Tag: FINRA

Test-Taking Tips for the Series 79 Exam

If taking the test at a test center, you will be given a dry erase pen and whiteboard or a pencil and scratch paper, a basic electronic calculator, and an Exhibits Book. The Exhibits Book may be presented on your computer or as a physical pamphlet. You cannot bring notes, paper, or your own calculator. Phones and watches are not permitted either. Many of the questions will refer to tables or charts in the Exhibits Book, and some questions will require you to perform calculations.

The exam is administered electronically, but the computer format can be tricky. Before the exam, you will be able to take a tutorial on how the electronic system works. You should take the tutorial, since some people find the system awkward to use at first, and you don’t want to use valuable test time dealing with technical issues. There is no scheduled break during the test; you’re allowed to take an unscheduled break, but the clock doesn’t stop.

Due to COVID-19, the Series 79 exam can also be taken online. Candidates must submit an Online Exam Administration Request Form to FINRA. Be sure to review the online system requirements for online testing before submitting the form.

Pacing

The Series 79 exam has 85 questions to answer in 150 minutes, which is a little under two minutes per question. This means you’ll need to work at an average pace of about 105 seconds per question. Keep in mind that 105 seconds per question is an average speed that you must maintain over two and a half hours. This would be challenging even if every question was short and straightforward. Unfortunately, a number of questions are detailed and time-consuming, and will certainly take more than 105 seconds. You’ll need to work faster on the remaining questions to maintain the necessary pace.

Read and Understand the Question Before You Answer 

Questions on the Series 79 exam can be intentionally confusing. You should carefully read each question before you answer it and understand exactly what the question is asking. While it is important to make a serious effort on each question, avoid spending a large amount of time on any single question. In general, you should dedicate no more than five minutes to any one question. If you find yourself spending more than five minutes, give it your best guess, flag the question, and move on.

Getting to the Point of the Question

As many of the questions on the Series 79 exam are paragraph length, it is often a good idea to read the last line or two of the question before reading the whole question. This technique will allow you to focus on the aspects of the long-form question that are most relevant, thereby saving you time.

Predict an Answer Choice if Possible

Many test-takers quickly read the question and immediately skip to the answer choices. A better technique is to formulate what you believe is the correct answer before going through the answer choices. If your pre-phrased answer is one of the choices, you should be comfortable in selecting that answer. This technique will also help you increase your speed.

Read Every Answer Choice

You should always read every answer choice. The exam is full of attractive but incorrect answers. Also, if you notice several correct answers, you may have missed an “except” or “not” in the question. If you consider every answer choice before making your selection, you are less likely to be tricked into picking a wrong but superficially appealing answer.

Answer Every Question, and Don’t Dawdle

There is no penalty for guessing. If you honestly don’t know an answer, pick an answer choice and move on. Don’t dawdle. Even a random guess has a 25% chance of being right. If you spend too long trying to narrow down answer choices on one question, you’ve lost precious time on later questions.

Mark for Review and Return Later

If you’re struggling with a question or have no idea what the answer is, mark the question and return to answer it later. Not only does this strategy allow you to efficiently answer the ones you know, but it can also help because you may learn something later in the exam that may help you answer an earlier question. Just remember to save enough time to return to the questions you didn’t answer. However, it is not a good idea to simply skip all of the difficult questions with the intention of answering them later. You should make a serious effort to answer each question before moving on to the next one, as your thoughts are often clearer early on in the exam-taking process than they will be later.