For the SIE Exam 2025 brings similar challenges to previous years. The exam has changed very little from year to year. As a result, we highly recommend you focus on what’s likely to show up. In today’s post, we preview some core areas we expect you to continue to see in this year.
SIE Exam 2025: What to Expect
As in years past, we expect the SIE exam in 2025 to cover a broad range of topics. Largely an introductory exam, the SIE content depth is minimal. That said, there are some very specific topics to review that we expect will show up with some regularity.
First, understanding the different yields is very important. This is a basic topic within bonds, and has shown up for years. At Professional Exam Tutoring, we expect this topic to continue showing up on the SIE exam in 2025.
Specifically, you will need to know the order in which the yields are placed. For example, nominal yield (coupon), current yield, yield to maturity, and yield to call is the order to remember. Most people get confused when the order reverses itself with discount and premium prices. Make sure you know the difference.
What Else?
Next, one should expect several questions on the dreaded Options section. Generally speaking, the vast majority of students have no practical reason to know this topic. Most will never buy or sell an option. Most will also never use or recommend options at their job.
Nevertheless, as one of the most risky derivative and equity-adjacent products available, plenty of emphasis is given to this topic. Fortunately, on this exam, basic concepts, such as “in-the-money” and “out-of-the-money” will be tested. More complicated topics such as breakeven with hedging strategies are more rare, but fair game.
What’s New in 2025?
When it comes to the SIE exam, the fortunate thing is the material does not change much. Many of the core areas that have shown up for years are still likely to show up today.
This includes questions on options, order types, yields, the different types of bonds, equities, and many more financial products.
We also highly recommend that you get familiar with some of the common tricks out there. For example, in the order types section SLoBS and BLiSS is a great acronym to learn. For SIE options, “call up, put down” is another simple and memorable trick. This one tells you and what direction the stock price needs to go for the option to be “in the money.”
If you were trying to decide how you should study for this exam, flash notes, and study notes are a great start. Many people can memorize their way through this exam – though that’s not true for some of the other more difficult exams like the Series 7. Here’s a little more on how to prepare.
How Difficult is the SIE Exam in 2025?
The SIE Exam difficulty has not changed significantly over the years either. You need to score 70% or higher in order to pass this exam. That said, most people with varying degrees of education can pass this exam. We have worked with everyone from Only a high school education to MBAs and PhD’s.
Like most standardized, exams, sometimes the most difficult thing can be interpreting this question. On that note, we always recommend that you take the question as literal as possible when answering. In other words, don’t read too much into things and don’t make assumptions.
As discussed, math remains very minimal. Knowing the formulas may help you understand the concepts better. However, the SIE in 2025 is unlikely to require that you use your calculator often.
Lastly, remember that you are allowed to write things down. You will most likely be given an erasable marker and a whiteboard or an acetate sheet. To help alleviate how hard the SIE can be for some people, write down any definitions or formulas that cause your problems immediately when the clock starts on your exam. Doing this can be a very helpful crutch to save your brain power for analyzing other questions.
What Section is Most Heavily Weighted on the SIE Exam?
The SIE Exam 2025 has to offer is no different than in years past in terms of its weighting. That is to say, this exam is not like the Series 7, which has heavily weighted sections.
The SIE questions are likely to be fairly well distributed, and you are unlikely to find more than two or three questions on specific areas, in our view.
Keep in mind that all of this may change on the Series 7 Exam. You may get upwards of 10 to 15 questions on topics like Options or Municipal Securities for example. Since there are only 85 questions on the SIE exam, and 10 of them are experimental, there is no room for that much concentration in testing just one specific subsection.
Why does this matter?
It can be good news or bad news for some people. The bad news is that you have to be pretty familiar with almost all of the content. The good news, however, is that the exam does not go especially deep on one subject. As long as you have a pretty good idea of basic definitions, or a little more knowledge, you should be able to get by with a diligent study schedule.
Sticking Points: Systematic Risk vs Non-Systematic Risk
On the SIE exam, are some very common sticking points. “Investment Risks” is one we hear about all of the time. Differentiating systematic risk versus non-systematic risk is key among them. If you’re looking for one area to tackle, we recommend brushing up here.
You should definitely expect this topic, or subsets within it, to be highly likely tested on the SIE exam in 2025.
One way to think about Systematic Risk is that it is basically, macro risk. Generally speaking, it is risk that you cannot avoid no matter your investment. This would be the risk of a market downturn or crash, inflation, interest rate changes, or major exogenous events like the pandemic or a terrorist event.
Non-Systematic risk on the other hand is risk that is micro in nature. In other words, it is unique to a specific company. For example, a risk specific to Apple would be if it turned out that a virus had infected all iPhones. An investor could reduce that risk by investing their money in 20 other companies. Thus, if Apple’s stock decreased significantly their other stocks may remain intact and their portfolio would only be minimally impacted. Another example might be a pharmaceutical company whose medication is rejected for approval by the FDA.
Diversification solves non-systematic risk. By contrast, diversification does NOT solve systematic risk since it cannot be avoided.
