Securities Institute of America complaint
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I’m re-entering the industry after 4 years in a different aspect of the finance sector. The frugal consumer that I am, I chose the lowest of the prices that I found as I researched exam training alternatives. I selected The Securities Institute of America and anxiously began studying.
First of all, the Series 7 exam prep manual is replete with typo’s. Second, I called their offices for input/help on more than one matter and was told that I was being obsessive. Third, the chapter tests on the Series 7 exam prep manual tests material that the current chapter does not even cover. Fourth, I had to augment their materials with other sources in order to prepare properly for the exam. Fifth, I left a complaint via their website and via their office voice mail and never received a response to either one.
In brief, choose wisely among the exam prep alternatives. The low-priced option, in this case, was a big waste of money. I scored high on the 7 and 66 5 years ago when I took them. This time, I scored high on the 7 again.
Thank God I’m so obsessive. No thanks to the Securities Institute of America.
This problem is not unique to SIA. I used Keir (Pass Perfect) and also found typos and test questions with no relationship with the printed material. That being said I also used Exam Cram and Series 7 for Dummies and found nit-noid issues there too.
One thing I discovered is that the same textbook is sold under different covers. If you check Amazon you’ll see essentially the same book being offered by multiple corporate vendors (Keir, SIA, STC…).
You need to remember that these companies merely sell the books. So if you call or write with “technical” questions. they will not have a clue. In those cases where a response is deserved, they will farm it out to an expert under contract to them.
In any event congratulations of passing the test!
Being a chief Compliance officer at a regional broker dealer I have seen all the materials out there and have heard it all from my agents who take the tests. No publisher’s materials are 100% perfect, No one’s! I have had many, many agents use the materials for The series 7 exam from The Securities Institute of America, and they have had really good results. The products which you are bashing are of equal if not superior to those offered by other publishers. The exam software and online videos are in my opinion the best available. It is always interesting to me when students pass the test and think that it was all their own intelligence or they blame the materials or teacher when they fail. Maybe you are just in a bad mood. I have several hundred agents who report to my department and I will continue to use the training materials from The Securities Institute of America.
[quote=Wet_Blanket]I really doubt you are a CCO of a B/D.[/quote]
Agreed. That sounded like a commercial.
[quote=newrep430]
Being a chief Compliance officer at a regional broker dealer I have seen all the materials out there and have heard it all from my agents who take the tests. No publisher’s materials are 100% perfect, No one’s! I have had many, many agents use the materials for The series 7 exam from The Securities Institute of America, and they have had really good results. The products which you are bashing are of equal if not superior to those offered by other publishers. The exam software and online videos are in my opinion the best available. It is always interesting to me when students pass the test and think that it was all their own intelligence or they blame the materials or teacher when they fail. Maybe you are just in a bad mood. I have several hundred agents who report to my department and I will continue to use the training materials from The Securities Institute of America.
[/quote] Hate to say it, but EDJ has the best stuff for the Series 7Hate to say it, but EDJ has the best stuff for the Series 7
I have heard this; a lot of my friends are at EDJ and they said the same thing. I personally used Kaplan - it was a great program.
[quote=chief123]
Hate to say it, but EDJ has the best stuff for the Series 7[/quote] EDJ could make a mint if they were to publish their S7 training materials. In a previous life at EDJ I was tasked with looking into all of the S7 materials I could find. I looked at Kaplan, STC, and a bunch whose names I don't remember. None of them were as good as the EDJ materials. Couple that with the conference calls, help lines, etc and it's no suprise why our pass rate is so high compared to the industry average. Typos in material produced by a word processor for public consumption is a sign that a company just doesn't care about it's customers and only cares about the money.[quote=Spaceman Spiff][quote=chief123]
Hate to say it, but EDJ has the best stuff for the Series 7[/quote] EDJ could make a mint if they were to publish their S7 training materials. In a previous life at EDJ I was tasked with looking into all of the S7 materials I could find. I looked at Kaplan, STC, and a bunch whose names I don't remember. None of them were as good as the EDJ materials. Couple that with the conference calls, help lines, etc and it's no suprise why our pass rate is so high compared to the industry average. Typos in material produced by a word processor for public consumption is a sign that a company just doesn't care about it's customers and only cares about the money. [/quote]Except the stuff I studied really hard for (EDJ history) wasn't on the test! WTF?!
In his only other RR post, he links the website to this company. He's definitely a shill for that place. http://forums.registeredrep.com/forum_posts.asp?TID=11190&KW=I really doubt you are a CCO of a B/D.
