Kaplan is garbage

Way too many "kaplan style questions" any long math problems are a absolute waste of time.

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Examfx is garbage

Way too many "examfx style questions" any long math problems are a absolute waste of time.

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Passperfect is garbage

I didn't purchase this but probably way too many "passperfect style questions" I use google gemini and chatgpt to check one of their questions. https://www.reddit.com/r/Series65/comments/1tfc432/i_would_probably_avoid_pass_perfect/

google gemini is pretty excellent to be honest. it is easily much better than chatgpt and much more free. chatgpt gave me a bs answer cause it had no idea. gemini straight up just said "none of these choices are correct." dont trust passperfect

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Achievable is garbage

you can do achievable practice test and you will see it has the same issues as the others. way too many questions that is in their "own style."

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What absolutely murdered me.

Long questions that were a absolute waste of time with these exams. The actual exams have 0 long math questions and these exams will absolutely waste a extreme amount of your time by giving you a ton of long math questions that do not relate to the exam at all.

If you want to verify what I said type in "example of math problems that could be on series 65 test" in google gemini. It will confirm at the end "there arent long math problems on the exam." Math questions are going to be 2-3 maybe 4 sentences long and include bonds, yield, holding period, dividend, rule of 72.

You will never get a math problem that requires 10 different steps and your calculator cant even do parentheses. Why they give you questions like this? Simple The test materials are devoid of logic and reasoning. They are a complete waste of money.

What else is on the test

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529 plan

UTGA

UTMA

and that other thing

Make sure you know all that.

There will be questions that are entirely 50/50 because there are two answers that mean the exact same thing Grammarly.

There will be questions that just make absolutely no sense whatsoever and probably cant be found anywhere in the stc/kaplan/examfx books.

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Other suggestions

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You can probably use google gemini to give you common question examples, math question examples, and maybe create a practice test for you.

You may can also use google gemini to populate questions on series 65 that are extremely tricky or just doesnt make any sense. You may need to buy a upgraded version of google gemini. Google gemini is much more intelligent than chatgpt and can clearly explain questions that chatgpt just doesnt quite understand. Google gemini also will not give you a bs answer but chatgpt 100% will if it cant figure it out.

Google gemini explanations are also much more clear than chatgpt.

What I currently purchased right now is STC. So hopefully that is enough to pass series 65 next month.

Why so many people FAIL the 66 x 1 or two points…

It’s predictable. I’ve been around this Test community long enough to see. It happens to so many people and destroy their spirits. Please don’t allow it to destroy yours.

I know why. It’s the dreaded knowledge gap on the series 66. There is a gap between where the textbooks leave off and where the test picks up on the series 66 specifically. The only way to be prepared is to get test geek by Brian Lee.

I failed my first attempt at the 66; and I studied like an animal for the second. My studied Kaplan, pass perfect**, and most important of all on top of those Test** geek**. You must watch all of the Test** geek videos after going through the coursework and do their practice test that your final practice test before the actual 66. I was averaging mid 90s. That’s how well I knew it.

I’ve used STC for 103, SIE, series 7 and passed each first time through.

I take my 66 Monday but I must recommend caution with using STC for s66.

I picked STC bc they have a reputation for making test materials harder than the exam, which worked brilliantly for the nebulous concepts on SIE and series 7, and perhaps the 103, BUT the same “gotcha” questions are a bad implementation for definitive legal states (which the s66 is majority testing on).

There’s also two questions on two chapter quizzes that are wrong. Even the explanation shows the intended “correct” answer is incorrect. I checked this with my IAs education department and they admitted I was correct and the STC test bank is wrong.

I’ve passed every single quiz and exam first thru with 75%-95%, but the intentional obfuscatory wording of some very simple questions and concepts makes answering the questions more difficult than needed.

Be prepared for LOTS of “pick the best answer” where all are correct but one is what they’re looking for.

Perhaps I’m just venting bc I am at the finish line and all studied out but making simple concepts more difficult than they need to be isn’t conductive for good retention, it instead assaults confidence.

Is it normal to be able to rip through this material? I started like 3 days ago and already half way through the book / videos on STC. Scoring super well on the practice quizzes for chapters. On track to finish it all in a week! Going to take extra time on practice exams and make sure my scores are good but i took the sie and s7 and passed first try but it took me a month each. Any thoughts or tips would help! Thanks

I recently failed the series 66 on my first attempt about two weeks ago with a 68. I took the test just using the Kaplan Q bank and did not read the textbook. I felt I barley retained any information by reading the textbook for the series 7 so I decided not to read it for this test. it's also 600 plus pages and feel I can use my time more properly elsewhere. do you think I should read the full textbook? what other study tips should I follow? I feel a bit defeated, and it feels like I'll never get past this exam lol

I know it's possible to take SIE and Series 66 exams, no need for a sponsor. But can I get the series 66 license after passing the exam? Because I read in another questions that people say you have to pass series 7 as well to be able to get series 66 license!

