Practice Tests: 85%+; Actual Exam: 56%
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Just had to vent guys.Took the 7 today and got burned bad. I was quite shocked and dissapointed.
My advice to the rooks in my situation: follow your gut instincts on how to study. I was told to read the book once and hit the practice exams and then use the book as reference. I had Dearborn and was killing the exams after two months of "studying" and what I did in the actual exam reflected nowhere near what I was "trained" to do. This is old school guys just like in high school: if you don't know the material through and through you WILL fail. I thought I knew a lot but I didn't know as much as I thought I did.
There was not more than a handful of questions that resembled what appeared on the drills. In fact, had I gone old school and just studied the book over and over, I do not doubt I would have passed.
I'm thoroughly dissapointed as everyone who knows me knows how much I wanted this license.
[quote=anabuhabkuss]
Just had to vent guys.Took the 7 today and got burned bad. I was quite shocked and dissapointed.
My advice to the rooks in my situation: follow your gut instincts on how to study. I was told to read the book once and hit the practice exams and then use the book as reference. I had Dearborn and was killing the exams after two months of "studying" and what I did in the actual exam reflected nowhere near what I was "trained" to do. This is old school guys just like in high school: if you don't know the material through and through you WILL fail. I thought I knew a lot but I didn't know as much as I thought I did.
There was not more than a handful of questions that resembled what appeared on the drills. In fact, had I gone old school and just studied the book over and over, I do not doubt I would have passed.
I'm thoroughly dissapointed as everyone who knows me knows how much I wanted this license.
[/quote]
That's the lowest score that I've ever heard of. What's your next move?
What else sir? I'm going to take it again ASAP. It's been six hours later and I'm still in shock and I won't lie about not being highly discouraged about my career path right now.
the latest dearborn.
the firm that sponsered me...well let's just say they do NOT have a training program so i've been going at it alone at home. But I blame no one but myself for not succeeding today. I don';t care if I worked for Schwab or KFC.
i dont know what went wrong, I even hit the 90's a couple of times, made no lower than an 83 on the 250 question practice exams. Then I go to the place today, and the tell is literally telling "what the **** are you doing here you moron?". I slept for 10 hrs, had breakfast and was good to go.
However the test , for the most part, greek to me. Ironically, the only thing that brought that avg up was how well I did on derivatives (made 86% on the test today). everything else was subpar.
[quote=anabuhabkuss]
, for the most part, greek to me. Ironically, the only thing that brought that avg up was how well I did on derivatives (made 86% on the test today). everything else was subpar.
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Classic, absolutely classic failure.
Study options to the point you've got them cold and go into the exam having no idea what Hypothecation entails or if a Moral Obligation bond is taxable or tax free.
If I had to guess I'd say that you worked the same sample questions over and over again and when you started scoring about 90 on them you figured you were good to go. You had a dozen or so 125 question tests but you only did some of them. Would that be right?
Perhaps you did the first one over and over again before moving to the second one and that by the time you had done five or six of them you were a combination of bored and pressured by the fact that your test date was looming.
People should never forget that the publishers of Series 7 study materials are doing it to make a profit. Printing is not free, nor is shipping the books to you. So if everything they know about the test could be shown to you on 200 pages of paper why bother to print and ship close to 2,000?
If you are doing sample questions on a CD or an on-line course you need to be extra careful not to be lulled into a false sense of reality. If it's a good course, and many are not, it will have about 2,000 sample questions and if they were printed on paper, along with good explanations, you'd be holding about a ream of paper printed on both sides.
Then there's the quality issue. When you buy a study course you are hoping to buy sample questions that look a lot like the real ones. Well the reality is that that is not what you get more often than not. Remember the real questions are not published into the public domain like so many standardized tests are in some sort of frenzy to make the playing field level. The NASD is private business, not a public school, and if everybody fails they don't have a bunch of parents whining about their little boy or girl losing self esteem or some other drivel.
There are two vendors who are the best at showing you what real test questions look like. They are STC and Dearborn.
What about the others? Read the two sentences above again.
who eve told you to read the book once? and then hit the tests is sadly mistaken
I did not go over any practice exmas over and over.
The CD pulls from a pool of 2500 questions randomly and that's what I used to get tested. None of the questions in the actual exam came anywhere near what they looked like from Dearborn. When you get a question asking you which securities are exempt from tax at a certain area, given four choices each one have two securities and are asked to pick two choices (for a toal of four securities( you know, if anything, this exam is commited to memory based answers.
EZ is right, I shouldn't have listened to anyone from the get go and just read the book thoroughly. That was my mistake. I felt like I had a good overall knowledge of everything. I didn;t go in there knowing only options or muni bonds, I went in there with the wrong study approach and it cost me and I can see how many others would do the same.
Thanks for the advise guys. Truly appreciated.
[quote=anabuhabkuss]
I did not go over any practice exmas over and over.
The CD pulls from a pool of 2500 questions randomly and that's what I used to get tested. None of the questions in the actual exam came anywhere near what they looked like from Dearborn. When you get a question asking you which securities are exempt from tax at a certain area, given four choices each one have two securities and are asked to pick two choices (for a toal of four securities( you know, if anything, this exam is commited to memory based answers.
EZ is right, I shouldn't have listened to anyone from the get go and just read the book thoroughly. That was my mistake. I felt like I had a good overall knowledge of everything. I didn;t go in there knowing only options or muni bonds, I went in there with the wrong study approach and it cost me and I can see how many others would do the same.
