SIE Exam Question Concentration: Should I Focus My Studying?

When it comes to SIE exam question concentration, it’s hard to pinpoint one area where you should focus. This exam tends to be one of the most broad-based FINRA exams. Justifiably so, it is an entry-level exam. Treated as a co-requisite to other harder exams, this exam has a diverse set of questions. In today’s post, we will recommend where to focus.

 

SIE Exam Question Concentration: Read the Text

When it comes to focusing your studying for the SIE exam, we highly recommend you not get hung up on one specific area. This exam is unlikely to have heavily weighted sections.

Generally speaking, the SIE Exam won’t likely have more than two or three questions on any specific topic. However, some subjects are core and likely to show up. These include: Customer accounts, stop orders and limit orders (slobs and bliss), Options, and bond yields.

Getting stuck on one of these topics is usually not worth it. You can pick up points elsewhere. Of course, if you get stuck too many times, it can start to pose a problem. A SIE Exam Tutor can help fix that problem (we know some good ones!).

 

So Where Should I Focus?

Generally, we find students do best when they take full practice exams, and then backfill their issues. In other words, take two or three practice exams, find out your weaknesses, and then start to drill down on those weaknesses.

There are some areas where we frequently get questions. Fixed income securities, annuities, options, and investment risks are big problem areas. If you were looking to the hardest areas, we recommend you look at these. Mastering the difficult areas is highly likely to give you a head start.

Beyond this, we also recommend that you have the right curriculum. STC remains our favorite when it comes to learning for the SIE exam. Their practice final exams tend to be very close to where we believe the actual exam may be. One other important resource is the practice exam that FINRA has on their website. We recommend you do this a few times.

In the meantime, keep study notes or flashcards for your memorization work. Remember also, that there are very few formulas that you’ll have to know in detail. For more help or more information, feel free to reach out. Good luck!