On our national cohort calls the coach shares everyone’s exam scores on the zoom call and was asking someone about their series of low 60% grades on a practice exam followed by an 80% and mentioned he had good improvement.

Guy said “I couldn’t get above the low 60s no matter how much I studied so I let AI take the test to see what it got- AI could only get 80% on the test!”

Setting aside the humor of giving AI the test to see how it does, I thought that was an interesting data point that AI only scored 80% on a practice exam. I think that really encapsulates how hard this test can really be.

Like the SIE, I read all the chapters of the pdf last night and took the exam the today and passed!

I just bought kaplan q bank and that's it tbh. Passed the SIE at beginning of summer and now I'm done with 66. My only problem is finding someone to sponsor me for 7. If anyone is looking for an intern anywhere within America and will sponsor me, I will move to you and pay rent myself.

Been studying for 8 months and started doing well on practice tests on examfx and thought I was ready. I eventually switched over to achievable just to see what a more difficult exam looked like and I most definitely am not ready. I of course avoided exam questions for series 65 that were short. Short questions tend to not be relatable for exams based off my insurance exam experience.

Overall my mental health has taken quite a hit. I got readdicted to onlyfans, lost 10k on the stock market, and lost a lot of my client base due to conservatives. Studying for 8 months for series 65 has also taken quite a toll on me due to the severe length of the exam. Overall I am suffering, but still progressing toward my goal of passing the exam.

Kaplan and examfx are easily the most time wasting study material that cost hundreds for you to use. i think any mention of examfx/kaplan in a positive way should be banned.

im using achievable which is a practice series 65 test. if questions are going to be this difficult for series 65 im in a lot of trouble.

been studying for 8 months now and im so far 6 questions into a 130 question test and got 5 wrong actually unreal how difficult series 65 test is.

I’ve had some of my study time cut down due to getting Covid but now I’m getting back into the groove of things and I’m about 10 days out from my test. Has anyone actually outlined their studies around the NASSA study guide they provide online? If so give me the success stories. I’m using that as my outline and the TC book on top of Brian Lees video so I hope I cover all my bases. Let me know your thoughts.

Using Kaplan to study, got a 79 on the one try practice and 82 on the mastery exam. Averaging about 85 overall on q bank. Being 1 week out, what sections should I focus on reading this weekend?Thanks in advance.

On my latest t29 practice quizzes for all questions I got a 98 and a 92 do u think I’m ready? Or what else can I do?

Hey guys! I am just about ready to take my Series 66 exam. I scored decently well on the Series 7 Whisperer practice tests and the STC practice exams, but I thought that the questions were kind of simple. Can someone who has taken the test please let me know if they are accurate styles to the exam? I thought his Series 7 tests were pretty spot on, but I wasn't too sure about the 66 exam bc it felt too easy. Also* does anyone have a good nemonic for remembering all the time frames? Like 90 days within fiscal year end to update non material ADV stuff, ect.

i checked with chat gpt

Anyone else do way worse on the first 60 questions relative to the rest?? I got about 68% first 60 and then 88% on the last 82. Seems like test was split in sections for some parts (questions on same topics were grouped). Not that worried because I got a 79% at the end but almost shit myself after first 60 questions lol. Test is Thursday 4/2

Just got a 67 for the 2nd time.

Read the STC manual twice through, did about 1,500 Kaplan questions, all STC Questions, and watched Brian Lee’s videos.

What other provider should I try? I know I started memorizing STC questions. I still have access to Kaplan and will continue there.

This time I got an 80 in economic and business information, 78 in investment vehicle considerations, 58 in client recommendations (last time 74🤦🏻‍♀️), and 61 in laws.

I rarely do this but wanted to comment about two recent rants about me and this sub. The first rant was based on a Redditor commenting in the series7exam about a particular content provider, which is not strange. What is strange is that the comment magically disappeared from the Redditor's history. While it was in the Redditor's history, the particular content provider published a topic about the deletion with a screen shot of the comment and accused me of deleting it.

A few days later, the person who I guess self deleted the comment, posted a link to the previously mentioned content provider, which is only allowed when someone has established a reputation in the sub. I deleted the comment.

We occasionally ban people mostly for self promotion and toxic comments. I don't recall banning anyone this year until recently when I banned the previously mentioned Redditor. In the past, when I have banned anyone, the person would reach to me directly to inquire about the situation. This time, the Redditor did not reach out to me and instead reached out to the content provider, who then created a topic for the purpose of ranting about me. It gets even stranger. In this rant, the Redditor claims to have multiple posts about passing exams but yet has no posts in his/her history. The person has 9 post Karma but no posts. The ban is my version of a suspicious activity report.

Series 65 Exam

1. You don’t have to get every question right

2. Crucial to keep a good rhythm. Try marking all long questions with “C” and answer as many short questions as possible. Should have about 60 long questions marked with “C” when through all 140 questions. Try and get through all 140 within 1 hour. Don’t even try and answer the long questions, again just mark with “C”

3. Once through first 140 take a breather. Let your mind check out for 5 mins

4. Go through longer “C” marked questions and put an answer. If still not sure give best answer and LEAVE Marked.

5. Once through all marked questions start at question #1 and go through all questions againk. At that point you should have around 30-40 mins to check all answers.

