Guys....what should I do? I have a couple of issues and I'm starting to get frustrated. I've been studying for about a week and a half and I'm getting bogged down with the Options Chapters. Should I keep moving forward and finish the book and just concentrate on the exams? I'm currently using the STC materials. Maybe it's to soon for me to get bogged down and I'm feeling like I need to know everything that is in print in the chapters. I started the first progress exam on the CD and I didn't do well at all. I guess I should just keep moving???
keep taking the exams over and over again, go back and look at you losers and make notecards on the information you are repeatedly getting wrong.
I took S 7 3 times in my life and in all 3 , options played a big part in the questions. At least 30% so you probably would want to nail that subject down + muni bonds in order to have a decent shot at passing.
I had trouble with options too, so I went back to those problems at the end. Using the grid type diagram helped me a lot to overcome that. I forget how it works now, but it should be in your study material.
Have no fear - you've got additional options. Scroll down the Securities Training Corporation Series 7 products page to Video, where you'll see farther down, the $55 VHS, and DVD on Options, which enable you to visually learn the topic through repeated viewings. http://www.stcusa.com/content/securities/CourseView.asp?course=07 Call one of the STC offices for any questions about the study aids: http://www.stcusa.com/content/about/stc.asp Reread your study manual instructions - especially as they relate to prepping for your scheduled August weeklong S-7 course. Notably, don't get bogged down in the details of the chapter readings. At any rate, keep moving...
If your study time is limited or you don't know what to focus on, spend your time on options and muni bonds. The two biggest chunks of the test.
There is a lot of stuff on options on the exam, so make sure you understand them well. What worked for me is drawing a diagram, using visual tools is probably the easiest way to understand options. The questions are pretty basic once you get the hang of it. Good luck.
While there are a lot of options questions on the exam (at least there was in mine), I found the options questions some of the easiest ones of all. If you're having trouble, yeah, skip through the rest of the stuff and then come back to options at the end. As others have said, draw the diagram. If you understand the name of the position, it's almost impossible to fuck it up if you draw the diagram. Don't ignore currency options either (it only takes an extra 10-20 minutes, so why not). I ignored them, thinking who the fuck needs to know that shit, and I got two questions on them. One I, luckily, knew, but the other one was so twisted I think they just put it there on purpose to piss you off (like even if I studied no way would I have got that one). The best way to study, I think, is just do heaps and heaps of practise questions. I don't think it's really all that hard to get 70% (is it still that to pass?). If your exam is anything like mine and other people I have talked to, about 3-5% of the questions on there you're just not gonna have any clue about whatsoever, so don't get discouraged when they happen to you. I got virtually all of my 'evil' questions in the first part, and I was stressing bad, but the second part went way smoother. Ended up with 85%.