Just wanted to share my unique and great experience with Achievable!
Background:
I am a professional in the medical field. I have no formal finance education or degrees over the years. My primary experience with investments was hodge-podge self-learning in the past 3 years as I tried to navigate my personal investments with stocks, which is also a hobby.
November 23, 2023 - Thanksgiving Day
As I was winding down from the day, I read about investment education other than CFP. This is when I learned about Series 65 and how one could enter the investment field without formal education, progressive exams, or lengthy training work experience.
On a whim that night, I decided to buy study materials to understand more about Series 65. I did a quick search online and was one click away from buying Kaplan–just because of name recognition and a focus on video content. I have used their materials in high school and college. In the last minute, I chose Achievable for its clear online availability because Kaplan’s checkout included shipping? At the time, I was not sure if Kaplan would lead to immediate viewing of course content, or if I had to wait for a physical copy.
November 24, 25, 26, 2023 - Study Days
Once I started reviewing Achievable content on the 24th, I realized that the testing information was mostly familiar to me. So, I looked into testing dates. My ideal testing day would have been the end of December to give me a few weeks to study. But nothing was available. Series 65 was more of a personal challenge, so I did not want to dedicate weeks of preparation to schedule something in 2024. The only day that worked in my schedule in the next month was today, November 27.
As a result, I quickly created a 3-day study plan with Achievable.
Achievable Review while studying
The layout was super esthetic and organized. The site ran well. The content was thorough but easily digestible. My routine for each chapter was to scroll to the very end. Read the key points. Then, actually read the chapter and review the key points again. I would then take the quizzes. The quizzes were quite time-consuming. I performed poorly on several quizzes, maybe scoring in the 50s-60s. But I made sure to fully understand why and understand the concepts. Being able to click for an explanation per question really ensured that I was understanding what I was learning. For feedback, I believe Achievable should structure the answer explanation broken down by answer choice, so the learning and quickly figure out why they were wrong. Most of the answer key were structured with copied verbiage from the chapter.
Also, I started with section 5 with Laws and Regulations. I noticed that it was 30% of the exam, and the section that was pretty much brand new to me. And then worked my way up from 4. Economic Factors to , 3. Recommendations, and 2. Investment Vehicles, which were more familiar to me.
Expectedly, I ran out of time. I did not have time to go through derivatives and insurance annuities towards the end of Section 2. I of course also did not have time for any practice exams. But I felt pretty good overall.
Achievable Review after examination
The study material prepared me very well for the exam. My short timeline highlighted Acheivable’s easy content digestion and learning feedback. I felt the chapters and quizzes prepared me well. The quizzes were more difficult than the actual questions.
Recommendations for test takes
There is some memorization needed. But the key, in my opinion, is to focus on really understanding the concepts without too much focus on formulas and definitions.
