Sorry if wrong forum, but just wanted to get a sense of how difficult or much studying is required for the Series 7 and Series 63 exams? I’ve completed the CFA up to level 2 and have been a credit trader for the last 5 years (moving from London to NYC next year) so kind of hoping it shouldn’t be too much work over Xmas…but just wanted to be sure! Appreciate any help.
If you use the Search function (magnifying glass in the upper right corner), you’ll find that this has been covered in quite a few threads.
I’ve never taken either exam, but the impression I get is that the correct answers are, respectively, not very and not much: perhaps 30 days for each.
I’ve never taken either exam, but from what I’ve been told. they’ll be a cakewalk for someone who has passed any of the CFA exams.
These exams, unlike the CFA, require a lot of memorization of rules (especially the Series 63) rather than application of concepts or problem-solving of some sorts. I’ve taken the Series 63 and 79 which I think is a lite version of Series 7. People fail them, especially more experienced/knowledgeable people, when they think they can apply finance concepts and logical reasoning in order to pass - you can’t. You need to memorize state security laws and FINRA regs.
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I have taken both Series 7 and 63. If judging by time, the Series 7 is 20-25% of the time required for one CFA exam. Series 63 is even less, more like 10-15% of the time required for one CFA exam.
While plenty of people fail Series 7, not many who spend 80 hours and have a brain fail it
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The first time I took my Series 7, I studied about 80-90 hours for it. I knew absolutely nothing about finance whatsoever.
The second time I took it, I had passed the CPA, CFA, and MBA. I studied about 15 hours, about 12 of which were taking practice tests.
63 is a different story. You probably need to spend some time in the material, because most of that is rote memorization. It’s a bunch of arcane rules and regulations and definitions, some of which don’t make any logical sense.