r/Series65

Hey everyone, just thought I’d make a post on here after carefully reading and reviewing basically every single post to this sub over the past month and change. I have no financial background whatsoever prior to studying for this.

Just passed on my first try and wanted to tell you what worked for me.

Started studying 10 weeks ago. I got the Kaplan course which included the book videos and exams.

Read the book chapter by chapter taking notes on each chapter, and then watched the Kaplan video (honestly you can skip and supplement with applicable YouTube content from DT the S7G), then took a practice exam for that chapter and then cumulative custom quizzes for every chapter after that to ensure I was retaining everything (after reading chapter 10, I did the chapter 10 quiz and a cumulative 1-10 quiz).

I finished reading the book the last week of July and have spent the last 2 to 3 weeks doing full length simulated exams and YouTube free ride exam explications - that was integral in filling in the gaps that the Kaplan videos totally missed. I made flashcards of every wrong answer from every practice test that I took, whether from Kaplan or on YouTube.

Writing out all of the concepts that I hadn’t retained prior to missing them on exams really helped hammer them home.

My simulated exam scores:

71
72
75
77
84
87
85
87
84

Practice exam: 77
Mastery exam: 81

QBank: 3000 questions answered, 79% average

Overall test felt like a challenge, but was prepared by limiting the unsystematic risk of my studying portfolio (ha)!

Hey y’all, I want to thank everyone in here for their advice. This subreddit definitely helped me pass today.

One thing I want to say is that I definitely recommend multiple vendors. I used Kaplan exclusively, but I definitely felt like there were lots of questions in there that I hadn’t seen before.

Best of luck to y’all!

They deliberately throw double negatives inside questions, their videos are being narrated by people that sound like they are having a stroke, they quiz you on items that aren’t discussed or defined until later in the book, they don’t have a damned mobile app… and if you buy the audio version of their book it is just a freaking robot reading the book… it is so unprofessionally done that the robot tries to read the charts, graphs and tables….

Holy hell this company is a dumpster fire of incompetence.

Hey everyone, I am struggling with passing tests. I have taken the 65 four times already and have failed each time only by a few questions. Today I failed my seven for the third time. I get overwhelmed with how many questions Kaplan gives and I don’t think that they test on the right material but then again maybe I’m the one wrong since I keep on failing. Would appreciate anyone in everyone’s advice on how to pass the 65 and give myself the best chance, including material, tips, tricks, tutors, and the blunt truth. Thanks

I recently took and passed the SIE exam earlier this year. The biggest takeaway I had was the difference in how questions where phrased between my study material (Kaplan) and the actual exam. Fortunately, FINRA has an online practice exam that very closely mirrors the actual exam wording. NASAA obviously does not have anything like this available. This makes me feel slightly unprepared for the actual exam even though my prep would indicate otherwise. For reference I am using Kaplan and averaging 84% across my 4 simulated exams taken. It seems to me that sometimes Kaplan does this thing where they intentionally mislead you in a question so its almost beneficial to choose the answer contrary to what its leading you to. This has lead to me thinking myself in circles sometimes and missing questions I really shouldn’t be. Is the exam similar in phrasing to Kaplan or not?

tldr: Kaplan phrases things really strangely and NASAA doesn’t provide an online practice exam. Is it fairly comparable phrasing or should I simplify my logic when choosing an answer?

Passed the Series 65 on my 3rd attempt on Saturday, and I wanted to share my experience for anyone struggling with this exam.

I’ll be the first to say: if I can pass this exam, anyone can.

I don’t currently work in finance. Everything I know about investing, trading, and the markets has been self-taught, so I was basically starting from scratch when it came to a lot of the material on the 65.

I started studying in January and took my first attempt in March and scored an 84/130.

I took a week off, regrouped, and went back to the drawing board.

For my second attempt, I purchased Luke’s course and booked quite a few tutoring sessions with him. I took the exam again in June and scored an 89/130. I actually felt really good about the progress I had made.

I booked a few more sessions with Luke, and this is where I think things really started to click. For anyone who doesn’t know, Luke has taught at the college level, and I genuinely think his ability to teach you how to think through the material, rather than just memorize it, made a huge difference for me.

For my third attempt, we focused heavily on my test-taking strategy.

One of the biggest changes I made was slowing down just enough after reading each question and asking myself:

“What exactly are they asking me?”

Then I would identify the rule or concept being tested, find the answer that best matched it, click it, and move on. I stopped constantly second-guessing myself and changing answers just because another choice sounded possible.

I also added other question banks into my studying for the third attempt. It was helpful to see questions written differently because, after enough time, some of the Kaplan questions can make you feel like you’re losing your mind. 😂 Also, for anyone worried about them, there are no Roman numeral-style questions on the actual exam.

My biggest advice after three attempts is this:

The Series 65 is incredibly broad.

