I have been using Achievable for the last few weeks to study for the SIE. Admittedly, I think there were areas I could have focused on more, but I thought if I kept drilling and reviewing practice questions, I would be okay. I only scored as high as the 70s for practice exams, but I was scared of moving my test date, so I pressed on.
I thought I knew the material going into the exam and went through all the questions in about an hour. Here’s where I think I might have sabotaged myself.
At my first pass-through of the test, I flagged questions I was unsure about my answers, with the intention of returning to review them. I ended up flagging roughly 40 qs, either based on anxiety or lack of faith in my choice. The questions being worded differently really threw me. I was able to catch a few careless mistakes, but it opened the door for me to completely change answers based on anxiety rather than relying on my initial gut instinct. Looking back, I don’t know what I was thinking. I had never used extra time to revert back to questions before on my practice tests. Sort of a spur-of-the-moment decision that really hurt me score-wise.
My poorest-graded sections were Products/Risks and Market Knowledge, with the Trading section being borderline and Regulatory Framework being At or Above Adequacy.
How can I move forward to pass the exam in 30 days? I truly want to improve and don’t want to have this testing experience ever again. Do I need to start all over again in the book? Redo quizzes? I would greatly appreciate some guidance here.