Good point. Although the book, video tape, CD, or combination thereof self-study method may appeal to some, for about $200 more one can take a 4-day Series 7 crash course. Ideally, you can coordinate the scheduling of the course through a test-prep company, then the exam (to follow) through Prometric, NASD's testing arm. So, with a class manual in hand for four days, you have the S7 stuff pounded into you, ostensibly review the manual each night, walk into the testing facility on the fifth day and breeze? right on through the exam! So what, if you only retain 15% by the sixth day! :eek: You now have that exam successfully passed and are on your way to more productive endeavors - like studying (some/most of us, anyway) for the decidedly less rigorous Series 63... Bottom Line: The crash course is nice option to consider.....
Do you have to be employed by a bank or other kind of securities firm to sit for the S7, or can anyone take it and receive credit if passed? Thanks, Uni
i got the computer "discs" from Examco I think it was.....just kept takeing it over and over and over untill i scored over 90....took the test and scored 86...i would say 80% of the questions on the exam were verbatim from the discs......good luck
Contact the National Association of Securities Dealers (NASD) http://www.nasd.com/, click on the box "askNASD" and type in your particular question to get a series of related answers. This huge web site contains a lot of information for the resourceful. In some cases you can be sponsored by your state to take the Series 7 exam, but most traders who wish to go professional, contact firms on this board like Bright Trading (where you would not trade as an employee) to become sponsored for the S7. Check out other threads under this Career Trader forum, as well as well as the Pro Firms, and Retail Firms forums to learn the reasons a trader would choose to become licensed (or not). Good luck!
I have a 7 along with numerous other registrations.The STC books and discs were a tremedous help.The materials are kind of expensive but they will really prepare you for the test. http://www.stcusa.com
Read one study guide all the way through. Do several practice tests. Know settlement dates for all securities. Know bonds and options well. There are more than just a few questions on professional conduct and customer accounts, so know the SEC rules. You can't bring a drink, calculator, or even a stick of gum in with you, but they provide you with a calculator. 6 hours is plenty of time. Good Luck!
Took and passed the Series 7 today, it's a tough test but very do-able if you prepare properly. Study materials - BiSys - www.bisys-education.com. I used the study course but did not sign up for the live classes, this worked fine for me. The course covered everything I needed to know, and does a good job of reviewing thru review questions and practice tests. If you try to study for this by just reading, the test covers such a wide range of topics that it feels like information you learned last week is leaking out of your head as you do more reading this week. The Bisys course dealt with this thru repetition in different forms - read, do drills, do short chapter tests, then do a review section that covers everything again but more briefly, then longer practice tests, then a course outline that's an even briefer review, then more practice tests. During all this there's audio tapes for more reinforcement. Do lots of the practice tests and questions, and study the ones you got wrong. I probably studied around 100-120 hrs, 67-70% of that over the last 3 weeks. Bisys recommends 120-180 hours depending on whether or not you have past industry experience, and whether you take their classroom program. I think that's realistic, less would leave the average person unprepared. 6 hours is plenty of time for 250 questions. Took me 5 including reviewing my answers (wasted time, didn't change but 1 answer), and the earlier reports of 3-4 hours is very doable if you know your stuff cold. An earlier reply said if you look at a question and cannot figure it out quickly, move on. For example, most of the single-answer multiple-choice questions have 1-2 answers our of 4 that are clearly wrong, so you can narrow the odds quickly even if you don't know the answer for sure. If your study course doesn't already have them, put together your own condensed study sheets, particularly for formulas and other "facts" kinds of stuff - Margin calculations Formula for valuing a rights offer Financial ratios (unless you have an accounting background) Dates/time periods - particularly those with regulatory significance etc, etc, etc There are more questions on debt securities/Treasury debt/municipal debt, and on options, than any other topic. However, all topics are covered. Know how to calculate breakeven and profits on options strategies - Bisys recommended a strictly mechanical approach to this, the other way is to figure it out from fundamentals - you choose which works best for you. Study hard, study fast, pass it on the first try. No problem if you're prepared.
took and passed the series 7 about 10 years ago. agree with the other posts about study materials. all i did was take the computer simulation tests (DOS back then) until i was about 95% on each one. i forget how long that took but it was at least a couple of weeks. didn't open any books, but knew a bit about the markets beforehand. it's rote memorization which is why the simulated tests helped me so much. if i used the books to study, it would have been a differnet story. anyway, was out in about an hour or so (before any break), 92%.
Take all the practice tests. That simple. You will see the same questions or a very slight change from the ones on the practice tests. I took 10 practice test 3 times each. When I took the test i saw the exact same questions, word for word.