Passed!!
Happy to announce I passed the 24 today on the first try.
Here is my personal experience-
❌Used STC & supplemented with Kaplan Q Bank.
I think STC by itself would have been sufficient but I did both because I was only going to do this test once.
❌Memorization of key facts, dates, and figures was paramount. This test was memorization first and foremost with the understanding of the underlying key concepts second.
I’ve read several posts where they mention that STC goes wide, but the test goes deep. I did not really have that experience. I had a LOT of point and click answers on mine that matched the material almost identically and a handful of questions I had no clue about and just guessed.
In my experience, the STC tests covered a lot of the material that I saw. However, when testing and answering the practice tests I always reasoned the WHY so that it stuck.
With both providers I made custom exams with wrong answer questions as well as with weak area chapters as provided in their reports. I’ve taken the SIE, 6, and 7 in the last two years all with Kaplan and I had no idea they did reporting on weak areas. Unless it’s new otherwise I just had no idea.
If you’re taken the 7 recently (I took it in March) there is some crossover of questions.
My exam scores were:
STC Final 1: 61%
STC Final 2: 65%
STC Final 3: 66%
STC Final 4: 69%
STC Greenlight #1: 74%
STC exam: 74%
STC Greenlight #2: 78%
STC exam: 83%
Kaplan:
64.38%
63.75%
70.63%
80%
73.75%
❌Utilized ChatGPT to help with test prep
I signed up for ChatGPT subscription and loaded in the STC PDF material and CTF into a project and set it up the prompts to help me study. STC doesn’t let you copy and paste their material so I had to screenshot questions into it and have it “ELI5” many many many times to have it dumb down certain topics so I could understand. Kaplan lets you copy and paste, which was much more friendly. I dropped in the weak areas from both providers and had it drill me on CTF, make up its own “series 24-esque” questions, and help me build a study plan.
❌Used Dean’s videos for anything that I needed extra help with- used the 60 min video last night and this morning.
Thanks to Dean and all of the advice provided here I can now rest that it’s done. I might be a bit addicted now, though and might go for the 10. 🤣