Series 6 and 63 Exams

Series 6: For someone without a finance background the S6 will be helpful in getting you acquainted with some fundamental concepts that you can build on. Even for someone without a finance background, the S6 is not a difficult test - it's a fair test - in that if you study and comprehend the core concepts you'll be fine.

Series 63: Picture the most boring subject you ever had to study... Now multiply times 5x and you get the S63. Again, like the S6, not difficult and if you're into rules & regs you'll be in your glory studying for this exam. I hated these securities law exams (I took the 63 & 66), but here is how I got past the S63: buy 5 legal pads and everytime there is a list or a time table or a specific data point, I would write it down 10 times until the point became so second-nature to me by the 7th or 8th time I was re-writing it I knew I could commit it to memory. With boring material like this, you shovel everything in at face value and puke it back onto the page, you're not really going to be interpreting anything so comprehension is not as much an issue as opposed to S7 where you have to do some options math.

Bottom-line: Series 6: good you are taking it, you will learn some good fundamental information about the finance industry, Series 63: The examination-equivalent of watching paint dry or watching re-runs of the weather channel for 3 weeks, if they say records have to be kept on premises for 7 years don't think about it , just commit it to memory, it doesn't have to make sense you just have to remember it.

Also, I used STC (Securities Training Corporation) for my S6,63,66,and 7 and past all of them on my first go around. If your shop will let you choose your test prep provider, I would definitely recommend you go with STC...

Good luck