How to pass the SIE without a finance degree
Emily Reagan is an Account Coordinator at GK3 Capital, a financial services marketing agency, where she manages marketing strategy and execution for asset managers, ETF firms, and investment funds. Her work spans paid media, content production, CRM management, and client onboarding across the financial services space.
Emily joined the agency as an intern in May 2024, continuing through her final semester at Rutgers Business School, and was brought on full-time in February 2026 following her graduation with a B.S. in Marketing, completed in 3.5 years. In that time, she has taken on growing responsibility across client accounts, supporting everything from paid media strategy and content production to CRM buildouts and campaign execution. She holds HubSpot certifications across email, social, inbound, and content marketing, and recently obtained her Securities Industry Essentials (SIE) certification from FINRA.
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When I accepted a full-time role at a financial services marketing agency, passing the Securities Industry Essentials exam wasn't just a personal goal; it was a requirement. My employer pointed me toward Achievable for exam prep, and looking back, I don't think I would have passed without it.
I had a marketing background, not a finance one, and suddenly I was staring down a syllabus full of concepts I'd never encountered before. Options strategies, margin requirements, and regulatory frameworks. Honestly, it was a lot.
Creating a solid study plan that works
Balancing studying with a full workload made it harder. The deadlines at work don't pause because you're trying to learn the difference between a call and a put. I had to be intentional about when and how I studied, and Achievable made that possible. The platform laid out a clear study path, which kept me from feeling buried by everything I still had left to cover. Without that structure, I think I would have been studying in circles.
What really moved the needle was the way it handled wrong answers. Every time I missed a question, I got a real explanation, not just the correct answer but the reasoning behind it. For someone coming in without a finance background, that context mattered more than I expected.
Options were my nemesis. The terminology, the mechanics, and how premiums work. It took longer than I'd like to admit before it clicked. But going through practice questions repeatedly and reading the breakdowns each time I got one wrong eventually built up enough familiarity that I stopped second-guessing myself.
Persistence leads to passing
Going into test day, I was nervous. But it was the kind of nervousness that comes from caring, not from being unprepared. I had put in the work, and I trusted the process.
Passing the SIE is a milestone I'm genuinely proud of. It pushed me outside my comfort zone and gave me a stronger foundation for the work I do every day. If you're coming at this exam from a non-finance background and wondering whether you can pull it off, you can. Get a structured plan, don't skip the explanations when you get something wrong, and keep going even when options make you want to close the laptop.
