Nineteen Eleven

This is a long shot on this board, but i thought i would check anyways.

Do any of you have your Series 7 securities license?

I passed the 6 late last year with an 89, but i still found it challenging. I started on my 6 week study program for the 7 a couple of weeks ago and it's making the 6 seem like a 1st grader's math test.

Needless to say, it is getting pretty difficult. I just finished the debt chapter, and tested out at 78% on that chapter, and it was very tough. Now i am halfway through the options chapter and it is kicking my ass.

I have been using investopedia for most of my learning outside of my text books, but i was wondering if there is anything else that helped you nail down these concepts. i would like to hear anything that you think might help from other websites, study methods, acronyms you thought of or heard that helped you remember things, which 3rd party company study materials you purchased that you thought were good (including pre-made flash cards, visual and audio discs, photographs that helped explain things better) etc.

Any help or information is appreciated.

And lets try to keep the flames to a minimum and show them that we CAN have nice things!

When I graduated college I was hired into a banks investment department and was sponsored to take the licensure exams. This really does not help you out as far as study tactics, acronyms, etc., but I actually read through the 600 page book two times. I made sure to take the practice exams at the end of each chapter noting which areas I needed emphasize. After finishing the study guide the first time, I re-read the study guide again and then began taking the practice exams on the cd that came with the book. I did a lot of notecards for the vocabulary words as well as writing notes in the margins to summarize the sections.

By the time I took the test, I was scoring around 80% on the practice exams. I took the test and scored a 76% my first try... overall it was pretty brutal, if you have taken tests of that nature before (which you have with the 6) they more so try to trick you on wording than actually your understanding of the content. Having passed the 7, my next step was state licensure and I did not dedicate the time to study for the 66 and just tried taking a lot of the practice exams from the CD. I failed the test twice, the second time by one question, then ended up quitting.

If I remember correctly (this was like four years ago and I have long since forgotten basically everything on the test) there were a lot of call and put questions as well as a large emphasis on the Securities Act of 1933 and whatever the one of 1934 was.

As I said, not a lot of help and everyone has different study habits but that is what worked for me. Just wait for the anticipation when the testing center is calculating your score, it is a long ass 30 seconds.

Good luck though, you seem like a pretty intelligent guy, I really do not think you will have a hard time with it.

ao_ wrote:When I graduated college I was hired into a banks investment department and was sponsored to take the licensure exams. This really does not help you out as far as study tactics, acronyms, etc., but I actually read through the 600 page book two times. I made sure to take the practice exams at the end of each chapter noting which areas I needed emphasize. After finishing the study guide the first time, I re-read the study guide again and then began taking the practice exams on the cd that came with the book. I did a lot of notecards for the vocabulary words as well as writing notes in the margins to summarize the sections.

By the time I took the test, I was scoring around 80% on the practice exams. I took the test and scored a 76% my first try... overall it was pretty brutal, if you have taken tests of that nature before (which you have with the 6) they more so try to trick you on wording than actually your understanding of the content. Having passed the 7, my next step was state licensure and I did not dedicate the time to study for the 66 and just tried taking a lot of the practice exams from the CD. I failed the test twice, the second time by one question, then ended up quitting.

If I remember correctly (this was like four years ago and I have long since forgotten basically everything on the test) there were a lot of call and put questions as well as a large emphasis on the Securities Act of 1933 and whatever the one of 1934 was.

As I said, not a lot of help and everyone has different study habits but that is what worked for me. Just wait for the anticipation when the testing center is calculating your score, it is a long ass 30 seconds.

Good luck though, you seem like a pretty intelligent guy, I really do not think you will have a hard time with it.

thank you very much for your input sir. your strategy seems pretty much in line with my own, which is simply over study the materials they have given you.

lucky for me, having my 6 already, i had to pass the 63 which is one form of the state exam. so, now all i have to do is get the 7 on its own and do not have to worry about the 66. if i or anyone else were to go for the 7 right off the bat, the 66 would be needed, which i hear is extremely difficult to do after such intense series 7 preparation.

what you said about the test being heavily weighted on the topic of options (calls and puts) seems to be in line with everything i have heard and been told. this is the chapter that i am currently finishing up right now. i finished the debt chapter right before this which seemed pretty difficult, but the options has always been known as not only the most difficult, but the most heavily tested on the exam. i have fallen about a day and a half behind of my course schedule so that i can properly read, re-read, test, and re-test the ins and outs of the options. and as you said, one simple word in a question can change everything, so being able to read and understand the question is absolutely crucial.

for a lot of people i have consulted with, the state exam is far more difficult than the securities exam. this is largely due to the fact that the 63 and 66 pertain to the legality of everything, not to learning about the securities themselves, and is written by lawyers. most questions on the 63 were about 8 or 9 lines long, while containing just 2 sentences, which made it that much more difficult. figuring out what they were trying to ask was tougher than actually answering the question. thank god i don't have to go through that again!

anyways, i do appreciate your feedback and kind words regarding my intelligence. dod and 1911 have long been a place where i exercise my adolescent immaturity and i am sure that is mostly how i am perceived, which is fine by me lol. but i like hearing about people passing on the first try. i feel confident enough that i will also, but i hear far more horror stories about the 7 exam than i do stories like yours, so failing does creep into my mind.

i guess there is nothing to it but to do it!