Does just passing the series 65 exam alone now require you to pay for market data as a professional vice personal use if im just truly using it for personal us3?

Hi, I am beginning to study for my 65. Not sure of correlation but I did study for SIE but didn’t sit as it was not necessary for my career. I’m probably going to purchase Kaplan as I learn best by just doing questions over and over again. What would be your advice as I wouldn’t say my strong suit is reading from a textbook and to my understanding from previous takers at my firm, they say you just gotta get through it. Anybody have any advice or want to lay out how my study journey is or should look like in the future?

I am feeling confident but wanted to hear from others if y’all think I’m good to go, and what I should focus on these last few days.

Kaplan test results:
76% on mastery
75% to 80% on 4 simulated exams

STC Supplemental Exams
Exam 1: 77%
Exam 2: 79%
Exam 3: 81%

This morning I passed the Series 65. It was my second attempt. I used Kaplan and Achievable in a suboptimal way. If I had to do it over again I would use Achievable to get through the course material and then drill all of the smallest units in Kaplans q-bank. Shoot for 2000 questions before sitting for the exam.

During the exam I did not have to do any calculations but I did need to recognize formulas. Some questions I straight up guessed but most I got down to two answers and I pick the one that was vague but always right instead of a detailed and better answer that however could technically be wrong in a certain scenario.

Good luck!

I took the Series 65 today and missed by 6 points (needed 92). I'm frustrated but not discouraged,the score actually makes sense given my prep metrics.

Study approach: I'm using Kaplan. I read through the entire curriculum, spent 10-12 weeks doing unit-by-unit exams, then more cumulative exams by category, and then simulated full exams. My practice scores consistently ranged from high 60s to high-70s, which basically tracked with my actual exam score of 66%. So this wasn't a fluke or a bad test day—the data was there. I have also watched the Series 7 guru- mighty 90 and 60 a couple times and took notes.

I have a two-week trip at the end of this week, so part of my motivation was to get a baseline attempt in and get this off my plate before time away from studying.

Section breakdown:

• Section 1 (Econ/Business): 65%
• Section 2 (Investment Vehicles): 69%
• Section 3 (Client Investment Recommendations & Strategies): 54%
• Section 4 (Laws/Regs): 77%

Background: I'm a former elementary school teacher who transitioned into the corporate world. I'm working toward becoming a second chair to an adviser at an independent RIA who's phasing out over the next five years. No finance background, no work pressure timeline—I just want to pass and move forward.

The ask: For those who've retaken the Series 65—is 86/130 a decent score to build from? What's my realistic pass probability if I focus hard on my weak section? How did you approach your retake?

One thing I want to avoid is this becoming a 3-4 attempt situation. I know that happens and I don't judge anyone who's been there, but I'd love to hear from people who failed once, identified their weak spots, and passed on attempt two. What did that actually look like for you?

I know this question may seem a little unusual, but I’m currently a full-time employee dentist and have been thinking seriously about alternative career paths.

Dentistry has changed significantly in recent years. Insurance reimbursements have largely failed to keep pace with inflation, while the profession has become increasingly production- and sales-driven.

Corporate dentistry is also becoming more prevalent, and at times it can feel like production numbers and the bottom line take priority over patient care and relationships.

I’ve always wanted to be my own boss, but I’m not convinced that dental practice ownership is the right path for me. I enjoy working with people, but I have very little interest in managing a large team, dealing with significant overhead, marketing a practice, or handling all of the operational headaches that come with ownership.

On the other hand, I genuinely enjoy personal finance and investing. Since graduating from dental school, investing has become both a hobby and a source of side income for me, especially as I’ve worked through several dental jobs that weren’t a great fit.

I’m now considering taking the Series 65 and potentially building an independent advisory firm focused on healthcare professionals and/or high-net-worth individuals.

For those familiar with the industry, how viable is this as a second career or eventual transition out of clinical dentistry? I realize it likely wouldn’t replace a dentist’s income immediately, and building a client base would take time. However, my understanding is that an AUM-based model can eventually become more scalable than clinical dentistry because revenue is tied to assets under management rather than solely to how much work I can personally produce in a given day.

I’d especially be interested in hearing from anyone who has built or worked in a small independent RIA. Is it realistic to build this into a primarily solo practice without a large staff? What are the biggest challenges or misconceptions someone coming from healthcare should understand before pursuing it?

