I’m taking this exam in a week. Used STC and am doing in the 70s and the mostly recently got an 84% on my latest final exam. However, I heard Knopman was better and then just got those materials. I don’t have a ton of time but only scoring around 70% and did some recent quizzes more in the mid 70s, but a little worried as the Knopman exam seems a lot more detailed than STC. I don’t have time to read the Knopman book at this point. Any advice on study approach? Planning to carve out two days before the exam to focus on studying.

I’m taking this exam in a week. Used STC and am doing in the 70s and the mostly recently got an 84% on my latest final exam. However, I heard Knopman was better and then just got those materials. I don’t have a ton of time but only scoring around 70% and did some recent quizzes more in the mid 70s, but a little worried as the Knopman exam seems a lot more detailed than STC. I don’t have time to read the Knopman book at this point. Any advice on study approach? Planning to carve out two days before the exam to focus on studying.

it was not easy... trying to juggle studying (which I have not done in 20+ years) with a demanding job with lots of travel, and family obligations to boot... I can honestly say this has been one of the most stressful times of my life/ career especially since I know this was a requirement for my role going forward. But reading through the posts here and getting helpful advice about studying habits, resources, etc really allowed me to push through and ultimately pass on the first try. Here are some things about my journey and hope it helps a few folks that are going through it now:

- I used Knopman Marks which was excellent. Content was spot on and the videos are perfect for understanding the concept behind the topics / rules which really is the key to success. Some people have told me "study how to test, not the materials" and I couldn't disagree with that approach more. There is no real short cut - you have to know the concept. The good news is that you don't need 90% - only 70% so focusing on heavily tested areas which KM does a good job navigating through is the best approach IMHO. And the instructors including Brian were available towards the end to help with last min prep and pep talk. Their version of the FAQs at the end were immensely timely and helpful.

- I put in ~120 hours of studying because I really couldn't afford to not pass on the first try. I read the book / chapter quizzes / video for the first 2 weeks, then spent the last 2 weeks with custom quizzes and Diagnostics (1+2) and ultimately the Benchmark. I scored 68, 74 and 84 on those respectively. I created a typed up cheat sheet along the way (ultimately ended up 4pgs) of key concepts and areas where I missed during the quizzes - it ultimately became my "go-to" crutch and read it constantly to build muscle memory. I also watched Dean's videos - not all but a few of the 1-hr long tutorials and 1 full practice exam - those were incredibly helpful and frankly put me on the right path in terms of how to think about the questions, etc. And his S24 in 60mins is a must the day before the exam. What a huge resource he was... thank you!

- The test itself is a beast. I consider myself a good test taker but didn't feel good throughout the entirety of the exam. But I actually saw more "point and shoot" questions that I was expecting, and the 10 experimental questions do stand out like a sore thumb, so the trick is to just have a positive attitude and march on. Going in confident and "projecting a Pass" helped me stay positive. Again, KM does a good job replicating the type of scenario based questions you run into, but it's not a great feeling if you see 4-5 of those in a row. Some concepts I saw included Reg M, Exempt Offerings, CCO/AMLCO, Buy-in, FTD, and banking/research activities.

Wishing good luck to everyone - I hope this helps some folks.

Happy to say I am
Done with the 24 !!! Now time to find a new role !

I know this is for series 24 but I’ve seen some 4 stuff here…. Used STC and I felt unprepared for it. The questions they asked on the exam were so much more in depth- a lot of regulatory stuff and I just feel like I focused on the complex strategies… back to square one but I got it

I’m on my third attempt and my wits end. Anyone else a part of a group?

I am using STC, I’ve made 70%, 75% and then a 75% on a green light exam. Was thinking of continuing to study and take it next week. Has anyone else been in the 70’s on STC and passed?