SIE Retirement Accounts
Many students taking the SIE exam in 2025 will likely share another point of confusion: Retirement Accounts. There are all sorts of retirement accounts you need to know. Some offered by private employers, such as the 401(k), some you can seek out yourself such as individual retirement accounts, or IRAs, and others for entrepreneurs, such as SEP IRAs.
All of these, and others, have fairly similar characteristics. Namely, many have deferred taxable gains. However, another point of confusion is the deposit of funds into the account. They can either be before tax or after tax. Make sure to brush up on the difference between qualified and non-qualified retirement accounts.
You may also want to extend this studying into Annuities. Annuities fall somewhere in between a retirement account and a financial product – typically sold by an insurance company. They also have tax benefits and come in the form of qualified or non-qualified.
In short, we expect this area to be another difficult one in 2025. This is a section on the SIE exam that will require memorization. Spend a little extra time here since it’s a very common problem area for students.
Have You Taken FINRA’s Practice Exam Online?
One of the best ways to figure out where you’re at in your study process is to do FINRA’s SIE Practice Exam online. In our experience at Professional Exam Tutoring, this practice exam is a very accurate gauge of where you might score on the real exam. This of course applies only the first time you take the practice exam. You should expect your practice score to go up from there.
On that note, you should know that this practice exam will be the same every time you take it. However, we still recommend trying it at least three times before your exam.
The first time will give you a very accurate sense of your current standing. The second and third times are to make sure that you know the answers inside and out. FINRA provides the correct and incorrect answers but does NOT provide explanations. As such, we recommend that you take the practice exam one last time right before you take your exam. Ideally within 48 hours of your actual exam. One reason for this is that it’s possible you may see an identical question from this practice exam on your real exam. So, you want to be as familiar with the correct answers as possible.
No matter what practice material you are using, we recommend FINRA’s practice exam online for your SIE prep. It is a great resource!
To Flash Card, Or Not to Flash Card…
When it comes to memory work for the SIE Exam, a lot of students ask us about flashcards. Some students prefer flashcards and some don’t. So when it comes down to it, what should you do?
What it really comes down to is what works best for you. To determine that, think back to your high school days or college days. When you were having to memorize study material, did you use flashcards then? If not, then I wouldn’t suggest it now.
Personally, I used to take handwritten notes in a notebook and found that most effective. I could visually picture which definitions went in different areas of the page. This somehow helped memorization.
If on the other hand, you frequently use flashcards, then I would recommend doing it for this exam also. What worked for me might not work for you.
A helpful tip to make sure you don’t end up with a stack of 300 flashcards is to only create flashcards for definitions, formulas, and rules and regulations that don’t seem to be sticking.
In our experience of seeing several hundred students per year, we find that when a student knows the definition, whether it’s firmly established or a rough idea of the definition, they seem to consistently get it right on practice questions. So, only focus your flashcards on those terms that you do constantly forget and cannot get correct on a practice exam.
This way, you will have fewer flashcards and when you review your flashcards – which we would recommend you do every night for at least 20 minutes – it won’t feel so overwhelming.
How Many Times Can I Fail?
Ultimately, we hope you don’t have to ask yourself this question. However, if you’ve failed the SIE exam twice, you only have one more shot before you’ll have to wait six months, or 180 days, to take it again.
Typically, after failing the SIE, you’ll have 30 days until your FINRA test taking window opens again. This ultimately means that you can’t even schedule your next SIE exam attempt until 30 days since your last attempt has lapsed.
Many people have stipulations in their employment contract that requires them to pass their exams over a certain period of time. That’s probably the more important reference point. Some employers are more tolerant than others when it comes to failed exams. Be cognizant of how many failed exams your employer allows for.
Lastly, we see many students that decide to take a first attempt at the SIE exam with how much studying. The assumption is that they can probably get by without too much work. Sometimes this is true, but rarely in our experience. Unfortunately, if you take this approach and fail, you burn through one of your strikes with either your employer or before you may have to wait 180 days to retake it. That may certainly increase the pressure that you pass the next time around, so try not to put yourself in that situation. Study for every attempt to the best of your ability.
How to Prepare
To prepare yourself for this exam, step one is to be realistic with yourself. We recommend that you read the textbook as the ideal approach. However, many students just won’t do this. Be honest with yourself as to whether or not you will do this. With the proliferation of video courses, we find students less and less willing to read the text.
The text covers a lot more detail and a lot more material than the video courses from most providers so it is definitely a superior resource to videos. However, if you can’t find the time to read the textbook, then at a minimum try to get through all of the videos.
Next, try to leave yourself at least three weeks for practice questions. Our preferred curriculum provider is STC when it comes to the SIE exam. STC has eight practice exams and two greenlight exams that make up the core and most effective study material in our opinion.
We recommend that after reading the textbook or watching the videos, you work through the eight practice exams offered by STC. Take note of any definitions, rules, and formulas you continue to get wrong. Spend time every day reviewing your wrong answers, and move on to the next practice exam with the same process.
Ideally, you will want to take all of the practice exams at least two times each. Once your practice score reaches or exceed 80% fairly consistently you should be ready to go.
Overall, we expect the SIE exam in 2025 to change very little. The same study process as 2024 should work very well. For more information or if you need an SIE Exam Tutor, please feel free to reach out. Good luck!