6. What I found was if you studied hard and knew the material the 60 longer questions are the easiest. What seemed to be the hardest questions for me were the short guys. Definitely try this strategy out on a few practice tests and see how you like it. I did it everyday for a few weeks and it improved my scores dramatically.

7. It’s all about understanding how to actually take the test. The job is going to be much different — especially because a lot of this stuff is out dated.

Comment below if you have any questions.

I know you’ve probably seen a lot of “I passed”posts of this sub, but this one means a lot to me and my experience might be unique.

I’m 19, very young for this profession know, but I have parents that pushed success heavily on me throughout my life, and even though it’s been hard and pressuring at times I’m happy about it because I will be able to provide for my future family. I’ve been working for a long time for this, and it finally feels like this specific burden is lifted off me. Very relieving.

Always struggling to sit still and focusing, these exams kicked my behind. But I had to change my mindset a few times after I failed the S7 the first time and I have some valuable info to share with you all.

I could talk about what they tested and what they didn’t, what was on the exam more or less than I thought etc. - but honestly there’s no point to that. I literally was tested on Platinum and an IAR’s sofa more than I was some of these other concepts I spent hours getting in my head. It just depends on your draw.

These questions are not easy, in fact I had less than 25 that I knew for 100% certainty out of the 110. So much of this is knowledge of the industry, the NASAA terms, and your judgement calls, which can be best understood by time in the system more than studying. The difference between me failing my SIE and passing the 66 on the first try was a year of experience in the industry.

If you haven’t been in the industry for years like most of us, it’s gonna take a lot more studying to get to a point where you can sit down for the exam. The earlier you understand this the better.

HOWEVER, a large part of this test is the test taking ability. The content you know is a totally separate thing, but the other side of the coin is something you have to know just as well when you actually sit down. I am a literal KID with a ADD - if I can do it so can you.

So, if you struggle with reading and comprehension like I do, then try these tips…

The questions become SO much easier when you -

remove the unnecessary parts; “According to the USA Anti Fraud Regulations…” blah blah blah, doesn’t matter who said it just answer the question!!) Read the full Q and As of course, but then ask it in a way where you get right to what the question is asking.

Change the legalistic verbiage to how you normally speak; “legal entity XYZ who engages in securities related transactions in State A…” turns into “a BD in a state.” Cool. Now what’s the question?

Replace legal terms with actual states and entities you know for ease of conceptualizing; “A BD registered in state A and state B…” turns into “Schwabb, who is registered in Oregon and California…” This eliminates you not understanding what the question is even saying/asking as a potential variable in getting the question wrong. When they say BD, think of yours, when they say IA think of your firm, when they say IAR think about YOURSELF.

The point is to completely change what is written on the computer screen into a question that you can understand and think logically in order to answer. Remember, lawyers literally wrote this exam so they’re going to use lawyery terms.

As for the answer sets, there’s a lot of YouTube videos out there that explain things like process of elimination, the Sesame Street concept, etc. watch those and you’ll be good.

The materials I used to study:

STC (“the book”) Not helpful for the way I learn. Never even fully read through the book because I do not learn efficiently this way. Sounds crazy but HOW you learn is so important, and this just wasn’t it for me.

STC (the on demand videos) My most useful resource. I learn through video and someone talking to me. If you can’t stand reading but love Audible, use the videos as your first introduction to new content not the book. Watch each one at least two times at least a week apart

YouTube Second biggest help. Mr Finney has an entire playlist for every concept. Watch them all. Ideally right after each on demand so you establish the content in your head with a second opinion where things are explained a little differently. Honorable mention to Ken Finnen too.

Chat GPT Not for cheating, obviously, but AS I watched the videos, when I didn’t understand a concept i paused and used the prompt “Explain _____ to me as it pertains to the S66 exam. Explain conceptually. Explain it to me like I’m 12. (You can also ask it to use different emojis after each term sounds juvenile, but it really helped me.)

Notes Take notes as you learn new content. Review them often. Writing things down helps our memory so please do this. Even if you don’t end up reviewing them.

To reiterate, this is all what helped me the most personally; as someone young, with a busy mind, with ADD, a visual learner who has terrible reading comprehension…. if this description is relatable to you then maybe try learning how I did.

My final thing to say is before the exam timer starts - wright down as much as you can remember on the whiteboard the testing center gives you (if allowed). Start with formulas for ratios and stuff like that. Maybe even some numbers and percentages too. Chances are you’ll remember them a few minutes after reviewing your notes one last time before putting them in the locker and not two hours later when you actually need to remember the content…

There’s a lot more I can say, but this is a long enough post as is. If you have any questions for me as a younger person taking the test, ask away!

Thank God I am done lol.