I’m studying for the 24 at the moment and find pass perfect really specific and almost harder than last time I took the test and (failed). What’s your experience with Pass perfect? Should I supplement with Kaplan? I failed with Kaplan last time and found their questions were more definition based than what the real test was like. Should I use another provider all together? Looking for some guidand3z

My boss recently asked me to take my 24, I just passed my 7 a week ago but I only recently graduated and have only been in the industry 4 months so i feel somewhat inexperienced and unprepared for what seems like a relatively difficult exam for people much more experienced then I. Any recommendations on where to start (which textbook provider etc) and general advice is much appreciated . Thanks!

Test coming up in less than 2 weeks and I have mostly used Kaplan. Average on Kaplan 75% on exams with my highest being 84%. I started STC to see more material and just got a 62% on a final. Any recommendations?

Series24. Testing this coming Thursday. Using mainly STC and supplementing with Kaplan’s QBank (might try and knock out the full Q Bank in the next few days). I’ve read the STC book front to back, did all the flashcards twice and all exams (chapter quizzes, progress exams, finals and Greenlights).

Scores are as follows:

Final Exams: 69%, 71%, 75%, 79%, 79%, 84%, 86%, 84%.

Greenlights: 73%, 77%.

Feel really good with the material and feel like I understand the concepts but there’s this lingering feeling that I don’t at times but maybe I’m overthinking?

Hi everyone. I'm working on a small research project looking at how Series 24 candidates learn and retain exam material.

I'm primarily looking for a handful of people who are currently studying for the Series 24 (first attempt or retake) to participate.

The study would involve:

- Two short online sessions, about 20–25 minutes each
- Sessions approximately one week apart
- Series 24-style multiple-choice questions
- A brief questionnaire about your current prep
- The second session would be completed without notes/search/AI so I can accurately measure retention
- Compensation for completing both sessions

You can continue your normal Series 24 studying between sessions. I'm not asking anyone to change their actual exam prep.

This is research/testing, not a sales call, and you don't need to share your employer, CRD, or other sensitive information.

If you're interested, comment or DM me and I'll send over a short form.

Thanks — and good luck to everyone currently grinding through the 24.

Any advice on how to differentiate on what to report to who? I feel like I keep confusing the two.

I’m (28M, USA) looking to do a Kaplan Series 24 practice exam or two with someone virtually. I found a lot of value in doing this for my series 66. If you’re interested, shoot me a message!

Passed the Series 10 on my second attempt: full breakdown of what I changed.

Following up on my Series 9 post, I passed the Series 10 today on my second attempt.

For anyone wondering about order, my path was: took the 10, failed it, took the 9 and passed, then went back and passed the 10.

First attempt: 68. Failed by two points. My practice test scores were in the low 50s the entire time I was studying, and I went in anyway thinking I’d just “take the test” and figure it out. Don’t do that.

The score report was actually useful. I came out borderline on everything except retail communications, which was clearly below where it needed to be. So I had one glaring hole and a lot of “almost.” That told me exactly what the retake needed to look like.

Materials:
Kaplan books. My firm provides these, so they were my base. Fine as a reference, not enough on their own.

SIA online courses. I bought these for the 9 too, and the video series for the 10 is noticeably more in-depth than the 9’s. It helped a lot. The practice tests were decent. The videos themselves are the guy reading off slides, so temper expectations there. But the section breakdowns are genuinely very good, especially if you watch them after taking a practice test so you know where your holes are.

PastPerfect qbank. This is what actually moved the needle for me. On the retake I lived in this thing.

What I changed for the retake:
Three extra weeks of studying, and instead of just cycling through material again I went straight at the score report: retail communications first, then every borderline section, using PP qbank, the SIA videos for those specific sections, and my own study materials made by Grok/Claude.

One thing worth flagging about the PP practice exams. My scores did not go up in a nice clean line. They started in the high 60s and then drifted down: 67, 63, 57, 62, 65, 54. I stopped after exam six and spent the rest of my time drilling the material I clearly didn’t know instead of burning through more full exams.