Try not to get too caught up reading Reddit posts about exactly what someone saw on their exam and then studying only those topics. Your test could be completely different.

Instead, focus on understanding the concepts across the entire outline and, just as importantly, learn how to answer Series 65 questions.

There’s definitely a skill to figuring out what the question is actually asking, eliminating the distractors, applying the rule, and moving on without talking yourself out of the correct answer.

TL;DR: Passed the Series 65 on my 3rd attempt after scoring 84/130 and 89/130 on my first two. Used Kaplan, TestGeek, Series7 G, Luke’s course/tutoring, and CertFuel. The biggest difference on attempt #3 wasn’t memorizing more—it was improving how I answered questions: What are they asking? What rule applies? Pick the best answer, click, and go. Don’t obsess over what other people saw on their exams because the test is extremely broad. Learn the concepts, learn how to take the test, and don’t give up.

I passed my SIE last year and bought the Achievable Series 65 course afterward. Honestly, once school started, I got busy and completely forgot about it. 😂

I realized last month that my Achievable course was about to expire, so I scheduled my Series 65 for the day after the course expires — which means my exam is tomorrow.

I know I probably could've given myself more time, but here we are.

I finished all of the reading and have taken 5 practice exams. My scores have been:

53% - 4 days ago

59% - 3 days ago

71% - 2 days ago

72% - 1 day ago

75% - Today

I honestly feel pretty confident going into tomorrow, especially because I don't really get test anxiety.

My plan for tonight is to lightly review the questions I missed on my last practice exam, go over some of the concepts I've struggled with, and maybe listen to Series 65 in 60.

Tomorrow morning, I'm thinking about listening to The Mighty Ninety Series 65 on the way to the exam and doing a little light review beforehand.

For anyone who's taken the 65 recently, any last-minute tips or things you wish you had reviewed the night before/morning of the exam?

I’ve been averaging 70 to 77% on Kaplan and 74% ish on STC.

Am I ready to test next Saturday (8/22) if I hone in on my weak points Sunday through Friday?

I pushed it back from last Saturday (8/8) to 8/22.

I’ve been scrolling on here looking at recent test takers. I’m stuck just under 70% on the Kaplan practice tests. I read the entire text book about 4 simulated tests in and 1500 questions. How do I jump the jump into the 75-80% range? I have 1.5 weeks tills exam day and I feel like I’m just missing something. Took sie 2 years ago but this is a different animal.

I failed today, and I used Kaplan to prep. I had 65%, 72%, and 69% practice exams on Kaplan. bank average was 77%. I was surprised to see many questions with content I'd never encountered before despite taking over 2,000 practice questions and reading the textbook twice. The Kaplan questions didn't seem on track with the actual exam at all.

Would anyone suggest changing providers? If s, what are your suggestions? I hear STC, but I'm not familiar with them. I like Suzy's from Pass Masters videos and teaching approach, anyone tried that?

Just passed this morning after failing by 2 questions on 6/12. Couple of takeaways. Make sure you nail down financial reporting like balance sheet stuff for both corporations and individuals. I saw 4-5 questions on it. Efficient Market Hypothesis with weak, semi-strong and strong. I had two questions on that alone. Not much math, a couple of questions on total return and tax equivalent yield. Know the difference between 529s and Coverdells. Definitely know about non-qualified plan and how it doesn’t follow erisa guidelines. There are a lot of gimmes so make sure you don’t miss them. Also, make sure you know what counts as an assignment of an advisory contract, solicitors, etc. I started out using Kaplan and felt like a moron scoring so low. Failed on 6/12 but I knew I was right there. Bought 4 supplemental exams from STC and leveraged Claude as well. There’s just so much material but if I did it, anyone can. I hope this helps someone here. Don’t stress over this. You got it

Just wanted to pop in here to share the news since I was asking a lot questions, and getting a lot of great answers (looking at you Luke)
Easily the hardest of the Sie/7/63, and like others have said the bell curve is crazy on this one. I remember getting asked about included about 5 math questions, mostly basic bond math, EPS and P/E were very precedent too. I had 2 questions on futures and one on gold, about 3 on options, of course lots of questions of regs, several on BDs the majority on IAs. Tons of recognition questions related to suitability.
I actually pushed my test date back for this one, as I didn’t feel totally confident, and I’m glad I did.
Thanks again to all the people who helped out on this one,couldn’t have done it without you all.

Passed the S65 today - I used Knopman Marks, completed over 2500 practice questions, read the textbook and did 2 of their exams (74% and 76%). I also bought supplemental exams from STC (79, 81, 83, 86).

The bell curve of the exam is definitely real. The first 15-20 questions felt like a breeze. Once I got past those I definitely thought I was getting my butt kicked. Just stick with it, trust your gut and try not to get discouraged. Take your time and keep breathing. Narrow down your options and try and work off a 50/50.

