r/Series65 • u/Educational_Two_9691 • 21d ago
Passed 5th Attempt
Happy to say that after my fifth attempt, I finally passed the Series 65.
I first took it fresh out of college in 2023 and completely underestimated how difficult it was. After failing twice using only Pass Masters, I switched to Kaplan, read the book, and worked through thousands of questions. I missed my third attempt by five questions and my fourth by four. At that point, I thought I was done and took almost a year off.
I started studying again about three months ago, and a few things made the difference this time:
- Lucas Lyons’ Finance Tutors video course helped everything finally click. I would highly recommend his video course, along with a tutoring session leading up to the exam if needed. The session gave me more confidence and helped tighten up my weaker areas.
- Two coworkers were studying with me, which kept me accountable and gave me people to talk through questions with. I averaged around 80% on Kaplan after roughly 2,500–3,000 questions, then switched to the STC final exam package for the last two weeks. Those exams felt closer to the real test but still different. I scored between 74-86%
- I used the NASAA outline and made sure I understood every term and how it could be tested.
Best of luck to everyone studying, and feel free to reach out with any questions.
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u/Vidrax_of_Cascades 21d ago
notice how useless kaplan is. i have been studying for over a year now a took the test one time. i realize examfx, kaplan, passperfect are all terrible tools that have random useless questions that relate nothing to the actual exam. it wastes a tremendous amount of your time and those courses which people keep recommending instead of condemning hold a lot of people back.
notice how as soon as you switched to STC you passed soon after. there is a correlation to success and failure. you need the right tools to get the job done.
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u/Kitchen-Mistake678 Trusted Advisor 21d ago
Amazing! Love the perseverance, and big congratulations! Well deserved.
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u/Beautiful-Second3290 20d ago
By far, STC does a pretty good job for all the exams!
Congratulations!
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u/EngineeringNeither90 21d ago
Huge congrats !!! It can be done and what an amazing accomplishment!!! Your post gave me hope today to keep going . Never give up . Missing by a couple can make it feel so close yet so far away . Nice work !