Tag: exam prep

Studying for a knowledge test, like a securities licensing exam, requires significant effort over time. Solomon offers some helpful tips for studying and passing your securities licensing exam(s).

Updated July 29, 2022

Solomon Exam Prep Study Guides have helped thousands pass their securities licensing exams because they are written in clear, easy-to-understand language and contain the information you need to know to pass your exam. But what if you don’t enjoy reading or struggle with reading challenges?

If you prefer to learn by listening, Solomon Exam Prep Audiobooks offer the perfect way to study for a securities exam. Solomon audiobooks are complete, verbatim readings of the Solomon Study Guides. They are read by live readers who are experts on the subject matter.

Why an audiobook? One obvious benefit is that you can learn while you’re doing other things, such as commuting, working out, or doing the dishes. Besides the advantage of learning on the go, listening to the audiobook version of your Solomon study guide can benefit your studying in several ways:

Take the reading pressure off

First, you can learn the content without the additional work of reading. For many people, it’s easier to process and comprehend auditory words than written ones. And some people simply dislike reading or haven’t developed a habit of doing it, thereby making it a chore to sit down and read intensively.

Listening can be more accessible 

Second, audiobooks can help to address a range of diverse study needs. If you’re visually impaired or have a learning disorder such as dyslexia or ADHD, you may find it much easier to learn from an audiobook. In fact, audiobooks are the preferred choice for people with dyslexia because they allow the learner to get the meaning of the text while avoiding the challenge of decoding written language.

In addition, listening to an audiobook while reading can help people with ADHD because the audiobook helps to focus the mind on the material. In fact, according to the Harvard Health Letter, listening to an audiobook can help people who are having difficulty with traditional reading due to reasons such as stress and anxiety by helping them focus.

Listening vs. reading

But is listening to an audiobook as effective for studying as traditional reading? Psychology professor Daniel T. Willingham points out in one article that learning from written texts does have some advantages over learning from audiobooks. For example, the ability to see visual cues like headings and paragraph divisions, and the ability to reread sentences can all help with comprehension.

The good news is that the auditory cues present in audiobooks may be equally beneficial for comprehension. For example, the tone and inflection of the reader’s voice can tell us a lot about the meaning of a sentence. In fact, at least one study suggests that for adults, comprehension is similar for reading and listening.

Maximize your learning

Finally, if you’re someone who enjoys reading, then an audiobook is a great way to reinforce the material in an additional modality by listening while you read. According to one article, multisensory learning – when more than one sense engages with the same information – can result in better retention of new material. In other words, using more than one sense to learn (e.g., reading and listening) has been shown to be more effective than using only one sense (e.g., just reading).

Final Thoughts

It’s clear that there are many reasons why an audiobook can boost your studying. At the very least, listening to an audiobook gives your tired eyes a rest after a long day of focusing on a computer screen. And it might turn out to be an invaluable study tool, allowing you to sidestep reading challenges and maximize your study time.

To hear samples of Solomon Audiobooks for the Securities Industry Essentials (SIE) exam, Series 7 exam, and more, visit the Solomon website. Look for Audio Samples under the Learn More tab.