FINALLY PASSED😭
This is going to be a long post….sorry in advance, lol.
Been a lurker here for about a year. Finally get to make my passed post! Today was my third attempt…I was two short last time. I have a BS in business administration and almost 15 years in the finance industry. (Commercial lending, I worked as an agent under a BD for six years and held my life & health and series 6 license..mainly A Share mutual funds, fixed and variable annuities) None of that mattered at all. This exam absolutely kicked my ass. 😅
Anyways…I wanted to share some things that helped me in hopes that it helps someone else. This thread has been so amazing for me.
find a study program and stick with it. I used Kaplan and it made me so mad almost daily, but after today’s exam…I’m thankful for the ridiculous questions.
Google The Finance Tutors, buy his course to supplement whatever program you’re using, book him for at least two tutoring sessions. I fully believe his course and tutoring bridged the gap between pass and fail for me. Seriously….I don’t care if you’ve memorized your whole textbook..none of my study material taught me how to take the exam. You have to be prepared for the twisted questions and answer choices. Kaplan was good for teaching the material, but Luke was good at teaching you how to tackle the exam. There were sooo many questions on my exam today that I wouldn’t have been able to answer if it weren’t for his tutoring sessions. 10/10, five stars, highly highly recommend!
I feel like this exam was the most difficult of the three. I almost fell out of my chair when I saw “pass” because I knew I failed it. The easy questions were literally point, click, move on. But the hard ones…..they were ridiculous. There were several questions that I read and immediately knew the answer….but didn’t see the answer in the choices. It was there, but they made you work for it. It’s like they put a very drawn out overcomplicated definition of the answer. So you read the question, sort through it, then have to choose the correct definition for the answer choice..if that even makes sense. I definitely noticed the difficulty ramp up towards the middle.
Some questions/topics I remember:
-40 quarters working to be eligible for social security
-IRMAA
-CE question about what happens to CE hours over what’s required? Do they carry over or do they expire. I didn’t remember studying anything about extra CE credits in anything I studied, so probably got that one wrong.
-What components are needed to calculate current ratio. The easiest question…but the answer choices made it very difficult.
-An IA is registered in state X but wants to expand to state Y & Z. IA sends 100 mailers to clients in state X & Y. Was this prohibited or allowed?
-Calculate P/E Ratio and determine if stock is under or overvalued
-Current ratio calculation
-After tax yield calculation
-NAV calculation
-I had to calculate PV which kind of surprised me. This exam had the most math out of the three.
-One of the questions had “poison pill” as an answer choice. I had to read it twice because I thought I was losing my mind. Maybe that’s a topic I missed but I don’t remember it lol.
I wish I could remember more but my brain is fried at this point. I’ll edit the post or add to the comments anything else I remember.
I’m so happy to be able to put this monster behind me. I would rather pluck my eyelashes out one by one than have to study one more second for this exam. But it’s a necessary evil and it’s worth the torture. Keep pushing..don’t give up. Between working full time, two kids, and life throwing major curveballs at me every time I turn around….this has been one of the most difficult, mentally and physically exhausting things I’ve ever put myself through. I wanted to quit so many times but I didn’t. Now I’m looking back and saying “I did the damn thing” & I’m actually so proud of myself. All that to say, when you pass…the feeling of accomplishment makes up for the struggle. It’s hard & it sucks…but I promise you can do it!