Series 7 question
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i have the stc cd with 1200 questions for the series 7 exam. Would i be able to pass by learning through the questions and answers? I am also taking a week course 9-4pm. Would i be ok that way?
[quote=laveranues]i have the stc cd with 1200 questions for the series
7 exam. Would i be able to pass by learning through the questions
and answers? I am also taking a week course 9-4pm. Would i be ok
that way?[/quote]
I think you’ll find that there are 1,625 questions on that CD.
Where will you take the class–in what city, their reputation is hot and cold.
the stc course as well in the city…my plan is to do the questions over and over and take the class…i read the 450 pg book but it was too tough to remember everything…will i be ok without reading the book again
My advice is to read the book again- firm up concepts you grasped and also revisit topics you may not have understood fully the first time through. then lock yourself in a room a few hours a day and take practice tests. Write down the concepts you have trouble with and identify your strong/weak areas. Obviously, as the test nears, focus more of your attention on the concepts you dont have a firm understanding of. Good luck
The biggest mistake made by people studying for Series 7 is to underestimate the scope of the test.
It’s not that the questions are all that difficult, it’s that there are
so damn many of them covering an incredible number of topics.
Somewhere along the way just about every candidate encounters somebody
who says, “You’re going to hate options…” and as a result options
become a stumbling block. They are important, but do not lose
sight of the dozens of other topics.
Do NOT take the test for at least a week after the cram course–you’re
going to want to study things armed with the information that you
picked up in the course.
There is no better Series 7 prep courses than STC’s and taking one at
their headquarters is bound to provide you an opportunity to be coached
by the best they have to offer.
Put said: "Do NOT take the test for at least a week after the cram course--you're going to want to study things armed with the information that you picked up in the course."
I don't totally agree with this. Especially if you are fresh out of school, like I was, then you are could be used to "cramming" for tests, and then going in and passing. For me, the attrition rate for all that type of info was kind of high, so I made sure to schedule my 7 the Monday after the week I took the class. I studied a little beforehand, really concentrated during the class, reviewed my notes that weekend, and went in on Monday while everything was fresh and I made an 87. Took the 66 on Wednesday and made an 82, I think. I know for me, if I had waited a week, I would have confused myself, forgotten things, and done more poorly.
Everyone is different, but the object is to pass the test, so do what works best.
PS I agree that STC is good material. As far as options are concerned, don't try to understand them now, you can really "learn" them later. For know, understand the basics, and use the cheat tables that you can memorize, write them down when you start the test, and then you can figure out most of the options questions without even thinking all that hard.
[quote=BankFC]
Put said: “Do NOT take the test for at least a
week after the cram course–you’re going to want to study things armed
with the information that you picked up in the course.”
I don't totally agree with this.
[/quote]You do not believe that studying armed with newly acquired knowledge is a good idea?
It's nonsense to conclude that knowledge will be lost in a week, two weeks or even a month. Years later you'll not remember--but not weeks later.
Among the things I am very familiar with is the process of preparing for licensing exams. I have sat in the back of the room observing dozens of cram classes and debriefed thousands of people via written surveys, phone calls, emails--basically anything to get information.
For a number of years we were fascinated by the idea of cram courses, could they improve our first time passing ratio? One of the things we kept was stats regarding actual exam scores achieved relative to the end of the course. It is clear--unambiguous--that those who took the exam two to four weeks following a cram course scored higher than those who took it immediately. In fact, even those who didn't get around to taking the test for several months scored higher than those who took the test in the week immediately following a cram.
The reason is because cram instructors do NOT know what you'll see on your test. They are good at explaining concepts, showing you how to solve problems and sharing silly sayings and other memory jogging things. But it's up to you to do the sample questions--and that takes time, lots and lots of time.
======
A moment on the options things that so many are encouraged to write down when they first go into the exam. In recent years quesitons are being written to neutralize those crutches.
For example, those who memorize the charts associate buying calls with bullish strategies.
So enter a question that says "Client sells short 1,000 shares of XYZ and simultaneously purchases 5 call options."
The strategy is clearly bearish, yet if you focus on the purchase of the calls you'll conclude that it's bullish because that's what the cheat sheet says.
I took one of those courses, but I thought the class helped me make sure I passed. I read the book and had a grasp of all material before the class. Then, the class polished the rough edges for me and gave me a "cheat sheet" to memorize.
I took the exam the Wednesday following my crash course. I thought that was perfect because stuff from the class was still fresh in my mind and I also had a few days to continue polishing up! I passed with a 91. I studied long and hard out of fear. My friend took the test 3 times and failed all 3............and I thought he was relatively smart and had the determination to get through the material........guess I was wrong!
