I’ve started my learning for Series 7 exam. Looking to test in mid-late August. I took both 3 exams so far. I took a Final Exam A 54%, Final Exam B 78%, and Simulated Exam 1 75%.
Is it just me or are the Final Exams A & B harder than the Simulated Exams? Are the Final Exams A & B comparable to the actual Series 7 exam or are they harder/easier? What is a good indication of preparedness? If I retook the Final Exam A or B would they be the same questions or different questions? How many Simulated Exams should I take and what score should I aim for? Where should my readiness gauge be at to ensure a first time pass? and how can I focus on what my weak exam areas/topics are and should I reread the book or just the chapters? I also purchased the Kaplan QBank to supplement with different exam wording and scored 68% and 73% on the first two Simulated Exams.
Thanks for any guidance, nervous future-test taker here.
Final Exam A and Final Exam B aren’t meant to be harder than the real exam. Both those exams and the Simulated Exams are built to match the difficulty of the actual Series 7. The difference is in how the questions are chosen: Final Exam A and B are hand-picked by our instructors as high-value questions, while the Simulated Exams pull from our full question bank in a realistically weighted mix. Since the simulation exam is randomized, you can get a tougher or easier exam, just like the real exam, which is also random, so that is why it is good to score well consistently across multiple exams.
One thing to note: Final Exam A and B are meant to be taken only once. If you retake them, you’ll get the same questions, since they’re a fixed set. The Simulated Exam is different; you can take it as many times as you’d like, and each attempt generates a new, realistically randomized exam pulling from questions you haven’t seen yet. We have enough content for 35+ full practice exams without repeating questions, so you have plenty of room to keep practicing.
For preparedness, keep taking full-length Simulated Exams until you’re consistently scoring in the mid-to-upper 80s, ideally across about three exams in a row. That gives you a comfortable buffer for exam-day stress or a tougher-than-usual question set. Your readiness score is a helpful gauge, the closer to 100% you can get it before test day, the better.
Between exams, focus on turning your weak areas into strengths rather than just re-reading everything cover to cover. Revisit the specific chapters tied to topics you missed, retake the quizzes for those sections, and use the Review feature on your dashboard (under “Study Progress”) to get a focused set of questions prioritizing what you’ve struggled with or haven’t seen in a while. You can filter by chapter or subchapter to get more specific question sets.
When you do take practice exams, treat them like the real thing: limit distractions, manage your time, and turn off instant feedback mode so it mirrors actual test conditions.