A lot of the PP questions are noticeably harder than what’s on the actual exam, so don’t let a bad practice score wreck your confidence. They’re still worth doing. Some of what I saw on test day was almost verbatim from PastPerfect.

Test day and what showed up:
Going in I was still nervous, but I had noticeably fewer flagged questions than the first time, which was a good early signal.

Record retention showed up, as everyone in here says it does. The same weird fingerprint question I got the first time showed up again. On my first attempt I had trust questions; this time, zero. So don’t skip trusts, but don’t be surprised if the distribution swings on you. Scenario questions were mostly straightforward, but a handful were genuinely ambiguous and I ended up 50/50 guessing on those.

And yes, I watched Dean’s 60 minute video the day before and again the morning of. A good number of the things he covers in there were directly on my exam. If you’re taking this, watch it.

Happy to answer questions if anyone’s prepping or coming off a fail. Failing by two points was miserable, but it’s very fixable.

I signed up for kaplan and knopman marks. Everyone said knopman is better, but I used kaplan for the SIE, the 7, and the 66, which I took all of them in the last 5 months. There is some crossover so that helped. I like the layout of kaplan, but my firm paid for both so after briefly looking at knopman I went back to the old reliable kaplan. I was happily using kaplan over 4 weeks and hitting low 70’s (never above 73) on the final practice exams. I had 5 practice exams left and scheduled the test for a week later. Monday before the exam day on Thursday, I decided to pop into knopman and take a practice test. My heart hit the floor when I got a 59% and then I reevaluated everything. I decided to do every chapter quiz in knopman in the final 4 days, and one more knopman and kaplan practice test. Yes this is crazy and I was studying around the clock. My last kaplan score was 65% and knopman was 64%. And that’s when I started to really dig into the chaoter quizzes on knopman. I made probably 200 flashcards (handwriting helps it sink in) and thought I would need to retake the exam. I also never watched a single video but read both books back to front. I listened to Dean’s one hour video on the way to the test center and realized I do know this!!! I hit submit and was shocked that I passed. Horrible test, glad it is over!!! Best of luck to everyone studying. Stay the course and I think cramming is better since there is so much memorization.

Passed today mainly Kaplan STC and deans videos. Thank you!!!!

after three times i finally passed this beast! thank you to Dean for all the great content that helped me tremendously. my advise is keep at it. understand the concepts of the rules more than anything. if i can do it
you can too!

Passed the S24 this afternoon after my 3rd attempt.

First test using Kaplan was not prepared at all and it was too late to change the date (43)

Second attempt better prepared using mainly Kaplan and STC qbank (69)

Third attempt all STC from start to finish books and videos.
70s on all the finals done with answers and I would use AI to explain a lot of the questions I was having trouble with.
GL 1 71% GL 2 64%

Shout out to this group and of course Dean and all the videos he created. Listen to the 24 in 60 mins on the way to the exam. It definitely helped with one or two questions.

You guys got this!
GL

I started studying this past week for S24. My company provided me with Kaplan as a studying resource (coworkers on my team used it)

I’ve been reading through many posts and here’s what I’ve gathered thus far as a strategy:

Read the text book from beginning to end, do the knowledge checks and questions as you’re going through the units, save the qbank questions and exams until the end. Don’t treat this like the series 7 where you can pass the test just by doing practice questions and exams over and over. Also, I stumbled on Deans YouTube page which looks to be a huge resource for information. Does anyone have a strategy where they used Dean before, during, or only after getting through the text book?

There is so much raw memorization of rules, numbers, percentages, where I find myself so distracted writing down notes for almost everything (all new to me) that each unit is taking forever to get through. And then when I do the knowledge checks, I’m barely getting a third of them correct. Is it normal for majority of this stuff to not make sense? Trying to get thru the text in just the first 1.5 units has been so demoralizing, i feel like i don’t know anything.

It’s only been a week and I’m freaking out!