[quote=Piper]
I took one of those courses, but I thought the class
helped me make sure I passed. I read the book and had a
grasp of all material before the class. Then, the class polished
the rough edges for me and gave me a “cheat sheet” to memorize.
I took the exam the Wednesday following my crash course. I thought that was perfect because stuff from the class was still fresh in my mind and I also had a few days to continue polishing up! I passed with a 91. I studied long and hard out of fear. My friend took the test 3 times and failed all 3............and I thought he was relatively smart and had the determination to get through the material........guess I was wrong!
[/quote]This reflects our experience. People who use cram courses to put the frosting on the cake normally end up getting fairly high scores.
On the other hand people who use cram courses to teach them how to bake a cake are going to find the list of ingredients to be so confusing that they'll gain little benefit.
Piper, how long did you take on each half of the exam?
Put, you really think you know it all don't you?
There is a difference between KNOWING something and REMEMBERING something. I KNOW how to do long division, I KNOW the national anthem, etc. I REMEMBERED the material and format of the questions more than well enough to pass the Series 7 (and 66, for that matter).
No way I could pass the Series 7 cold today. No need to be able to either. All that matters is that I am licensed and can focus on more applicable material for what I do. ADVISING. I have YET to have a client ask me about the Investment Advisors Act of 1940, the Glass-Steagall Act, or ask what is a Red Herring.
Oh, and by the way, in my Bisys study material, I remember at LEAST two of the Muni questions being identical to what i saw on the actual test. I'm sure there were more, but I was pretty focused...
I think you give way too much credit to those ol' Series 7 preparers. You might even be one, LOL!
Want to take a real test...try the LSAT. You can't memory trick your way out of that one like you can the Series 7. But I did pretty well on that one too!
[quote=BankFC]
Put, you really think you know it all don’t you?
There is a difference between KNOWING something and REMEMBERING something. I KNOW how to do long division, I KNOW the national anthem, etc. I REMEMBERED the material and format of the questions more than well enough to pass the Series 7 (and 66, for that matter).
No way I could pass the Series 7 cold today. No need to be able to either. All that matters is that I am licensed and can focus on more applicable material for what I do. ADVISING. I have YET to have a client ask me about the Investment Advisors Act of 1940, the Glass-Steagall Act, or ask what is a Red Herring.
Oh, and by the way, in my Bisys study material, I remember at LEAST two of the Muni questions being identical to what i saw on the actual test. I'm sure there were more, but I was pretty focused...
I think you give way too much credit to those ol' Series 7 preparers. You might even be one, LOL!
Want to take a real test...try the LSAT. You can't memory trick your way out of that one like you can the Series 7. But I did pretty well on that one too!
[/quote]Know everything? Why yes I do. Well not everything, but a hell of a lot more than you do.
In order to pass Series 7 you must KNOW the material. There is no difference between knowing something and rememembering it. You say you know how to do long division, I say you're remembering how to do it.
You say that you're remembering the term Glass-Steagal Act, I am saying that you know the term Glass-Steagal Act or you could not possibly remember it.
I understand that the difference is subtle and the line is fine--but the reality is that if you cannot memorize enough things to pass the exam.
A simple rote question is the one that uses the fact that dividends are voted on by the Board of Directors rather than shareholders--basic Series 7 stuff, a "no brainer."
OK, do you know that or not? I challenge you to explain to me how you can remember that without knowing it.
Granted you may not have known it before you read it--but you damn sure know it after you read it or you won't be able to recall it at that critical opening.
Now, how long will you remember it? Will you forget before you take the test if you don't take the test right away.
If you were transported back in time to a neighborhood where you once lived it might cause the "Let's see, I think the school where I went is right around this corner" type of emotion.
According to your theory you would forget how to get home if you go to work.
As for your Bisys book having two--count 'em two--questions that looked like something you saw on the exam. That would be about right which is why they went out of business.
I just passed the Series 7 and this is how I studied for it: I read thru all of the material once very thoroughly and then concentrated most of my time doing the STC exams over and over until I understood every question that I got wrong. I think this proved invaluable. The test was very similar to these exams although somewhat easier (questions weren't as wordy on the real test). The highest score I made on an STC exam the first time thru was an 88, yet I made a 93 on the real exam. I found there were many concepts in the STC exams that I learned that was not in my study material AT ALL! I never learned a cheat sheet for options because frankly I just found it easier to work the problems out on paper logically. It really makes sense after you do a few problems and it really is simple math. I would much rather do an options question than one of those roman numeral questions - where the answer could be I and II or I, II, III or I, II, III, IV. I seem to have the most trouble with those. Sometimes I can talk myself into some of the wrong answers. ;-)
I've heard from other people that when you take the series 7 that you can get either one of 2 tests: one mostly covering munis or one mostly covering options. I don't know how true this statement is, but I do think the exam I had covered way more options questions than munis. But after answering 260 questions (250 + 10 extra beta questions) it's kind of hard to remember how many questions I had on each subject.
