Just passed the series 7 yesterday with a pretty good score. Some advice from a recent test taker....and before you think I am a know it all for posting this, read Tip 1 first.<?: prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" />

Tip 1) Don't look on the internet for advice on the Srs 7! I got a bunch of advice from people about what topics are getting tested more these days. For example everybody told me that they were testing CMO's And REIT's much much more in light of recent events. I had two questions on CMO's and one on REIT's (two if you count the one question where REIT's was an incorrect answer in the multiple choice selections) The test has a computer bank of questions, the questions are selected based on how much weight certain topics have. The questions are not quite "random" but they are certainly not predictable. You cannot second guess specifics. The people who think they can...well they are the same people that thought buying AIG at 22 was a great move.

Tip 1 is most important. So with that in mind take Tip 2-7 with a grain of salt. But here are some observations from my experience.

Tip 2) Get a syllabus from a good training firm and follow it to the letter. (I used STC). I made it so much more difficult on myself by going my own way a lot of the time. They know what they are doing more than you do. I could have spent a lot more time with my family rather than locked away studying.

Tip 3) Everybody I talked to said before their test they were worried that they had memorized questions rather than learned material. Although that is a danger, it is also natural to feel that way. Most people do.

Tip 4) Night before. If you feel like you need to put more than a one hour review into the test the night before, you should have pushed your test date, you aren't ready. I passed on my first try, not because I am so damn smart, but because I pushed back the first date I had reserved because I was not ready. Night before, do a one hour review, have a good meal, hang out with your spouse/significant other or friends, relax, get some good sleep.

Tip 5) DON'T TRY TO GRADE YOURSELF WHILE TAKING THE TEST. Nobody told me this before hand, but when I talked to people after they all said they had the same experience. I got a 90 on the test, with that score you would think that I was very very confident in most answers. WRONG. On most questions that did not require a calculation of some sort I was able to eliminate one or two possibilities and felt maybe 60/40 between the two others. Once every 7 or 8 questions I would get one that I was absolutely certain. Personally I would not use the “mark for review” at all. It jsut encourages you to second guess yourself.

Tip 6) Speaking of calculations, I was amazed at how few questions I had that required me to actually apply numbers to a formula and come up with a solution. I think I used the calculator twice.  However, like I said in Tip 1 that could have just been due to the "randomness" of how questions are generated. 

Tip 7) Do not pay attention to how many times you are using a certain selection. No exaggeration here, I would say 35% of my answers were the same selection. I was beginning to doubt answers because I had selected that same letter so many times. Again randomness.