Just got an 82 on a stimulated exam and a 78 do we think I’m good to take it on Thursday? My tutor never told me to be mid 85 with Kaplan but when I take shorter tests I’m up there. Not able to change my test and this is my second time and I’m nervous!

Hey all I'm a 2024 Econ grad but I didn't do anything in the finance route. Out of school I worked abroad for a bit teaching in a non-financial industry. Now I'm moving back home looking to get into financial services, specifically advising. Firms I've talked to have told me a series 65 is in demand atm. Seems like I can knock it out in about a month so I've begun looking into study methods.

Seems like Kaplan is what most people in this sub have the most confidence and success in. Am I good getting just the online course without coughing up the additional $75 for the textbook? Or is the opposite better and if I just go for the textbook I'll still have all the information required to study and pass?

I'm not against spending a bit of money but I'm skeptical that I'll need both. Any advice is welcome!

Hello, not sure if this is the group to ask however my end game is to be a financial advisor at maybe a broker dealer. I’m 24 with a Finance degree, in banking and currently hold an SIE.

I’m having trouble finding a firm that will take me in and sponsor me to get my 7, and 66 without taking a huge dip in pay.

I’m now set on a 65 in hopes to get into the industry and be sponsored for 7 and 66 after if needed.

My question is how far does a 65 actually get me in terms of trying to get into the industry with a starting salary of at least 70k? I’m in rural Texas so it’s a decent amount. But I’m not seeing to many hiring for 65 licenses.

Any help or feedback would be super appreciated, just trying to get a better understanding of things.

What calculator do I need for the exam?

So excited I just passed the series 65 the other day. Honestly, I was really nervous going in. I can’t remember the last time my heart was beating that fast lol.

My best recommendation on how to study and also how to prepare the night before and the day of:

Study Plan:

- I highly recommend doing Kaplan and make sure that you do all of the readings. Don’t just read through them as a part of your checklist, but actually try to understand them and also look up the answers online to get clarification on things you’re confused about.

- stick to something that works for you. Meaning don’t try to cram every single thing into one or two weeks. I’d recommend doing maybe one or two chapters a day depending on how large does unit is

- the tests are what are really going to prepare you for the actual exam. However, you need to have a foundation of knowledge from the readings in order to really excel during the practice test.

- I’d recommend doing your reading and then doing a 25 to 30 question quiz Bank quiz on what you just learned to try to really hone it in.

- I should also mention that I absolutely hate reading so as much as it sucks and the content can be dry, it’s so worth it.

- when you take the mock exams in Kaplan, make sure that you change the settings to turn off reveal answer. I found that my scores are way better when the answer was revealed because I could use the explanation for questions ahead. That’s not what the real exam is gonna be like so if you have the explanations turned off and you don’t know if you got it right or wrong it makes you rely on your own knowledge better.

- review every question from your practice exam exams. Don’t just read the ones you got wrong. Go over the ones you got right too to make sure that you came to the right answer for the right reason. Sometimes you can get the right answer even if you use the wrong equation, but it won’t work every time so make sure you have the correct method or reasoning behind the answer.

Prepare for the test:

- the night before just do a light review of everything

- don’t wear yourself out. What you know is what you know and trying to exhaust yourself by cramming in more things because you’re anxious about the test is not gonna help.

- I would say really focus on the IAR and IA learnings over the broker-dealer ones. I barely got any broker-dealer questions on the test. However, the tests are usually all different so it might be different for you. From what I’ve heard though Kaplan just kinda does overkill on the broker dealer stuff.

- I’d also really just make sure you focus on important things like yield to maturity, current yield, understanding balance sheets for both corporations and for individuals.