Anyway, that is how I studied and it worked for me. Good luck to anyone studying! You can do it, just don't give up!!
[quote=Andromeda]
I've heard from other people that when you take the series 7 that you can get either one of 2 tests: one mostly covering munis or one mostly covering options.
[/quote]That is not true. There is a "reciepe" for any Series 7 exam that calls for 20% of the questions to be from the MSRB, 16% from the Options Clearing Corporation, 16% from the Investment Company Instutite and so forth.
So everybody gets the same type of questions, but what varies is the actual question you'll get compared to the person sitting next to you.
There are 17,000 +/- fully developed questions in database in Maryland. When you log on to a computer in your hometown 260 of them are downloaded onto that computer.
That is your test.
If there is a power failure the computer will recycle to where you were (years ago it didn't do that, so if there was a power failure it just lost your answers and you had to come back another time and start all over again.)
A very common rumor is that you must score 70% on various parts of the test in order to pass it. That's not true.
Another rumor is that if you're doing really well the computer begins to choose more difficult questions for you. While it is true that the questions have been assigned a degree of difficulty (like Olymic divers) so that, theoretically, everybody has an equally difficult test what is forgotten is that the 260 questions are written to the hard drive on the local machine before the candidate even begins to take the test.
It is not true that there are two right answers. There may be a really great wrong answer, but the questions are reviewed by people (like me) for what appears to be conflicting points of view.
It is true that each question is monitored by the computer regarding how often it is answered correctly and incorrectly. If one of them is answered wrong too often it is reviewed to try to determine why so many people are missing it--there could be something in the wording, etc.
On the other hand if it's answered correctly too much it may be deleted from the database because (apparently) it has leaked out to the schools and training departments.
There is a core of (I believe) 40 questions that appear on all exams. They use how you do on those forty compared to how others do on those forty in order to determine the reliability of your score. This does not mean that they'll decide that you should pass even though you didn't answer 175 correctly--but they will be interested in seeing the mix of questions you had if you scored very high on the core 40 but failed the entire exam.
There is coding in the questions that tell the computer to not use a certain question because it contains information that could be used to solve another question and the other question is already in your exam.
It is common to hear that somebody saw more than one question dealing with the same subject. That is not true. It can appear to be the same question to the casual observer, but there is something different about it. For example, "How much must a customer deposit if they buy 1,000 shares of XYZ at 36 and sell simulataneously 1,000 shares of ABC at 25?" is not the same question as "How much must a customer deposit if they buy 1,000 shares of XYZ at 36 and simultaneously sell short 1,000 shares of ABC at 25?"
The danger in listening to what others have to say about Series 7 is the fact that we are not all equally as smart. One person can bust their hump and barely pass while another can breeze through the stuff and barely pass.
You are on thin ice if you do anything other than study your butt off for several months. As I've said countless times, due to where I am in the heirarchy I see lots of information about the exams, I write questions and I have done some tutoring.
If I had to wager who'd score better, a 35 year old single mom with a 14 year old son or a 23 year old punk with an MBA I'll take the single mom everytime.
When it comes to Series 7 an MBA doesn't mean schidt. What matters is being willing to do what it takes to get the job done.
This whole thread is here because a slacker is whining, "Can't I pass without reading the books?"
The answer is "Sure if you're so busy putting public finance deals together that you don't have time to read the books--but nope, not if the reason you don't want to read the books is because the words are too big, or that there are too many pages, or that you're too busy drinking and getting laid to waste time on them.
[quote=Put Trader] [quote=Andromeda]
I've heard from other people that when you take the series 7 that you can get either one of 2 tests: one mostly covering munis or one mostly covering options.
[/quote]
That is not true. There is a "reciepe" for any Series 7 exam that calls for 20% of the questions to be from the MSRB, 16% from the Options Clearing Corporation, 16% from the Investment Company Instutite and so forth.
So everybody gets the same type of questions, but what varies is the actual question you'll get compared to the person sitting next to you.
There are 17,000 +/- fully developed questions in database in Maryland. When you log on to a computer in your hometown 260 of them are downloaded onto that computer.
That is your test.
If there is a power failure the computer will recycle to where you were (years ago it didn't do that, so if there was a power failure it just lost your answers and you had to come back another time and start all over again.)