Thanks for the advise guys. Truly appreciated.
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I passed the test with a 92, and followed the methodology that was suggested to you. However, here is what may NOT have been pointed out to you......when you take a practice exam go through your results and analyze them. Pay particular attention to whether or not you are missing questions that pertain to certain key areas such as muni's and options. Too, when you get a question wrong, go back to the book as a reference and figure out WHY you got the question wrong. You don't need to worry about the questions you answered correctly, you're fine on those concepts.
Good luck.
If you are going to take the test again, do not use the Dearborn material. It is too easy and does not give you an accurate picture of the test, as you have seen
Use the Pass Perfect material. It is a very good reflection of the actual test.
[quote=joedabrkr]
I passed the test with a 92, and followed the methodology that was suggested to you. However, here is what may NOT have been pointed out to you......when you take a practice exam go through your results and analyze them. Pay particular attention to whether or not you are missing questions that pertain to certain key areas such as muni's and options. Too, when you get a question wrong, go back to the book as a reference and figure out WHY you got the question wrong. You don't need to worry about the questions you answered correctly, you're fine on those concepts.
Good luck.
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It is crazy to think that just because you answered a question correctly on a practice quiz that you have the subject down and are "fine on those concepts."
You may have guessed correclty or you may have gotten it right for reasons that were not correct, or work only on that particular scenario.
For those who are reading this but still studying. There are entire months that go by when nobody anywhere in the country scores in excess of 90%.
The average passing score hovers around 75%.
Anytime somebody tells you what they got, subtract 10 to 15 percent.
"I got 90" actually means "I got 78." It's human nature to want to brag.
[quote=maybeeeeeeee]
If you are going to take the test again, do not use the Dearborn material. It is too easy and does not give you an accurate picture of the test, as you have seen
Use the Pass Perfect material. It is a very good reflection of the actual test.
[/quote]
Why do you think that the training directors of the large firms disagree with that?
Do you suppose that STC and Dearborn share about 80% of the Series 7 business because they are too easy and/or do not give an accurate reflection of the real test?
How about FIRE? Are they making their presence known?
CCH? Ever hear of them?
The Series 7 School? Know those guys?
Pass Perfect is out there, but they are far from the best.
I am rescheduled early next month and have scheduled myself off of work for a week to take the class. I won’t lose again. I’ll let you guys know how it turns.
I worked somewhere and this guy that I knew failed it 3 times (non-production environment) and it turns out all he did was memorize the practice exams, not the material. good luck
[quote=Big Easy Flood]
For those who are reading this but still studying. There are entire months that go by when nobody anywhere in the country scores in excess of 90%.
The average passing score hovers around 75%.
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Big Easy,
Do you really believe what you just posted that months go by with no one scoring in the 90's? What a joke, the test is not that difficult if you understand the information. The problem is that everyone today wants someone to tell them only what they need to know. No one wants to take the time to understand it so they can apply what they have learned. Just tell them what they need to know so the can pencil it in on the test.
I scored a 93, and I have the paper to prove it, another guy I took it with got a 96, another broker I worked with got a 96, a friend of mine just got a 94 on it last week. So I am not sure what months you are talking about.
[quote=Big Easy Flood]
Anytime somebody tells you what they got, subtract 10 to 15 percent.
"I got 90" actually means "I got 78." It's human nature to want to brag.
[/quote]
The above is a typical comment. My favorite comment would be "You studied too much." followed by "it does not matter you you get as long as you pass."
I only got an 87. I got paid $3500 per month to study for 3 months and I don’t believe I averaged an hour per day of studying.
[quote=RR352]
I scored a 93, and I have the paper to prove it, another guy I took it with got a 96, another broker I worked with got a 96, a friend of mine just got a 94 on it last week. So I am not sure what months you are talking about.
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As I said, when somebody says that they got a 93 somebody who has been around awhile will think, "Yep, and I'm the King of England."
Yes there are people who score in the 90s, but they are not as common as one would believe if they listened to what they hear.
New York is teeming with people who were in the World Trade Center when the planes hit and they barely made it out.
When Hank Aaron broke Babe Ruth's home run record there were about 35,000 fans in the stadium Today there are at least a million people who will swear on a bible that they were there.
And yes I do believe that there are stretches of time when nobody in the country scores in excess of 90% on Series 7. Not often, but it does happen.
Don't tempt me or I'll tell youj about the time I got it on with Demi Moore, or was it Courtney Cox? Really, I promise you it's true.
[quote=Dirk Diggler] I only got an 87. I got paid $3500 per month to study for 3 months and I don't believe I averaged an hour per day of studying. [/quote]
Are you bragging that you were able to steal from your employer, or suggesting that you're really bright.
You missed more than thirty questions. Just think of how good you could have done if you had been serious about what you were doing.
It was on the late 90's, but I got a 96...missed 9 questions out of 250 and still have the paper to prove it. I used Dearborn, and the test strategy described above. Heck, I was probably the bum who advised this poor guy to go use that methodology. I'm not sure why it didn't work...I've used that same methodology to pass the 7, 63, 65 & 24 and never scored lower than 80% (on the 24...by that time, I had truly scaled down my efforts and probably spent a total of 40 hours prep time).
At any rate, I'm sorry that it didn't work for you...guess that just proves that not every method works for every student. Next time, go with your instinct and do what seems to work for you.