I passed on the first attempt!
I started studying at the beginning of April. On my own time too, so I didn’t have a life last month and the first half of this month. I used PassPerfect, which over-prepared me for the real exam the same way it did for the 7 and 63. I kept my study strategies simple. Made lots of flash cards because writing things down is how I retain information. Always read over the explanations of any questions I got wrong on a quiz or practice final. I also practiced writing a “brain dump” sheet over the last week that contained various facts and formulas that I knew I needed help remembering.
I briefly looked at Ken’s brutal exam, but I didn’t stay on it too long. The comment section had too much debate about correct answer choices and I do feel like PassPerfect was more than enough. It gives longer/wordier/trickier questions and answer choices than what’s on the actual exam, so that you will have stamina on the real exam.
I didn’t take tons of practice final exams. I only took two lol. Got an 81 and 75. My strengths were who registers where, who is exempt, securities, suitability, ethics, types of accounts. Basically… the important topics. Instead of taking tons of practice finals and creating more fatigue than what I already had… I decided to keep reviewing my flash cards and take more of the shorter practice quizzes based off of my strengths. I understood some of the Math stuff like CAPM, Alpha, Beta, bond things, fundamental analysis but I had so much mental fatigue by that last chapter of PassPerfect that I made peace with not fully internalizing a lot of the Math stuff. If you are similar to me… I do recommend drilling the heavy topics so that you can give yourself some wiggle room.
Good luck everyone!