How To Prepare Series Exam Efficiently Without Over Killing It
Tips that let you know you have prepared Series exam sufficiently
Introduction
To work in the industry of investment in the United States, you must sit for FINRA examination. The examination is known as General Securities Representative Exam which is also known as Series Exams. The examination is quite tough for many to pass. In this article, we will share some tips regarding FINRA examination. So, you will be able to pass the examination with flying colors. Tip #9 is often forgotten by many candidates and is my favorite.
1
Make a study plan
To pass the examination with flying colors you must make a proper study plan. You should spend at least 80 to 100 hours for preparing yourself for the FINRA examination. While preparing a study plan you must also reward yourself, give yourself a few breaks in between your study duration.
Make a list of things that you need to complete for your FINRA examination. Create a chart for yourself that includes your study time, leisure time and rest of things you need to maintain in daily life. Follow the chart strictly as you have no time to waste.
2
Learning the concepts and not memorizing everything
Memorizing everything is not a healthy method of studying. Rather you must learn the concepts and embed them in your memory. Try to use visual diagrams, flow chart or any types of chart to understand the concept more clearly and print it in the cells of your memory. It’s much easier to remember with the images.
Try to recreate a scene in your brain regarding what you have studied so far. By imagining it in your brain, you will be able to imprint it in the cells of your memory for a longer period rather than memorizing what you have learned so far.
Try to connect what you have studied in real life; this will make it easier for you to recall it anytime you want to remember. While you are preparing yourself for the FINRA examination make a smart reading plan, figure out what you really need to learn for the examination. Discuss with your friends, this will help you to imprint it in memory. As you are explaining it to your friend you are re-revising the whole thing repeatedly.
3
Take practice questions
It’s important to practice previous year question sets of FINRA examination. This will keep yourself mentally prepared and it will also help you to boost up your confidence level. As you have already prepared yourself mentally.
You can also prepare the question set by yourself regarding each topic you have completed. You can create your own questions sets such as multiple choice, true or false, fill in the blanks and brief questions to test your understanding of that topic. Even if you fail to answer all the questions, its completely fine since its just a mock test. You can just boost your confidence level by pampering yourself. By solving practice questions, you will get to know your lacking and you can re-revise the topic that you need to work on.
4
Have sufficient sleep on the exam day
It’s important to have enough sleep on the exam day. You need to retain all the memories regarding the FINRA examination that you have learned so far. Don’t forget to make enough time to sleep before the exam. Be careful about what you eat. You must eat only brain foods to keep yourself calm and your brain cell supercharged. Don’t drink too much caffeine it will keep your sleep deprived which is hazardous for your health.
Decorate your bedroom in a way that once you enter your room you will feel cozy and fall sleep sooner than you expect. Remove all distracting items from your room which will prevent you from sleeping. Do not keep your smartphone on your bed rather keep in another room, instead of your alarm clock in your mobile use a real clock for alarm.
5
Read the questions twice and as a whole
You must read the questions twice while you are sitting for the examination of FINRA. You should read the whole paper twice. Make a strategy in your mind, the answer to the questions you can recall faster, you should answer them at first. The questions which will need longer time to answer or you may need a longer duration to answer them keep them aside for the later.
While you are answering the questions if you remember anything regarding the long questions jot down the keywords of the answers somewhere in the paper, this will help you to answer the questions in a much more efficient way and you will be able to answer all the questions properly.
6
Have some related work experience
As FINRA examination is related to the investment industry, you should gather some work experiences related to this field. As during the examination, you will get questions related to the investment field. You need to earn experience in the field of finance to pass Series examination with flying colors. While gathering work-related experiences make sure that you have the following skill sets and knowledge and experience regarding:
• Financial modeling
• Financial analysis
• Data analysis
• Marketing skills
• ERP systems
• Strategic thinking
• Decision making
• Keen mathematical skills
• You must pay attention to even minor details
7
Don’t spend too much time on technical areas
You should not spend too much time on technical areas while you are answering the questions of the FINRA examination. As the main topics of the FINRA examination include the following questions:
• Equities
• Debt securities
• Municipal bonds
• Options
• Mutual funds and ETFs
• Life insurance and annuities
• Retirement plans, 529 plan
• Taxation
• Regulation
• Client and margin accounts
• Also including a variety of other rules such as products and finance concepts
The question set does not contain many technical questions. They might include some technical questions just to test your technical knowledge and its not important as answering the financial related questions as that’s the main objective of this examination.
