SIE: For those who passed it the first time, was Achievable enough?

FINRA FINRA SIE
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I’ve read posts of folks on other forums who have recommended Achievable for the SIE to understand the material but found that Achievable’s practice questions and exams were much easier than the actual SIE exam, so they were a bit blindsided (and in a few circumstances, those folks had to redo it, as they failed the first time). Still, others say that they used Achievable in conjunction with Kaplan’s QBank to have a different perspective on how questions could be worded and as additional practice if they needed it—and said that how the QBank presented the questions was more in line with the actual FINRA exam.

I’m going through the material as the study plan recommends: read, do the section quizzes, keep reading, do practice exams, repeat until finished. I’m not skipping anything.

Still, I want to know if Achievable by itself was enough for you to pass (assuming you did the studying). Was it? The SIE exam is claimed to have a pass rate of 74%, which I find surprisingly high (for something to be a low pass rate for me personally, it’d have to be less than 40%). So, it can’t be that hard, can it?

The reason I’m blabbering on is because I don’t want to fail the first time and have to wait 30 days for the second go-around. If Achievable is not enough by itself to near guarantee you’re not part of those unfortunate 26% that don’t pass, then I question what their “98.2% success rate” alludes to. Is that first-time pass rates or overall pass rates (counting even people that pass on their 3rd try)?

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Hi @Myra_Kunde, thanks for posting.

Achievable is all you need to pass. People using us as their primary materials have a 98%+ first-time pass rate, which is much higher than that of other vendors, including Kaplan.

We make hundreds of updates to our questions and content every month to ensure we’re as similar to the actual exam as possible. By contrast, most other vendors only update their materials once or twice a year for major rule updates.

The SIE is not a particularly hard exam, but it does cover a large amount of content. We like to say that “it’s a mile wide and an inch deep.” If you stick to the plan and approach it thoughtfully, you’ll be in good shape.