For those of you who have taken the Series 7 and passed it, how difficult is the exam? How long did it take you to study for it? Seems like a ton of material to cover.
Nov 02, 2011
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2.5 weeks of inconsistent reading. Not difficult at all. Tests basic financial markets concepts that you probably learned in your intro/100 level finance courses.
EDIT
Given the amount of information and the odds of you forgetting a lot of the stuff you learned in college, I wouldn't take the exam too lightly either. If you're testing in low 80s on the first 3-5 practice exams, I would just stop right there and feel pretty confident.
You have to learn the material, but the content is trivial.
Ex-D1 athlete meatheads have been passing it for decades...
soooo trueee
Ignore the arrogance here. It's not difficult material, but as you observed, it is voluminous. I took it without having any finance courses etc and put in a good bit of time. Use whatever materials you have and know it well to get 80+ on practice exams.
Thanks. How long did you study for it?
I recently took the series 56, which is now required for people who trade equity products and actually failed, as did everyone on my desk. The test ended up being far more detailed than expected, and the study book CBOE gave us ended up having inaccurate information!
My firm gave us a month, with about 3_4 hours a day you should be good. I would never use any material from any org administering the test. Aftermarket is best, ie kaplan/stc. Practice tests are key bc you learn all the tricks that mess you up so on the actual exam you will have much better analysis although series 7 is straight forward more than most, the qty is huge.
The 56 is an entirely different animal than the 7. The 56 is NOT administered by FINRA and is only required for certain exchanges, like the CBOE. (See http://www.finra.org/industry/compliance/registration/qualificationsexa….) It is also significantly more difficult than the Series 7, which just teaches you how to fairly represent your customers.
Take full blown practice exam and see how you do, u might not need much time if you have general knowledge.
Where did you find the practice exams?
Not sure about walmartshopper but I was given STC materials. It consisted of two large binders, one was the study guide/material itself and the other had 12-13 practice exams. I personally thought the STC exams slightly went up in difficulty with each exam because my scores stayed relatively flat. It was kind of discouraging. I never scored higher that an 84% in practice, however my actual test score came out to mid-90 range. I found the actual exam to be easier than STC practice stuff. Not sure if this applies to study guides from other prep/training companies.
This WalMart guy gives sound advice.
I scored a 91 on the Series 7 exam. The material on the exam is not difficult but there is a lot of material to get through and you need to know how to use your time. Make sure you are using solid review materials (not all are created equally) and have a good strategy for how to study for it.
There's not enough room to write all my thoughts about the exam here, but in case anyone finds it helpful, I've shared in great detail my approach to preparing for the exam on the website Personal Finance Insider dot com. I believe anyone could pass the exam on their first try by following a similar approach. Best of luck to everyone on their exam!
Old thread- Delete
brody how did you end up doing on it man
he got into harvard bschool.
Wait. Brady failed the 56 and never ended up getting his CPA Level I done?
Fantasizing about elitist business schools all day really kills your productivity after all.
Wait. Brady failed the 56 and never ended up getting his CPA Level I done?
Fantasizing about elitist business schools all day really kills your productivity after all.
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