8
Ensure your study materials and questions are up to date
You should make sure that your study materials are up to date as well as the previous question sets that you have received. This is a crucial point otherwise the damage might be severe. Missing up to date materials is equal to drowning. You would be simply devasted while you would be sitting for the FINRA examination.
FINRA always updates their course outlines. Missing a minor topic is simply hazardous for your career. You do not have to memorize anything; you just must understand the new topics of the updated materials.
Always keep an eye on their website to receive the updated course outline. You do not want to miss your chance to pass the exam. You would not dare to take such a risk for your career.
When all answers looks like a correct answer to you, always go for the one that is for the interest of the clients.
9
Always put the interests of your client above the revenue of the bank or institutions
You should prioritize your client’s interest first above the revenue of the bank or institutions. The clients should be the main priority as if you keep your client satisfied this client will refer you to more clients and this way you will get more leads, more customers. Client satisfaction should always come first to have better results.
By building your bonding with your client, you will be able to figure out the necessity of the client and this will help you to provide the best service required for similar clients. Any bank or institutions pay more attention and attention to the client’s priority beyond anything else, this will benefit both the bank and any institutions by figuring out what really the clients need and how to please them.
Once you ensure the trust of your client and bring more client for the bank or institutions. Your organization will have more faith in you and you might be greatly benefited from this achievement. Therefore, by making your client the first priority is not a bad thing at all. By providing a great service for your client, you will be benefited in every way. That is indeed a great opportunity and you should not miss it at all.
10
Take sufficient amount of sleep before the exam
Sleeping is crucial to be fully energized and recall your memory cells as required while you are sitting for your examination. Your brain will respond much better when you are fully relaxed. At least sleep for 7-8 hours before your examination. You should be very keen on what you are eating, only eat brain foods that will help your brain to be relaxed and which will help you to recall your memory cells much faster and the foods that will keep you calm, stress and anxiety free.
Make sure you do not drink too much caffeine before sleep otherwise you will be sleep deprived. Sleep is more important than you can ever imagine. Sleep deprivation will affect your performance, memory, your stress level, anxiety level will increase, all of these factors will affect your performance on your test, and the output you have planned to achieve would not be achieved at all. This will end up hampering your performance at your FINRA examination.
You definitely do not want to hamper your FINRA examination result, keep-distracting things away from your room, which will keep you, sleep deprived. You need to get a sound sleep before your exam.
11
You should definitely practice previous year questions as soon as possible. Otherwise, you would not achieve the preferred score that you have imagined to achieve at your FINRA examination. Like the previous year, questions will give you a brief idea about the question pattern of FINRA examination.
By practicing questions, you will get to know you are lacking your knowledge on topics that needs to be re-revised. You can start learning the topics that you are weak. This will help you to enhance your knowledge that is required to pass your examination with flying color.
By practicing questions you will understand your concentration level and the level of your memory. This helps you to set the environment similar to your examination so you would not get that nervous while you will be sitting for your real FINRA examination.
So, keep on practicing questions as much as possible and pass your FINRA examination with excellence.
Conclusion
In this article, we have shared 11 points, follow them and you will definitely pass your FINRA examination with excellence. Follow these 11 points by making a study plan, you should learn the concepts rather than memorizing them, start practicing questions, have sufficient sleep on the exam day, read the whole questions twice, gather some experience related to work, you should not spend too much time on technical areas as this is a financial examination you should focus more on the financial sections. Make sure your study materials are up to date; you should put the interests of your client above the revenue of the bank or any institutions. Do not forget to take enough sleep before your exam to retain your memories during the examination and definitely start practicing questions as soon as possible to measure your weakness and strengths as well.
I hope this article has motivated to enhance your memory in the study. Do not forget to share your feedback or any queries regarding this article, we are here to listen.
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Deborah H. Watson
Exam Content Reviewer
Deborah used to works in a global financial institutions. She is now a team leader in Fraser Exam content review team, constantly reviewing test bank and study materials content.