have free time and we’re considering starting to study - I’m sure they can get your knopman access set up in advance, seems insane to sink $200+ on test prep stuff.
SIE is fairly easy from what I've heard. Had a buddy pass by reading a study-guide once and then taking it. So you should be able to self-study for that one at least fairly easily without dropping the $250 for a course.
I was a lateral hire and was really stressed about this whole process. People say the exams were "easy", which maybe was the case in 2000s but they've cranked up the difficulty thanks to 08, and other events. I would reach out to your firm and ask them if you can get the resources to start studying now. I don't think they'll object. Paying out of pocket for something your firm will cover is not a smart move imo.
I genuinely think people who say the exams are easy do not work in banking and have never taken the exam
No one in their right mind would say that, I've seen people on other threads saying its easy to pass the Series 7 or 79 with one week prep, that let me know a vast array of users of this website aren't who they say they are, these exams were harder than what i studied at college given the time constraint
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