Anyone selling their Series 7 Knopman books?
Badly in need of this. I have the STC right now and fully aware knopman is better. Please let me know if you have any friends selling it (preference for anything not older than 5 years - unless they’re all essentially the same?)
I took the 6 and 63 with STC, then the 7 and 65 with Kaplan. Don't know about Knopman, but STC is better than Kaplan.
That being said, you will not find enough difference in the material, or the way it is presented, to matter much.
If you use the STC calendar, stay on course with the schedule and take TONS of tests, you will do fine.
NOTE: On the Series 7, if you get the Fixed Income section, Options section, ethics and a few other sections nailed down, you will be fine. If I recall, the 7 had nearly 40 questions on options. The way they present the material is pretty poor, but people think options are some higher-level financial tools that only professionals should use. Not so much. Just learn the material the way they present it and you will be fine.
Thanks so much for that, especially the note on the sections to focus on! I wanted to do the extra practice tests on the knopman. I don't have a finance background, so thought it would help to have the extra practice tests.
Also, trying to keep to the STC course schedule. Did you ever try to the STC live classes? They also have a hotline to call if there are any questions and I'm curious how useful it is (for instance, if i wanted to ask about a concept i don't quite understand)
I took the 6 and 63 with STC, then the 7 and 65 with Kaplan. Don't know about Knopman, but STC is better than Kaplan.
That being said, you will not find enough difference in the material, or the way it is presented, to matter much.
If you use the STC calendar, stay on course with the schedule and take TONS of tests, you will do fine.
NOTE: On the Series 7, if you get the Fixed Income section, Options section, ethics and a few other sections nailed down, you will be fine. If I recall, the 7 had nearly 40 questions on options. The way they present the material is pretty poor, but people think options are some higher-level financial tools that only professionals should use. Not so much. Just learn the material the way they present it and you will be fine.
One issue you may not be aware of is that when you get to the testing center, you may not take anything into the testing room, including a calculator or pencil. You will be given a notepad with an erasable pen which you may use to write down anything you choose. In each test, which I passed all on the first try (not bragging, just saying that if you do what the coursework requires of you, you will make it), as soon as the clock started the first thing I did was to download as much info as I could onto the scratch pad. Just use it to your advantage.
Do you mean you will note down important concept/topic reminders to yourself onto the scratch pad before you start answering the questions? that sounds like a great tip actually
Yes, you may not bring in any notes, calculators, etc. As an example, you've probably seen the see-saw analogy for bond yields versus price (inversely proportional). You can sketch out the pic, write down where your CY, YTC and YTM lie and how yield responds to a rise or drop in the bond price.
Another example is the liquidation order when a company goes bankrupt. For instance, who has first draw on the funds from a company going into bankruptcy versus who has last draw. There is a list of 7 entities who must be paid out and trying to memorize the order can be taxing w/so much material to know. Memorize it long enough to get in and write it down as soon as you have access.
Another one would be to learn what happens to options contracts as they approach expiration date, depending on whether you have a call spread or a put spread, when do you utilize straddles and strangles (when do you buy versus when do you sell one or the other and why). There is a simple options table with calls/puts on the Y-axis, buy/sell on the X-axis, and then you place arrows in one direction or another within each quadrant of the table to show you what you want to have happen to the option in order for the trade to succeed. (poor explanation, but you should get the idea).
As for the STC hotline, yes, I did use that. The one thing about Kaplan was that you could actually converse with the teachers on the videos via email or by calling. The issue with that is, they taught the material on way on the videos so they are not going to do much other than to regurgitate what they said on the video itself. I found the service to be on little use.
My best suggestions for you are as follows: Read the entire book, taking the chapter tests as you go. Stay on track with the calendar they give you. Create your own tests that concentrate on areas in which you have found you struggle. Take a boat-load of tests. Once you've taken a bunch of tests, then take a bunch more. On all 4 securities tests I took, I made within 5 points of the final test I had to take before going in to take the actual test.
NOTE: I don't know if this was specific to my former company, but on the Series 7, if you did not pass the "Mastery Exam" with at least a 72 they would not allow you to take the test. They would require you to re-schedule after taking a crash review course.
Good luck. The material isn't difficult, there is just a lot of it. The big thing about taking the tests are to READ THE QUESTION CAREFULLY. You will find double and triple-negatives, which can make an easy question much more difficult. On the 65 (or 66), there are many questions where there are multiple choice questions, but it would not only be MC, it would be something like possible answers:
These were, by far, the hardest until you practice like crazy and learn how to tackle these questions. Just eliminate everything you know is wrong and whatever is left is the correct answer.
Lastly, if you do not know the answer to a question while testing, mark it to come back to later. I found several problems on the 7 where the answer to a question within the first 50 questions would actually be answered within a different question later in the test. The 7 has a total of 250 gradable questions, plus an additional 10 they use as potential future questions. You will not know which questions are the test questions so do your best on all of them, obviously. The test is 7 hours long. After the first section, you will be required to take at least half hour break and up to an hour break before coming back for the second 130 question section.
A lot of info, but hopefully this will be used by others in the future who are taking any of these securities exams.
Thank you so so much - that is all super helpful. And your former firm seemed to have a good policy in place on passing the mastery exam before being allowed to take the actual one
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