SIE & Series 79?
Morning fellas, got hired as a lateral from Corp Banking and I've been asked to get my SIE and 79 within 5 months. Started studying for the SIE using Knopman (and will use them for 79 too) but I'm wondering how you guys did it/if its too much. I'm working full time with no leeway so most of my studying happens during downtime or post work. Wanted to gather everyone's advice because I can't really study in the morning because of the commute (live in CT) and studying post work doesn't do too much for me since I'm exhausted from the day. Would love everyone's thoughts on how to approach this, thanks.
Couple questions I was hoping someone could also address:
-How hard is each exam? Been doing fine on the practice exams for the SIE (75+), just worried I may forget the material as my studying is a little fragmented.
-Should I take the SIE on my own before filling out the U4? Doing so would bypass the 90 day requirement that I'd have to take both in. What happens if I fill out the forms and don't take the 79 within those 3 months? Thanks.
Took both recently but during the semester for the SIE and during training for the 79 so had a lot more leeway in terms of time. Only advice is if you have the knopman materials, literally just follow exactly what they say and you'll be fine. SIE I did around 600-700 questions and 79 I did maybe 500-600 which I think are both on the low end but I did kinda cram during the week before. I started with by watching the videos and taking notes on 2x speed then just going through questions. After the videos, just go between doing practice questions and reading the class summary and/or any other supplements they give you. Good luck.
Edit: Also the general consensus is that the SIE is a joke and the 79 is at least slightly hard(?). I seriously studied for about a week for both. Felt they were pretty comparable in terms of difficulty. If anything, I thought the breadth of the SIE topics was harder for me while the 79 went through some of the SIE material again and then had a lot of basic accounting/valuation questions that are very easy and I didn't really need to review after being a finance major. You don't have to wait for the U4 for the SIE because you can take it yourself whenever, but you need the company to sponsor you for the 79. We got the materials for both in March and I took the SIE in May before anything official started and even knew a guy that took it quickly back in March.
Do whatever you can to reduce fragmented studying, you'll need to sacrifice a few weekends to knock it out. I took my 79 pre-SIE so I had a lot more information to retain for a single exam but what worked for me was 2-3 full weekends of studying 8-10 hours both Saturday and Sunday while touching on the materials with what time I had available during the week to keep the information as fresh as possible, usually a couple quizzes or a test each day during the week. I failed my first attempt at the 79 because my studying was so fragmented the first time around, I also focused too much on reading the materials my first go instead of just taking the practice exams and tests. I had STC materials which came with videos, these were helpful as a base of knowledge before jumping into the tests and quizzes, not sure Knopman has videos.
5 months is way more than enough time. SIE is a joke, study for a week, do hundreds of questions and if you have some type of finance knowledge from school, it’s a easy peasy.
79 is a pain as it’s all memorizing regulations. Take at least 2-3 weeks for that one. So no less than 1k practice questions. I did about 1200 using the same study material you are using and passed. Dont bother reading the book. Just do questions
If you’re scoring 75+ on sie I would stop studying and just skim the class summary daily. (It’s kinda long but just do 1/4 each day to keep it fresh). The test itself is pretty straight forward. There’s a practice test on Finras website I recommend taking 2-3 days before because the questions are worded closer to the actual finra exam. If you pass that you’ll pass the SIE. Is there a way to move your test date up to sometime in the next week or 2?
For me I found the 79 much harder than the sie coming from a non finance background but with some studying you should be able to grind it out. I would follow the action plan Knopman provides on if you are “running in place” rather than taking the exam that week.
Both of these can easily be done with about a week of studying for each one.
Is the consensus to study 2-3 weeks for the 79, but not necessarily longer so that the info doesn’t fade from your memory if you give it too much time (like 1 month +)? What’s a safe study plan if you have some time but you’re taking it while in an existing job?
If you're 4-6 weeks out and have plenty of time now, it cannot hurt you to start studying. Think of it like college, when it was better to learn material over time instead of try to learn new topics the few days before the exam.
The 79 is more difficult than the SIE, but should be familiar topics if you are in IB or were a finance major. I would give yourself at least 10 hours in the week leading up to the exam (so maybe 2x half days 2 and 1 day out) to bang out practice exams, and maybe 4-5 hours a week if you're starting a month or more out. It's not that difficult but if you have plenty of time, better to start early.
If you have Knopman they spoonfeed it to you like a baby, so follow their instructions, take practice quizzes/watch videos on areas you're weak, and you will be fine.
In my training program we studied for the SIE for literally 3 days. I was very skeptical going in but if you follow the Knopman Marks training program that shit works.
Also, I was in a similar situation for taking my S79. I had about 5 months to take it. I did what you should NOT do. I did practice questions every day for about 3 months. Ultimately i think I ended up doing like 6000+ practice questions which is wayyyyy too much. My logic was basically that I’d rather be over prepared than under prepared. It doesn’t really work like that though. I pretty much just memorized the questions and their answers so I wasn’t learning anything. I still passed, but was not optimal in my studying.
Did you read the textbook for the SIE?
Did you read the textbook for the SIE?
No. Waste of time. Just follow their study program and use the textbook for reference
Also was a lateral that had to take SIE, 79 and 63 while on the desk busy with live deals and trying to ramp up on the banking learning curve. I continually pushed back my test dates until I realized I just needed to suck it up. I knocked out the SIE after a week of study, took two weeks to study for 79 and 63 after another week of studying - all while staffed on live deals. Some days it was just impossible to get in study time, especially for the 79 (why it took me two weeks to study). Would wake up at 6 everyday and get 2-3 hours of studying in before starting deal work.
Is there for room to push back on projects with your staffer? As mentioned above, I found it really important to structure the studying during committed 1-2 week timeframes. Studying just on weekends for ~2 months gets tricky because these exams are pure memorization. Would have a conversation with your staffer that you’d like 2 weeks of low effort deal work to focus on studying. If staffer isn’t receptive then would go to your associates/VPs and explain that you need a couple weeks to knock them out and see if they can cover for you.
The issue I ran into is so many people take these exams during training before they hit the desk so don’t fully understand the stress/effort required to study for the exams, pass the exams, and still produce solid deal related work. When I explained this my staffer/associates/VPs were very receptive and went easy on me for the month.
I studied for about a week for my SIE, mostly because I was paranoid about not passing and costing myself the job offer. I studied for about 3 days for the 79. You can easily knock them both out in a little over a week if you aren't working and have time to grind study materials.
What was ur study approach? Keep hearing its almost a waste to read the textbook cuz its so long lmao? Have Knopman so was thinking of just doing videos and then ton of practice exams?
Obviously Knopman recommends you read the textbook, but also states that reading time should be ~25% of total study time. Wonder if this holds true
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