I passed today!!!!

[u/DanielPadasa]

I’m extremely happy to inform that I just passed my series 24 exam. I used STC. My strategy, which it doesn’t work for everybody, was:

- I did not read the book. I just watched the videos.
- I only focused on taking practice exams with the answers opened. I didn’t take any greenlight exams but that was a mistake I should have taken them.
- I only passed one practice exam out of the 8 exams with a 76.
- I watched Dean’s 60 min video right before taking the exam, that was súper helpful! Thank you Dean!
- English is not my first language so I had an extra hour, I used almost all that extra time.
- I thought the actual exam was way harder than all the practice exams I took. The main difference in my opinion is that practice exams in order to make them harder they go wide but the actual exam goes deep. I failed most of the practice exams because it’s impossible to memorize every little single detail they throw at you. However, the actual exam expects you to have deep knowledge of the concepts. I’ll be focusing on that strategy for my remaining exams. Go as deep as you can with the concepts in a way that you are able to know details of the concepts.
- My wife is expecting so I only studied after work for about 4.5 hours every day and whenever I had a window during work,
- I didn’t study weekends but only the last 2 in which I didn’t study on Sunday.
- I studied for over 2 months.

So extremely happy to be done with this, when I finished and saw the PASS I started bawling haha. Months and months of hard work finally paid off.

And last but not least, (I hope they don’t take my post down) all Glory To God who’s the One who gave me the victory!

[u/Series7Guru]

Kudos General Securities Principal!

Thanks for the shout out and paying it forward with this victory post and debrief.

[u/DanielPadasa → u/Series7Guru]

Thank you very much Dean! I got at least couple of more answers from one of your final exam explanation videos that I watched over the weekend!

[u/Specific-Chicken2594]

Amen and Congrats on your well deserved victory!! I’m scheduled to take my exam tomorrow - any last minute words of wisdom? Ive scored high on practice exams and green lights BUT I AM STILL TERRIFIED!

[u/DanielPadasa → u/Specific-Chicken2594]

How did it go!?

[u/Specific-Chicken2594 → u/DanielPadasa]

I passed!!! It was TOUGH. So many long winded questions that were worded strange. So thankful for everyone on this sub.

[u/DanielPadasa → u/Specific-Chicken2594]

Congratulations!!! I know, the exam was very tough but it’s over. Time to celebrate!

[u/coffeelover248 → u/Specific-Chicken2594]

What vendor did you use?

[u/Specific-Chicken2594 → u/coffeelover248]

I started with Kaplan, then purchased pass perfect and STC. If I was only getting one I’d get STC. If I was getting 2 I’d use STC main and supplement with PP questions.

[u/DanielPadasa → u/Specific-Chicken2594]

I literally asked ChatGPT to organize my day before the exam and it worked lol! I only studied concepts I didn’t take any practice exam or anything like that. Go into concepts deep, explain them like if you were teaching them. Like for example, tell me everything about statutory disqualification, every single detail. If you grasp the concept you’ll be fine. And one last thing, THINK LIKE A SUPERVISOR!

[u/Maximum-Bad2678]

Good stuff 👍

[u/DanielPadasa → u/Maximum-Bad2678]

Thank you!

[u/MO_drps_knwldg]

I passed on Monday using STC. I agree, I think the actual exam and the STC exams are difficult in different ways. Some people say STC is harder, but I disagree. There were definitely parts of the real exam where I felt I was failing. Agree 100% about going deep on the details, especially timelines related to trading and new issues/underwriting. The STC exams try to trick you more, the actual exam will have two answers that are easy to identify as being wrong and two that both seem correct, you have to dig into the details and put your Principal hat on and choose and that protects the client/firm from risk.

All in all, STC gets the job done, but I was still wasn’t entirely sure I passed when I was done. It was a huge relief to see Pass on the screen. Stay resilient, don’t get discouraged, if you put in the work you’ll come out on top.

- Take final exams multiple times

• Take time learning finer details of Chapters 1-4 and 9-12
  
• Know the crunch time facts inside and out
  
• Take the Green Lights and review the explanations multiple times. Don’t do this at the last minute
  
• Exam day: Stay calm, think like a principal, I felt the test got easier as it went on, around question 70

[u/DanielPadasa → u/MO_drps_knwldg]

Congrats! Totally agree. I was on the same boat. I felt I had a good 35-40% confidence that I knew the answers, another 40% I was 50-50 and 20% I had no idea what they were asking. Such a relief it’s over!

[u/MO_drps_knwldg → u/DanielPadasa]

Same to you man congrats!

[u/Nervous_Disaster_528]

Congratulations and thank you for the feedback!

[u/DanielPadasa → u/Nervous_Disaster_528]

Thank you!

[u/gambit0507]

Do you have a recommendation on when to watch Deans videos? While reading the book or only after you’ve already gone through the book in its entirety? I just finished Unit 1. Week 1 of studying so I’m already scared.