Ken is the GOAT
Series 7 Experience: Passed after failing with a 68
I wanted to share my Series 7 experience because reading everyone else’s experiences on here helped me SO much, so I wanted to hopefully help someone else too.
I started with Kaplan. I read the entire book, took notes on every chapter, and watched the Kaplan videos that go along with each chapter. Once I finished the book, I started taking practice exams, but I just could not get passing scores. My highest Kaplan practice exam score was a 68.
I also paid for Ken Finnen with Cap Advantage Options Membership, and honestly, it was worth every single penny. I actually got about three people from my work to also pay for the membership and they agree that it’s life-changing. He makes what a lot of people think has the hardest part of the test the easiest. I went into my first test basically hoping I would get a test full of options because I felt so much more comfortable with them after using Ken’s material.
Then came my first attempt. I got a 68. I honestly did not feel great while I was taking the exam, and getting that score was obviously disappointing.
After that, I completely stopped using Kaplan. I don’t think I logged into Kaplan even once after my first attempt. I went ALL IN on Ken’s videos.
The week before my retake, I watched almost every Series 7 video Ken had. I took notes on anything I wasn’t 100% confident about. Then, for the last 3-4 days before my exam, I took every practice exam Ken had on his channel with him and scored myself. I started with his baseline exam and got a 77.
From there, I made a list of EVERY question I got wrong. Before taking each new exam, I would go through that list and literally read all of the wrong answers out loud. I kept adding to the list as I went. Eventually, things just started clicking. I was remembering things instead of having to constantly relearn them. EDIT ****Also adding in here from the test that I did with Ken’s videos, I had probably at least five questions that were word for a word the exact same on my real test. And all of the choices were the same too. There was one question I had that I could not remember how to solve but I literally remembered what the answer was from when I took the practice exam the day before. FINRA has got to use his questions and material. lol
Yesterday I passed my exam. One thing I really want to mention because I genuinely think it made a difference for me: when I finished the exam, I only had about 20 minutes left. I had probably marked around 30 questions to go back and review. But I remembered Ken’s advice about going back through the first 10 questions because your brain isn’t fully in “test mode” when you first start.
So I did that.I changed about 7 of those first 10 answers. And when I went back and read some of them, I literally thought, “Oh my gosh, how did I get that wrong?”
What was crazy is that I hadn’t even flagged those questions. I had answered them, moved on, and didn’t think anything of them. Going back through those first 10 caught mistakes I didn’t even realize I had made. I am sure that if I would have just reviewed the questions I flagged those first 10 would’ve made me fail.
Overall, I genuinely cannot say enough good things about Ken. The way he explains things just made concepts click for me in a way that Kaplan wasn’t doing. His videos, especially the way he breaks down questions and explains the reasoning behind the answers, were exactly what I needed.I honestly don’t think I would have passed without his material.