very nice work!  I have to disagree on the 7 being harder.  Who did you use to study?  I work in a large office and have never heard anyone say that the 7 was harder than the 66.  Now what…CFP?

Next is the 3, then Gmat, and eventually the CFA.  CFP would be the normal course but I am going to the CFA rout. 

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I had ROUGH time passing the 7.  I think the 7 is harder because there is so much more material.  The key to the 7 is adequate preparation.     

[quote=Shmer33]

I used STC.  STC blows Dearborn out of the water.  I strongly recommend STC or even Pass Perfect.  [/quote]

What frame of reference do you have to draw comparisons such as that?

[quote=moss84]very nice work!  I have to disagree on the 7 being harder.  Who did you use to study?  I work in a large office and have never heard anyone say that the 7 was harder than the 66.  Now what.......CFP?[/quote]

I agree with the comment that it is almost never that somebody will say that the 66 was easier than the Series 7--but there are some pretty good reasons for  that.

1.  People study very hard for the Series 7, but not very hard for the 66.

2.  66 is nothing but laws, rules, exceptions to rules and that sort of stuff--not easy to grasp out of context.

3.  The vendors of the study materials have a more difficult time getting a "feel" for what Series 66 is all about.  The schools tend to depend on people who took their classes to give them insights into what is on the exams--not that many people take Series 66 classes so there are fewer people predisposed to call a guy or gal who taught their class and talk about what they saw.

4.  The questions on a Series 66 are "different" because they are not written, and refined, by the same groups and organizations that do the NASD exams.  NASSAA seems more intent on writing odd ball questions.

When Series 66 first hit the major firms had dozens of people take the exam before anybody passed.

One of the publishers was promoting their book with the sentence, "Your employees will get a higher failing grade using our material than any of the others."

Congrats!

The CFA exam is in a completely different league then the Series exams.

I took level one in December, failed, and vowed to never take it again. Hands down the toughest exam I have ever taken.  Best of luck to you.

Chris

I agree with the comment that it is almost never that somebody will say that the 66 was easier than the Series 7--but there are some pretty good reasons for  that.

1.  People study very hard for the Series 7, but not very hard for the 66.

2.  66 is nothing but laws, rules, exceptions to rules and that sort of stuff--not easy to grasp out of context.

3.  The vendors of the study materials have a more difficult time getting a "feel" for what Series 66 is all about.  The schools tend to depend on people who took their classes to give them insights into what is on the exams--not that many people take Series 66 classes so there are fewer people predisposed to call a guy or gal who taught their class and talk about what they saw.

4.  The questions on a Series 66 are "different" because they are not written, and refined, by the same groups and organizations that do the NASD exams.  NASSAA seems more intent on writing odd ball questions.

When Series 66 first hit the major firms had dozens of people take the exam before anybody passed.

One of the publishers was promoting their book with the sentence, "Your employees will get a higher failing grade using our material than any of the others."

The first few times I took the 7 I used the Dearborn program: class, books, and practice exams.  I found the material was excessive and hard to follow.  It almost seemed like they provided too much information. 

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Then every time I would call their “answer phone” I would get a less than adequate answer.  I think the majority of those answer phone reps had no idea what they were talking about and I would even venture to say half of their instructors could not pass the exam. 

Except for this one guy from Chicago.  He is a CFA and he has his B.S. from Harvard.  Marcus is the only one worth a damn- at least the ones that I have met.      

The Dearborn drill and practice questions were worded very awkwardly and the explanations made absolutely no sense.

Finally, I got frustrated and bought the STC videotapes off of Ebay and the pass perfect drill and practice cd.  I was amazed. 

The pass perfect cd was made up of excellent questions and most importantly the explanations and rational were easy to understand and made sense. 

Pass perfect does an excellent job of tying everything together and STC provided a thorough explanation.        

[quote=Shmer33]

The first few times I took the 7 I used the Dearborn program: class, books, and practice exams.  I found the material was excessive and hard to follow.  It almost seemed like they provided too much information. 

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Then every time I would call their “answer phone” I would get a less than adequate answer.  I think the majority of those answer phone reps had no idea what they were talking about and I would even venture to say half of their instructors could not pass the exam. 

Except for this one guy from Chicago.  He is a CFA and he has his B.S. from Harvard.  Marcus is the only one worth a damn- at least the ones that I have met.      

The Dearborn drill and practice questions were worded very awkwardly and the explanations made absolutely no sense.

