I have taken the test twice now, I got a 62% the first time without studying at all and a 69% on the last one after going through the entire text book and hundreds of questions. Felt absolutely gutted because I was 1% off. I think my problem this time was I got hung up on one math based question for too long and looked up and saw I had 30 minutes left to answer 40 questions. I had to fly threw them and couldnt take my time to really read and re read questions. Does anyone have any advice on this? Would people who have passed the SIE suggest it would be better to go through the entire exam first and answer all the ones you know are right and then go back to the ones you flagged? Thanks for all the help in advance, I thought the Achievable course was great.
Hi @Ramon_Sauer, Iām sorry to hear about your experience, especially being that close to passing! I have viewed your account and have some suggestions that will help you for your next attempt.
My first suggestion is to go to your dashboard and revisit the specific sections of the textbook where you struggled. The areas I suggest you revisit first are Corporate debt, Debt securities, and Preferred stock. Take your time as you go through the textbook and quizzes, and review the explanations to ensure you understand the reasoning behind each answer.
I see that you took around ~12 full-length practice exams, and your scores varied. I suggest you spend more intentional time on these, as you took some of them in just ~34 minutes. Treating the full-length practice exams like the real exam is important, which means taking your time and ensuring you understand each question and the possible answer choices. In addition to slowing down, spending a significant amount of time reviewing your exams after you take them will result in the best improvements. By reviewing your exams and identifying your areas of weakness and what may have tripped you up, you can revisit those parts of the textbook and get a better understanding by reading and practicing it.
The strategy for taking the real exam ultimately depends on you and what you think works best. I agree with your general analysis that spending too much time on one question can negatively affect the rest of the exam, as you will have less time. I think a combination of what you suggest of flagging questions and going back later to do them would be helpful. That way, you can do the ones you know are right and revisit the ones that had you stuck later on.
Please let us know if there is anything else we can do to support you as you continue to study. Thank you,
-Brenden