The Knopman Marks study material for the SIE exam stacks up pretty well compared to some other providers. In this post we will explain just how we compare it.
Knopman Marks Study Material: Practice Questions
When it comes to Knopman’s study material, for certain exams you’ll find that they license Kaplan’s practice questions. However, for the SIE exam, they do have some of their own “home-made” questions.
At Professional Exam Tutoring, we have generally found is that their proprietary questions are somewhat more difficult than other providers.
For example, students that may achieve practice exam scores in the high 70% range with STC (generally sufficient to pass the SIE Exam) may score somewhere around mid-to-low 70s with Knopman.
On the other hand, those that use Kaplan may score in the 80s. For some reason, from the thousands of students that we have tutored, we’ve discovered that Kaplan’s questions tend to be slightly easier than most (which can sometimes lead to an inflated score – so be cautious of overconfidence with them!).
For those that use Pass Perfect, we find that students with about the same level of knowledge as those in the high 70s with STC, and mid-to-low 70s with Knopman, only get practice scores in the mid-to-high 60s.
Knopman’s Questions Are Quite Specific
Knopman’s questions are somewhat harder because their questions tend to be quite specific. They require a deeper understanding of the material than you might need for the exam. Furthermore, their practice questions have a disproportionately heavy weighting of math questions than is necessary for the actual exam.
This is not to say that their questions don’t help…they certainly do.
However, we often caution students not to lose hope when their practice scores struggle to hit the 80% range. The difficult math questions may not be representative of what you will see on the exam.
In general, you can likely expect somewhere between two or three math questions on the real exam where you may actually need your calculator. Some of you may even be experienced enough to do all of the math in your head.
Overall, our experience with students using Knopman for the SIE Exam is positive. The material is not overly complex, but is also sufficient to prepare the average student for the exam, and that’s all you can hope for.
If you have any questions please feel free to reach out. Good luck with your exam!