[quote=Moraen] [quote=Spaceman Spiff][quote=chief123]
Hate to say it, but EDJ has the best stuff for the Series 7[/quote] EDJ could make a mint if they were to publish their S7 training materials. In a previous life at EDJ I was tasked with looking into all of the S7 materials I could find. I looked at Kaplan, STC, and a bunch whose names I don't remember. None of them were as good as the EDJ materials. Couple that with the conference calls, help lines, etc and it's no suprise why our pass rate is so high compared to the industry average. Typos in material produced by a word processor for public consumption is a sign that a company just doesn't care about it's customers and only cares about the money. [/quote]Except the stuff I studied really hard for (EDJ history) wasn't on the test! WTF?!
[/quote] Well, it should have been. Everyone knows that Edward Jones invented the Dow Jones industrial average. The history of the greatest limited partnership financial company in St. Louis, MO should be on that test.
[quote=Spaceman Spiff][quote=Moraen] [quote=Spaceman Spiff][quote=chief123]
Hate to say it, but EDJ has the best stuff for the Series 7[/quote] EDJ could make a mint if they were to publish their S7 training materials. In a previous life at EDJ I was tasked with looking into all of the S7 materials I could find. I looked at Kaplan, STC, and a bunch whose names I don't remember. None of them were as good as the EDJ materials. Couple that with the conference calls, help lines, etc and it's no suprise why our pass rate is so high compared to the industry average. Typos in material produced by a word processor for public consumption is a sign that a company just doesn't care about it's customers and only cares about the money. [/quote]Except the stuff I studied really hard for (EDJ history) wasn't on the test! WTF?!
[/quote] Well, it should have been. Everyone knows that Edward Jones invented the Dow Jones industrial average. The history of the greatest limited partnership financial company in St. Louis, MO should be on that test. [/quote] Scottrade?
[quote=B24][quote=Spaceman Spiff][quote=Moraen] [quote=Spaceman Spiff][quote=chief123]
Hate to say it, but EDJ has the best stuff for the Series 7[/quote] EDJ could make a mint if they were to publish their S7 training materials. In a previous life at EDJ I was tasked with looking into all of the S7 materials I could find. I looked at Kaplan, STC, and a bunch whose names I don't remember. None of them were as good as the EDJ materials. Couple that with the conference calls, help lines, etc and it's no suprise why our pass rate is so high compared to the industry average. Typos in material produced by a word processor for public consumption is a sign that a company just doesn't care about it's customers and only cares about the money. [/quote]Except the stuff I studied really hard for (EDJ history) wasn't on the test! WTF?!
[/quote] Well, it should have been. Everyone knows that Edward Jones invented the Dow Jones industrial average. The history of the greatest limited partnership financial company in St. Louis, MO should be on that test. [/quote] Scottrade?[/quote] It's funny that when you look at Scottrade how often it seems he is trying to go out of his way to put himself in direct contention with EDJ. Here in STL he's got a big office right next to our South Campus and our West Campus locations. Both very visible from major highways. I understand he's also got headquarters in Tempe too...just like EDJ.
[quote=Spaceman Spiff][quote=B24][quote=Spaceman Spiff][quote=Moraen] [quote=Spaceman Spiff][quote=chief123]
Hate to say it, but EDJ has the best stuff for the Series 7[/quote] EDJ could make a mint if they were to publish their S7 training materials. In a previous life at EDJ I was tasked with looking into all of the S7 materials I could find. I looked at Kaplan, STC, and a bunch whose names I don't remember. None of them were as good as the EDJ materials. Couple that with the conference calls, help lines, etc and it's no suprise why our pass rate is so high compared to the industry average. Typos in material produced by a word processor for public consumption is a sign that a company just doesn't care about it's customers and only cares about the money. [/quote]Except the stuff I studied really hard for (EDJ history) wasn't on the test! WTF?!
[/quote] Well, it should have been. Everyone knows that Edward Jones invented the Dow Jones industrial average. The history of the greatest limited partnership financial company in St. Louis, MO should be on that test. [/quote] Scottrade?[/quote] It's funny that when you look at Scottrade how often it seems he is trying to go out of his way to put himself in direct contention with EDJ. Here in STL he's got a big office right next to our South Campus and our West Campus locations. Both very visible from major highways. I understand he's also got headquarters in Tempe too...just like EDJ. [/quote] There have been a couple of alumni GP's over the years do well. What's Louis Wray doing Spiff?
its not really that big of a deal there are only 6 people in the department. I was an instructor at a large training company some years back and I guess it still bothers me the way some people act when they pass or fail an exam.
Securities Institute of America’s test questions product for Series 3 is sloppy, inaccurate. I found many mistakes, grammatical errors, questions that did not have correct choice listed for them, etc. Don’t waste your money.
I even sent emails to the Institute for comments on the above issues and received no reply.
This is no way to run a business.
I hope they crash and burn.