A common misperception among students is that their FINRA and NASAA practice exam progress will be a steady ride upward. Seeing many thousands of students over the years, we can tell you that this is not the case. In today’s post, we discuss what you should expect from your practice scores. We conclude with how you know when to seek out help.
FINRA and NASAA Practice Exam Progress: Choppy
FINRA and NASAA practice exam progress is anything but linear. This is true for exams ranging from the SIE exam to the Series 7 Top-Off exam from FINRA, as well as the NASAA exams like the Series 63 exam, Series 65 exam, and Series 66 exam.
Even harder exams, such as the Series 86 exam or Series 79 exam for investment bankers don’t see straightforward progress.
Much like studying in college, you will likely see your scores go up…and then down. You should definitely expect that your scores will climb from the beginning of your studying until the end. But, what happens in between can be confusing.
What Happens In Between
The typical student that we see tends to start out with a practice exam from almost every textbook provider in the 40% or 50% range. With discipline studying, and practice questions, most students tend to jump up to 60% or higher within two weeks.
However, what is very common after this first jump is a slight regression or even a plateau. Some students may score a 65% on one practice exam, and then the next one is a 61%. This is mostly par for the course.
It’s very common to see slight improvements and then slight regressions. What is key however, is to look for the bottom score to come up. In other words, we tend to only get concerned when we see a score of 65% on one exam, followed by 45% on the next exam.
This type of extreme regression with a full practice exam is very unlikely. It often means the 65% score is in accurate, or the 45% score is inaccurate. From our experience it’s usually the 45% score which is inaccurate.
The most common culprit is low-level concentration. Do not watch TV, sports, or anything that will distract you. Also avoid taking your practice exams at 10pm. We usually see 10 to 15 point drops from students that try to take practice exams when they’re tired. There’s just no way you should expect your brain to function at 100% at the very end of the day.
Overall, don’t expect miracles in terms of your progress. Most people take about six weeks for most of the exams mentioned above, and some take longer.
The fewer practice questions you do, the longer it takes. The more days you only get 30 minutes of studying in, the longer it takes.
There’s not a lot of magic to it. It just takes discipline hard work, and focus. If you think you’re stuck in the 60% or 70% range and you’re not seeing your practice scores go up, that’s when you want to seek out help. Feel free to reach out if this is you. Good luck in the meantime!