I completed the 140 questions and took a quick break to regroup before I went back to my marked questions. It definitely felt like I was looking at them with fresher eyes/clearer mind. I was completing my practice exams in roughly 90-100 min. I took pretty much the entire time for the real deal, about 10 min left to spare.

During my time studying I’d come on here a lot. Definitely some noise, but a lot of helpful stuff too. It felt like a lot of people who passed did so quietly so just wanted to come here and say that plenty of people pass this thing! 70% pass rate - so don’t get discouraged.

Stick with it and you’ll be fine. Good luck to everyone studying

Studying for the Series 65 now and I just finished the Kaplan course (all unit readings, QBank quizzes, and checkpoint exams), but I have not done any practice exams yet.

I have averaged a 74% on QBank through 917 questions and a 73% on checkpoint exams.

I was thinking about buying STC, going through the book just to do a second sweep through the content as I don't feel fully confident in my knowledge.

Or would you guys just suggest diving into the practice exams right now and reviewing areas that are weak? 

I'm planning on sitting for the exam September 18th so I have time but where should I go from here?

Retaking the series 65 in 11 days. Took it for the first time back in March 2026 and scored 78/130. Investment vehicle characteristics was my lowest score so I have been focusing on drilling those down. Was originally using Achievable for the first exam, but felt like achievable didn’t quite prepare you enough for the material on the can. Switched to the Kaplan Qbank for the retake (doing at least 75+ questions a day along with study guides that I prepare)

While I feel better prepared for the second exam, I tend to be a nervous test taker. Any thoughts are I step into the final days of preparing are appreciated.

Wanted to write this in case it’s helpful for anyone. First off, can’t thank this group enough for the help and context during the study process. There is a lot in here that’s helpful but definitely also some noise. Everyone’s experience is different.

Started doing a hard push on studying in early May. Have a family and young kids + work in finance for a PE backed company so study time was limited to evenings and down time. Read all of Achievable. Did all the chapter quizzes. Got super backed up on review quizzes and said to hell with them. Started taking exams in July and was averaging high 70s low 80s. Pivoted to Kaplan 2-3 weeks ago and score immediately dropped to mid 60s. Achievable had me at like 85% readiness when I pivoted. Got it up to mid-70s. Reviewed misses, etc.

Exam was harder than I thought it was going to be based on some recent comments in this sub but manageable. Had a handful of flagged questions that I went back through. Took most of the time with maybe 30mins remaining.

Happy to answer anything I can and best of luck to everyone!

First, feel free to ask me anything. I’m not going to claim that my process would work for everyone, but I thought it might give encouragement to some that are doing things a little differently. I think it’s important to disclose prior work experience when discussing exam success. Personally, I don’t have any work experience with the vast majority of the source material. I work in tax and accounting, so obviously any tax questions were a breeze and most financial statement questions were as well. This helped with retirement plans but not as much as you’d expect.

In the past, I also took a great interest in macroeconomics, specifically how the Fed influences things (I’m really fun at parties btw). And recently, I spent a lot of time learning about whole life, variable life, etc. So those personal interests helped in a few areas.

Now that I got that out of the way, let’s actually talk about what I did to pass. The answer? QUIZ, QUIZ, QUIZ! I spent about a week using Freefellow.org, which has a lot of free material; their questions aren’t going to get you test ready though. I think it was beneficial to to get a bunch of easier questions early on though to help establish a base.

On August 2nd, I purchased the Kaplan Qbank and practice exams and I’ve pretty much been drilling questions a couple hours a day since. My process is basically to go unit by unit, attaining a satisfactory level in each once before moving on. I check answers as I go, read the explanations, and if things still don’t make sense, I look it up. So while I implied that textbook study is worthless, I think you just need to be efficient about what you take time to read.

I took a practice exam the other day and got a 72, but fair to say, Kaplan tries to trick you way more than the actual exam, and power to them for it I guess. Keeps things from getting formulaic. I probably drilled 1,000 Kaplan questions total and had probably done 500 questions from Freefellow before.

I know my style might be a little different than what most talk about, but I knew that it worked for me from when I successfully took the Enrolled Agent exams. I feel like a lot of posts overstate what is needed for this exam and I don’t want to hate or encourage anyone to be underprepared! But I guess my desire is to give confidence to those that haven’t been studying for months that it can be done on a shorter timeline! Feel free to ask me anything!

If you had to pick one book or resource to study end-to-end and be ready to pass, what would it be?

Not looking to piece together courses, YouTube, etc. Just a solid one-stop option with clear explanations and enough practice questions to know I’m ready.

Took the 65 for the first time. Received a 90/130. 🤢

My commute to work is roughly a ~1hr drive both ways. I figured listening to a podcast while driving will be somewhat of a valuable way to study. Any recommendations?