Series 79 Top Off with STC Materials

I took the S79 today and passed. I used Kaplan.

I didn't think Kaplan materials were as helpful as the previous exams for S7 and S63. I found some inconsistencies and sometimes errors in the text. I was actually reading the Regs on the SEC website and in articles from corporate lawyers.

The prep for these exams is all about the trade-off in coverage and details. The universe of information is large and there are only 85 questions. As one of the commenters noted below, each exam is very different. I was getting mid-80s on my practice exams (not the simulated exams since you cannot filter out used questions when selecting their sim exams. I got a 78% on the mastery. Overall, I thought Kaplan covered the topics but I would probably use a different text and only use the QBank. The QBank tests many details and has many calculations with simple exhibits. I work in finance and am comfortable with the calculations. The exam emphasis on certain details does not always line up the the QBank details emphasis. However, the QBank does give you confidence since it gives you breadth of topics.

Lots of investment banking scenarios on IPOs, M&A, and tender offers. The calculations required some thought since there were several tables that had several rows and required scrolling up and across to find numbers. HSR, Fairness committees, Reg D, 13G, 13F, and goodwill/tangible book value.

My training for all of these exams (SIE, S7, S63, and S79) was to make sure I could average < 1 min/question to allow myself plenty of time to review (or take a break). For today's exam I was slower and took about 100 mins for 85 questions. I think it was due to the large number of exhibits. In addition, many of the questions surprisingly had lots of text.

When I was finished I was uncertain if I had passed. There were more 50:50 questions than any of the other exams I had taken. The exam was a bit harder than expected.