Failed the SIE. Scored 69%

FINRA FINRA SIE
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Hello, I was averaging 82% on practice exams and quizzes using STC and sadly failed the SIE by one point. I just purchased Achievable and so far it’s great. Will get through the entire program as quickly as possible as I signed up to take my next exam June 1st.
SIE Breakdown Results 69%:
Section 1: Knowledge of Capital Markets (Low Performance)
Section 2: Understanding Products and Their Risks (Adequate Performance)
Section 3: Understanding Trading, Customer Accounts and Prohibited Activities (Very Low Performance)
Section 4: Overview of Regulatory Framework (Adequate Performance)

Any advice on what specific sections to go over and specific study habits that you would recommend for a person taking the exam again June 1st. I have taken STC’s program and now have Kaplan plus newly acquired Achievable for help.

Thank you!

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Hi @Resonant_brown_cobra, welcome to Achievable!

Sorry to hear that you narrowly missed on your first take, but you’re very close and should pass easily on your next try with a little more studying.

It’s hard to map the FINRA categories exactly to chapters since they’re broad and cover multiple points.

That said, section 3 of the content outline is important - 31% of the test questions (23 of your 75 test questions) come from this unit. Here are the areas we recommend brushing up on for Section 3: Order types (market orders, limit orders, stop orders, stop-limit orders), agency vs. principal, cash dividends, stock dividends, stock splits, capital gains, settlement, cash accounts, margin accounts, options, discretionary accounts, education savings plans, account registrations (individual, joint, corporate, trust, custodial, partnership), retirement accounts (types, RMDs, IRA contribution limits), recognizing illegal activities (money laundering, suspicious activity reports, FinCEN), books and records (account statements, trade confirmations, business continuity plans, regulation S-P), market manipulation, insider trading, general rules and ethics (review the entire chapter)

Quite a lot of areas :wink:

You can search for keywords using the box on your dashboard to see where they show up in the text, e.g. SIE stop-limit orders

My suggestion is to take one of our full-length SIE practice exams and then review our score breakdown, which will give you more concrete feedback on which chapters to review!

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Thank you Justin! I’m currently going through the entire Achievable program. Would you suggest I take the SIE practice exam and then focus on problem areas first instead of going through each chapter and subsection and then taking the SIE practice exam?

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You can do it either way!

When people are already very close to passing like in your case, we typically suggest that you go straight to practice exams and then fill in the gaps with the textbook and chapter quizzes. This can save you a lot of time since you don’t really need to restudy the information you already know. For many people, just passing the exam is the most important thing and they have less of an interest in the content.

When folks are further away or they have lower scores in all sections, then it’s a lot harder to strategically target weak areas, and reading the entire book might be a better option.

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Hi Justin - I am in a similar boat, have failed SIE with 68% and now signed up for Achievable SIE prep. On my first attempt section analysis shows the following breakdown:

  1. Knowledge of Capital Markers - Borderline Performance

  2. Understanding Products and Their Risks - Adequate Performance

  3. Understanding Trading, Customer Accounts and Prohibited Activities - Very Low Performance

  4. Overview of Regulatory Framework - Low Performance

so my question is, which sections in Achievable study material should I focus on and any suggestions you can provide would be greatly appreciated.

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Hi @Dual_pink_thrush, welcome, and thanks for reaching out.

Since you were very close to passing on your previous attempt, my advice for you is essentially the same as I posted above:

When people are already very close to passing like in your case, we typically suggest that you go straight to practice exams and then fill in the gaps with the textbook and chapter quizzes. This can save you a lot of time since you don’t really need to restudy the information you already know. For many people, just passing the exam is the most important thing and they have less of an interest in the content.

Those four major areas FINRA breaks the exam into are too wide to know where to target effectively. Take one of our practice exams and we’ll give you a more detailed summary at the end to help you understand which chapters to review!

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@Justin
I am in a similar boat, have failed SIE with 68% and signed up for Achievable SIE prep. On my 2nd attempt section analysis shows the following breakdown:

  1. Knowledge of Capital Markers - Borderline Performance
  2. Understanding Products and Their Risks -low performance
  3. Understanding Trading, Customer Accounts and Prohibited Activities - Adequate performance
  4. Overview of Regulatory Framework - Adequate performance

so my question is, which sections in Achievable study material should I focus on and any suggestions you can provide would be greatly appreciated.

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Hi @Cheap_beige_takin, my advice for you is the same as above!

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I also scored 69%. I know that I can pass this exam but that was so defeating!

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