A very common rumor is that you must score 70% on various parts of the test in order to pass it. That's not true.
Another rumor is that if you're doing really well the computer begins to choose more difficult questions for you. While it is true that the questions have been assigned a degree of difficulty (like Olymic divers) so that, theoretically, everybody has an equally difficult test what is forgotten is that the 260 questions are written to the hard drive on the local machine before the candidate even begins to take the test.
It is not true that there are two right answers. There may be a really great wrong answer, but the questions are reviewed by people (like me) for what appears to be conflicting points of view.
It is true that each question is monitored by the computer regarding how often it is answered correctly and incorrectly. If one of them is answered wrong too often it is reviewed to try to determine why so many people are missing it--there could be something in the wording, etc.
On the other hand if it's answered correctly too much it may be deleted from the database because (apparently) it has leaked out to the schools and training departments.
There is a core of (I believe) 40 questions that appear on all exams. They use how you do on those forty compared to how others do on those forty in order to determine the reliability of your score. This does not mean that they'll decide that you should pass even though you didn't answer 175 correctly--but they will be interested in seeing the mix of questions you had if you scored very high on the core 40 but failed the entire exam.
There is coding in the questions that tell the computer to not use a certain question because it contains information that could be used to solve another question and the other question is already in your exam.
It is common to hear that somebody saw more than one question dealing with the same subject. That is not true. It can appear to be the same question to the casual observer, but there is something different about it. For example, "How much must a customer deposit if they buy 1,000 shares of XYZ at 36 and sell simulataneously 1,000 shares of ABC at 25?" is not the same question as "How much must a customer deposit if they buy 1,000 shares of XYZ at 36 and simultaneously sell short 1,000 shares of ABC at 25?"
The danger in listening to what others have to say about Series 7 is the fact that we are not all equally as smart. One person can bust their hump and barely pass while another can breeze through the stuff and barely pass.
You are on thin ice if you do anything other than study your butt off for several months. As I've said countless times, due to where I am in the heirarchy I see lots of information about the exams, I write questions and I have done some tutoring.
If I had to wager who'd score better, a 35 year old single mom with a 14 year old son or a 23 year old punk with an MBA I'll take the single mom everytime.
When it comes to Series 7 an MBA doesn't mean schidt. What matters is being willing to do what it takes to get the job done.
This whole thread is here because a slacker is whining, "Can't I pass without reading the books?"
The answer is "Sure if you're so busy putting public finance deals together that you don't have time to read the books--but nope, not if the reason you don't want to read the books is because the words are too big, or that there are too many pages, or that you're too busy drinking and getting laid to waste time on them.
[/quote]
This PUT is actually a useful and informative post! When you stick to your 'forte' you can contribute some good stuff. I think even stanbrown would agree with me on that, despite the fact that you two seem to be sworn enemies.
So-for my own selfish interest-care to contribute some similar insights into the nature of the series 66 for me?
At work they have me studying for the 7 using FireFox - at least I
think that’s what its called. But everyone keeps telling me (even
other brokers at work) that STC is SO much better. Has anyone
used both? Is it worth it for me to purchase STC when I get to
use FireFox for free? I feel like the practice tests on FireFox
are way too easy - I’ll learn some pretty tricky stuff and then the
practice questions seem to be from the easiest parts of the
lesson.
I heard STC is good but I used Dearborn and PassPerfect. PassPerfect tests were far superior and prepared me better than Dearborn. My .02
[quote=Scorpio]At work they have me studying for the 7 using FireFox - at least I think that's what its called. But everyone keeps telling me (even other brokers at work) that STC is SO much better. Has anyone used both? Is it worth it for me to purchase STC when I get to use FireFox for free? I feel like the practice tests on FireFox are way too easy - I'll learn some pretty tricky stuff and then the practice questions seem to be from the easiest parts of the lesson. [/quote]
I studied with Fire Solutions which was an online course - I'm not sure if this is the same as FireFox (probably is). But I had the same trouble that I felt like the practice tests were too easy. I was able to get the STC exams and study those. These were much harder and I think they did a great job of filling in the gaps of knowledge I didn't learn with the Fire Solutions material. After taking the test, I would say the actual test is somewhere between the 2 in terms of the difficulty of the questions. So by all means if you want to ensure that you pass, get the STC exams too!
[quote=Put Trader]
Piper, how long did you take on each half of the exam?
[/quote]
I took the test about 2 years ago. I was done with 20 minutes to spare on each section. I could have been done sooner or I could have been done later, but I was certain I had "passed" each section so I finished up.
BTW, I was provided with Dearborn material to study. I got my hands on some STC videos and tests. I think it is worth your time/effort to utilize more than one compant to study from!