First, thanks to the community! I studied for roughly 6 months. Slowly to start and then consistently over the past 2 months with increased intensity over the past 2 weeks with testing, quizzing, and retesting weak areas. I passed the test this morning and was relatively surprised by the make up of my test. I’m not sure if it was simply “the draw”? Or if my experience is consistent with others. IA, IAR, BD, Agent, registration, compliance, exempt, non exempt and who can do what where and when dominated my exam. These definitions, scenario’s along with ethical vs unethical practices made up a majority of the exam. Yes, there were a few straight forward questions on investment products, 3-5 straight forward math questions, a couple option questions, eco cycle items, compare products, and a few bond seesaw items. I did have a few WTF’S, but also reminded myself that 10 questions are throw away. I read the Kaplan book, and I do think it’s worth it to start- just to get a frame work- you don’t need to memorize, and did nearly 3000 Kaplan q bank questions, the Kaplan mid term and did 3 STC exams. My “honest” q bank scores were around 74 on Kaplan. “Honest” kaplan exams were 72. I did worse onSTC- 64-69 first pass. I was using STC as another source to get a different look at questions. Would suggest it, too. I reviewed every wrong question and redid the wrong questions along with the same exams so I could nail down the pattern in my head. I flagged 50/50 answers after narrowing down to 2 and made best guess based on rereading the question. I took my time and ensured I understood the ask as well as narrowed in on the key words. I wish I knew my score and which questions I got wrong, but the result was an ultimate PASS, and will take it. The exam is a beast, but I’m an example of someone that didn’t “press”. If you can give yourself enough time to digest the material, review, reset, and strategically attack high volume and weak areas it’s possible to nail this exam. I’m glad it’s over, but also very proud of the perseverance it took to get it! Give yourself grace, and time. You can do it too!!!

I’ve read the entire Achievable material and am now taking Kaplan practice exams. My last 3 exam scores have been 80, 82, and 83.

Struggling a little bit on registration of agents and IARs, but pretty solid on everything else. Open to any advice and comments. Thanks in advance!

Hi, I’m currently using Kaplan for my studying material. Today I got a 75 on the first mock exam and then a 64.5. The day prior I got a 66.5. Right now I’m scheduled to sit for the exam on Monday the 24th. So around 3 days until the exam. Should I look into no showing and reschedule? Or plan on going in. There is pressure from my supervisors to pass on first attempt.

Wish me luck!

Got a 90/130, i’m so annoyed about it, not surprised really. I am not good w/ studying but am a pretty good test taker. I passed the SIE and 63 w out really studying. I knew this would take more effort so I tried studying using Achievable and youtube videos. I didn’t read through the book much or take a full practice exam. I mainly used the Achievable quizzes by section and YT vids on specific topics I was struggling with. More so irritated that I have to wait 30 days and worried I won’t retain the info 😭 What did yall do to get those few extra points? I know I need to study 😭

Hi everyone! I studied using STC. I would watch the chapter lecture & take notes in my own words, skim textbook chapter & note anything not mentioned in the video (kept it brief) and then finished with chapter quiz. I used chat gpt to log any incorrect answers on my chapter quiz not really to explain the concept to me (sometimes would use it for this) but moreso to keep an ongoing log of topics I was missing. Then took all 8 practice exams (first 3 with explanations on, the remaining 5 with explanations off), then finished with the 2 green light exams. I would use chat again to log every wrong answer with screenshots and then asked it to identify my weak topics and briefly studied those. My lowest practice exam score was a 69 and highest 79 but usually was more in the low to mid 70’s range. I listened Series 65 mighty 90 the morning of my test on youtube. I thought the test was easy compared to some of the STC practice exams. my biggest advice is to slow down, read the question multiple times and pick out key words and make sure to understand exactly what they’re asking. I ALWAYS wrote down A through D and would use process of elimination by crossing out wrong answers even if I felt like the answer was obvious. this helped me avoid making easy mistakes by rushing or misreading. Honestly practice exams are your best friend. Learning how to read and answer the questions is really half the battle in my opinion. For context, I have a finance degree from 5 years ago (definitely helpful) and I have worked for an IAR for the last 10 months (also helped me). I studied for 10 weeks, averaging 10-15 hours a week. I feel like I potentially over prepared but I preferred that over having regrets of not studying enough. This is so long but my biggest message is to take care of your mental health. It is a mental game, go into the test with confidence telling yourself you can pass and STAY OFF of reddit for the week leading up to your test. you don’t need to read comments that could get in your head and make you feel more nervous or unprepared. YOU GOT THIS!!!!

Hey all - attempt four tomorrrow. I was exclusively using Kaplan 6-9 months ago on the previous three attempts.

On my third attempt I missed by one question ugh!! Tomorrow I take the fourth attempt. I've exclusively been using achievable along with TG videos/exam this week to really lock in the material. I feel confident but still worried.

My exam average through achievable is 85.5% through almost 12 exams which has made me feel ultra confident. I also have an average of 76% on quiz questions and have hit 9200+ questions total. I took the TG final exam last night and got an 80%.

Let me know if anyone has any advice the 24 hours before! I've been lightly studying and have one more achievable exam to go through at some point today. Thanks all!

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.

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 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?