Finally, I got frustrated and bought the STC videotapes off of Ebay and the pass perfect drill and practice cd.  I was amazed. 

The pass perfect cd was made up of excellent questions and most importantly the explanations and rational were easy to understand and made sense. 

Pass perfect does an excellent job of tying everything together and STC provided a thorough explanation.[/quote]

This is not my experience at all.  I used Dearborn and passed the 7 with a 96% (241/250).  I also used Dearborn for the 63, 65 & 24 and never scored less than 80% (on the 24...with less than 100% effort).  If PassPerfect and STC worked for you, that's great, but I want to make sure that potential test takers understand that not everyone agrees one what materials are best.  After my results, I have no problem endorsing the Dearborn materials...I even had test bank questions that were duplicated verbatim, on the actual exams.

I also had  a good experience with Dearborn, passing both the 24 and the 66  within a 90 day period.

Ultimately no matter which prep program you use what matters, IMHO, is whether or not you’re willing to put in the effort.  Some folks seem to approach this from the standpoint that they want to put in only the bare minimum effort to pass.  Of course, by doing so they take a chance that they might not pass!

Me, I wanted to make sure I only had to go through the experience once.  So I worked my arse off studying every spare moment.  I know the gal at the restaurant down the street from the office was starting to wonder why I always ate lunch alone at the bar with my nose in a book.  It meant sacrificing some quality time with the family and some late nights as well, but ultimately I acheived the desired result.
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Joe,

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 I agree with you 150%. 

I had a hard time passing because I did not initially take the exam as serious as you did.    

I was not the most diligent student in collage.  I never opened a book until the night before an exam. 

Then when I was faced with the job of learning and retaining the all of the information for the 7, I fell face flat on the concrete and split my head open.  

Needless to say I am going to take grad school a little more seriously.

You don’t really realize how imperative it is to develop good study skills early.   

But I still say STC is the best prep material…

I studied my butt off for both the Series 7 and 66 with STC study materials but only passed the S. 7 on the first try. I just failed the S. 66 on my second try and I feel so discouraged. I felt that the STC gave you plenty of practice exams for the S.7 and not enough for the S. 66. I had about 10 questions that were exactly the same from my first attempt at the S.66 and of course they were the ones I had no clue about. I thought the S. 66 was much more tricky and elusive. Some questions I had to read 2-3 times and still had a hard time figuring out what they were asking or what the right answer was supposed to be. STC’s practice questions for the S. 66 is a joke, most of it is common sense and there isn’t 2-3 answers that are correct like the actual exam.

schmer, when you say you're going the gmat route, do you mean you're going for your mba and then cfa?

If so, the cfa level I should be relatively easy, but I can tell you from experience that if you had trouble with the 7 then the cfa level I will be absolutely mind blowing.  I'm a lowly LII candidate and its supposed to make LI look easy.

slkgirl you got me a little worried I am only using STC and take the 66 on Tuesday. Im thinking its around the time you are taking it again(third time ) How did you do ? Or are you gonna wait a few more days?

I passed with an 80 on Tuesday. I didn't have a problem with the test this time mainly because the questions were easy to comprehend. The first two times I took the exams I had problems figuring out what they were asking and what was the "BEST" answer. There were times on the exam where I could argue a different answer but there is only one best answer given the situatin presented. Keep in mind that the test questions are mostly scenario and they'll add additional detail and its your job to figure out what the main idea is. The questions are random so no one gets the same questions. Make sure you do all the practice tests and understand the concepts to each answer.

Congrats slkgirl! 

[quote=hubbabubba]Congrats slkgirl!  [/quote]

You're so sweet! THank you!

yeah congrats slkgirl, i remember how stressed u came across back then.

i just passed mine 30 mins ago with an 82. Let the drinking commence!

Congrats to everyone who passed!! These exams are not easy..

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Funny thread…

I failed it once, taking it in 2 weeks again and CAN NOT fail again…

Im using STC and Pass Perfect quizzes.


The hardest part is actually taking these tests over and over because it is 10x more bland than the series 7 (as if that were exciting)

Do the rest of you feel STC takes the questions lightly? I dont.

I think they are on par if not harder than the exam=   I find them similar because I remember what was on the exam and STC is very close

I cant say that I agree w/ SLK girl simply because she "didnt know what the question was asking"

Nevertheless, Congrats, shes a step ahead of me 


Can anyone agree?