I took it in January and passed. I used the STC manual. It was not complete since it was an older version and had none of the SuperMontage stuff, but there were only 2 or 3 questions about that anyway. I didn't say it was easy, just not too bad if you have a study guide. There are definitely some obscure questions you would never think in a million years to study for, but that is why they don't require you to score 100. I read through the manual for about 2 weeks and spent the last few days doing practice tests. Certainly if you have experience with Nasdaq trading and order routing you will have an advantage. If you are new to the market, allow more time for it.
Thats BS that you have to wait 30 days to take it again. A friend of mine is a new trader, and he failed his 55 the first time he took it. He than took it again a little less than 2 weeks later. This was in March, 2003.
Your freind is lieing to you....If you fail ANY NASD mandated test, you must wait 30 days to take it again...In addition, if you fail some test three times you have to wait a year to take it again.
LOL!!! Youknow what though? I failed one test in my life and it was a test that I assumed i knew everything about ...A lot of traders fail the 55 because they know everything about trading and don't study the little piss ant rules and regs that are associated with their profession...