From 60% practice score to passing the SIE on the first try
Hoa Tan is a Finance Undergraduate passionate about Investments and Financial Analysis.
I'm currently an undergraduate student studying finance, and I decided to take the SIE. I want to advance my professional career, and I plan to take the Series 7 exam if given the opportunity. I decided to be proactive and pass the SIE while I had free time. I studied for a week and a half after my finals week and passed the SIE on the first try.
Watching videos alone wasn’t establishing real retention
If I'm being honest, I initially wanted to pass the exam without using a prep provider, so I watched Capital Advantage Tutoring videos. After watching all the topics and taking the FINRA practice SIE exam, I realized that I was in a bad position. I decided that passing the exam on the first try was more important than the risk of failing, so I used Achievable. I read and skimmed all the sections and took chapter quizzes upon completing each chapter, as well as practice questions on subsections I didn't quite understand.
The study method that worked
Initially, before I read the book, I took every single chapter exam and averaged a low 60-70%. After fully reading and digesting the chapters, I began to average 80-95% on all chapter exams. Of course, I did struggle on certain chapters more than others and missed minute details, which caused me to get some questions wrong. The first final exam I took was around an 85%, and I ended up averaging 93% for my final exams before I took the actual SIE. I felt much more confident after reading the chapters and taking practice questions, which helped turn short-term memory into long-term memory. I think using Achievable was very worth it, as I saved a lot of time and only studied for 10-20 hours.
Practice builds confidence
Through practice and preparation, I was extremely confident for the exam, and my best advice is to continue practicing and don't get demotivated. Seeing progress and understanding concepts is the most important thing. The actual exam felt slightly more difficult because the questions were worded differently, but the concepts are the same; it's just harder to interpret.
