How hard is the Series 7 test?
Answer:
It depends on: (1) how prepared you are, (2) if tests make you nervous, and (3) how you define hard.
I've known fairly dumb people who passed it and pretty smart people who bombed. Check some of the practice sites below. Relax and confidently do it as an assessment of what you know, not a judgement of who you are. Good luck.
It is hard, and very grueling...but nothing you can't overcome. I did have experience in the stock market, so questions like on options were easy. My problem was in regulations, which there were a lot of questions, and lots of questions on handling customer accounts and your responsibilities, which is really the point of taking the tests in the first place. You have to be fingerprinted (thumb print) to make sure you are not taking the test for someone else, and then they watch you the whole time to make sure you aren't cheating. But if you take the practice test over and over and pass those, you shouldn't have a problem. I passed my first time around, thankfully, as I absolutely hated the whole process! And then, keep in mind, your managers and compliance officer at the company will definately help keep you out of trouble as it is their butt on the line ;-) I wish you the best of luck!
It's hard enough that you don't want to take it lightly. Unless you know the NASD Rules inside out, you should take a prep course before you take the exam. Your (NASD Member) firm will know about the prep courses.
It's hard. I remember I put in many hours of study and test prep. I studied for about 2 months and took a week long class through STC.
This was MY strategy and I was able to pass with an 87:
1. Read the entire book once to familiarize yourself with terms and concepts
2. Read the subjects of General Debt and Equity Securities, Margin, Options, and Municipal Bonds. (between all of this it probably accounts for 60-70% of the test alone)
3. Took the week long class to fill in the gaps that I didn't reread
4. Keep taking practice tests until you average 80-85% consistently.
Again-- This worked for ME. But I passed! =)
If you pass.. do not underestimate the difficulty of the series 66. I thought it was actually harder (but I gave less time to study so it may be just me). I passed with a 75 or something like that.
Hope this helps
As a poster above said, pay close attention to the legal and regulatory topics. But the test isn't really that hard. What is hard is that the questions are deliberately written to confuse. I took one of those week-long courses too, but had been working in operations and trading for my own account for some time before that. If you don't have related work or educational background I'd recommend going to a longer course that meets once a week or so. And by the way, the admonishment that my instructor gave us is totally true: RFQ! [Read the Friggin' Question]
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