Acheivable makes it so much easier

Water Cooler
1

Just venting here so please excuse this rant.

I purchased Acheivable the beginning of November once I accepted a postion with a bank that requires a life and variable annuities license, SIE, series 6 and series 63.

I get two chances at each exam if fail anybof them twice I lose my new job.

I busted my butt for an entire month going through all of the chapters in Acheivable. I was at 89% readiness on my first day on the new job.

Shame on me for assuming my firm would start me out with the SIE test first. On the first day I received an email stating that I must take the life and variable annuity state test to get my license first. SIGH! They gave me 6 days to study for that. So that’s what I did. Passed with an 89%

So, three days ago I started on the SIE via Pass Perfect which my firm makes me use. They monitor everything I do on it and if i miss the same question three times my program director is notified, so it’s quite stressful. Which is weird because we were told not to spend a lot of time reading the book, because the questions quiz us on info not in the book.

The problem I have is Pass Perfect adds a crap ton more info that Acheivable makes no mention of in any of the chapters I spent 8-10 hours a day studying. It blows my mind how it gets so deep into the “WEEDS” on topics that I’m almost postive I won’t see on the test except in MAYBE in defintion form.

Here are a few examples some of these are mentioned in acheivable but most of them aren’t mentioned at all.

Repurchase agreements they absolutely beat you over the head with every single intricate detail of these and over night repurchase agreements as well. Acheivable mentions it and it relatiin to the fed and monetary policy but not like Pass Perfect… geeez its crazy the amount they want you to know every little detail.

EE bonds
Cmb’s

Half a chapter on ADRs
Far too much info on Bearer bonds
They mention so many municpal bonds my head will explode.
Special tax bond, special assessment bond, certificate of participation, lease rental bond, industrial development bond, Bab’s, capital appreciation bond,parity bonds on and on and on. This crap is INSANE!

Pound you over the head with CDs
Callable CD,
Step up step down cd
Brokered CD and each of the characteristics of them
Negotiated jumbo CDs

Trust identures

This is a just a few things that I can remeber. Mind you, I’m only beginning so lord only knows what else they are going throw at me.

The questions are so freaking hard on the chapter exams it blows my mind. Thankfully I’m still managing to get 80% or higher on the 3 l’ve take so far.

Acheivable starts you out the ground floor and teaches you the way you’re supposed to learn new material. Pass Perfect throws you in the material head first and expects you to already know the language of finance.

I’M SO HAPPY I SPENT NOVEMBER STUDYING ON ACHEIVABLE OR I WOULD BE STRUGGLING MY BUTT OFF. Especially on Bonds!!!

I do enough to pass the chapter quizzes and then come home every night and jump back into Acheivable.

But now I’m second guessing myself because I feel like all this other info that pass perfect is presenting might be on the SIE exam.

What should I do now? Should I spend the time learning all of the new material that Pass Perfect is presenting or feel confident that the material in Acheivable will suffice.

I am having to relearn some of the info because I spent a week cramming my brain with life insurance and variable annuities.

What do you guys think? Any thought would be great!

Sincerely
Acheivable lover !

1 Like
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Hi @Charlie_Ondricka, thanks for posting about your experience - that sounds super stressful, but I’m glad you love Achievable!

We’re confident that the material in Achievable includes everything you need to know to pass the exam on your first try, and our data supports this.

Of course, if you need to follow corporate requirements to complete another program, you should certainly do that. We’d be happy to chat with your manager or anyone else relevant if it helps!

For some history - the SIE and S7 were part of the same exam a few years ago. FINRA split them into the SIE/S7 to make the industry more approachable and to have a common corequisite for various licenses. We wrote our Achievable SIE course from scratch to ensure we can teach everything in a way that is easy to understand. In contrast, we suspect some other vendors just chopped off part of their existing S7 program and started selling it as as SIE program rather than genuinely building a new course.

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Thanks Justin! I apologize for the rant. I just needed to vent. I appreciate your response. I’ll keep plugging away on Pass Perfect and utilizing Acheivable during my off time from work. I felt confident everything I needed was inside of acheivable. I guess I needed to hear from you guys again.

I agree with your point about other vendors pulling content from the series 7. Now that you mentioned it that makes a lot of sense and is probably why their material gets so granular.

What I’ve noticed is the end of the section quizzes are very challenging, however when you take the end of the chapter quizzes they are a lot easier. So i guess they cater it more towards the SIE.

Apprecaite you guys!

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