Joe, don't you know that if you're not a financial advisor you're not welcome here?  Better get ready for a flame war from the boys and girls.

First, why are you buying Dearborn rather than STC?

I've heard from many people that STC practice exams are very different from the actual test...Dearborn, I've been told, provides materials and tests much simliar to the actual test.

Please correct me if I am wrong!

Thanks. Joe

[quote=Mrjoe1008]

I've heard from many people that STC practice exams are very different from the actual test...Dearborn, I've been told, provides materials and tests much simliar to the actual test.

Please correct me if I am wrong!

Thanks. Joe

[/quote]

I believe you're wrong about Series 7--if you were talking about Series 6 or 63 or 65 or 66 you'd be right.  But there is no stronger vendor for Series 7 than STC.

Plus they publish in loose leaf so they tend to update their stuff more frequently, as well has they have a policy of notifying you of any changes in the exam.

By comparison, Dearborn--now Kaplan--publishes paperback bound books that must be ordered in significant quantity to make them cost effective.  They are notorious for going ahead and using books that they know are filled with errors just to use them up.  I must admit that I have no knowledge that Kaplan, which is a far larger organization, would adopt that policy but they might.

Additionally, STC is located in the Wall Street area and does about 90% of the training for the firms located downtown. Their office is two or three blocks from the testing center and lots of people go by STC to talk about what they just saw on the exam.

Dearborn is located in Chicago and doesn't do anywhere near as much Series 7 business.

Just my two cents worth, but in this case consider it to be worth $200.

One more thing.  The Dearborn Drill and Practice CD ROM is not as easy to work with as STC's.  With the STC disk you can stop anywhere on the disk and return to the same place the next time you start it up.  With Dearborn's you need to either leave your computer on and the program up all the time, or you'll just get the same questions again and again.

Plus you can install the STC disk on your C-Drive with Dearborn you must keep the CD with you because that's where the questions are stored.

[quote=NASD Newbie][quote=Mrjoe1008]

I've heard from many people that STC practice exams are very different from the actual test...Dearborn, I've been told, provides materials and tests much simliar to the actual test.

Please correct me if I am wrong!

Thanks. Joe

[/quote]

I believe you're wrong about Series 7--if you were talking about Series 6 or 63 or 65 or 66 you'd be right.  But there is no stronger vendor for Series 7 than STC.

Plus they publish in loose leaf so they tend to update their stuff more frequently, as well has they have a policy of notifying you of any changes in the exam.

By comparison, Dearborn--now Kaplan--publishes paperback bound books that must be ordered in significant quantity to make them cost effective.  They are notorious for going ahead and using books that they know are filled with errors just to use them up.  I must admit that I have no knowledge that Kaplan, which is a far larger organization, would adopt that policy but they might.

Additionally, STC is located in the Wall Street area and does about 90% of the training for the firms located downtown. Their office is two or three blocks from the testing center and lots of people go by STC to talk about what they just saw on the exam.

Dearborn is located in Chicago and doesn't do anywhere near as much Series 7 business.

Just my two cents worth, but in this case consider it to be worth $200.

One more thing.  The Dearborn Drill and Practice CD ROM is not as easy to work with as STC's.  With the STC disk you can stop anywhere on the disk and return to the same place the next time you start it up.  With Dearborn's you need to either leave your computer on and the program up all the time, or you'll just get the same questions again and again.

Plus you can install the STC disk on your C-Drive with Dearborn you must keep the CD with you because that's where the questions are stored.

[/quote]

I have to agree with Newbie on this one. STC is the best study material for the Series 7 but not the Series 66. I used STC and did just fine with the Series 7. Don't take it lightly and just do a couple ofthe exam thoughs. You need to make sure to do all of them regardless of how high or low you're scoring.