General Securities Representative Exam (Series 7)

From the SIE to a General Securities registration

The SIE and the Series 7 can be passed in either order; FINRA counts both as long as you pass both, and a person associated with a broker-dealer may sit them on the same day if Prometric has a seat for each. Together the three exams cost $642 in exam fees in 2026 (our arithmetic). NASAA’s exam FAQ lists the Series 63 fee at $147 and says the exam needs no sponsor: a candidate who is not associated with a firm opens the window through FINRA’s Test Enrollment Services System and pays the fee.

Where you sit it: a test center, unless FINRA approves online

You schedule the appointment with Prometric, FINRA’s test delivery vendor, at a local test center. FINRA’s online-delivery FAQ says only the SIE can be taken online without meeting additional requirements; for FINRA and NFA exams, the Series 7 among them, you must request and receive an approved accommodation before you can schedule online. FINRA considers two grounds: being immunocompromised and at increased risk for severe illness, or living more than 150 miles from a test center. The distance is measured from the address on file in CRD or TESS, and a temporary address is not accepted. Unless one of those applies to you, plan on a test center.

Changing the appointment

On a firm enrollment, FINRA charges a late-cancellation or no-show fee to the firm and the enrollment stays open, so you can book again before the window expires. Miss the window itself and the fee is not refunded or applied to another exam; FINRA has no hardship policy.

What it costs, and the 2026 increase

The figures are FINRA’s fee schedule for its 2024 rule filing (SR-FINRA-2024-019), which set the 2026 rise and holds both fees flat through 2029. The two exams together now cost $115 more than in 2025, a 30% increase (our arithmetic). A prep book or course page that still says $300 is out of date.

If you fail: waits and what a retake costs

The waits in force today are 30 calendar days after a first or second failure and 180 days after three or more failures in succession within a two-year period. FINRA has amended Rule 1210 to cut them to 15 and 60 days, but says the shorter waits are not yet in effect for candidates and will announce the implementation date in a regulatory notice. Counting from the first attempt:

The days are our arithmetic on FINRA’s waits, and the fee column assumes each attempt is enrolled at the 2026 fee. The jump comes at the third failure in a row: under today’s rule it costs six months before the next attempt, not one.

What the 125 scored questions cover

Most of the exam is one function: 91 of the 125 scored questions, nearly three in four, test information about investments, recommendations, transfers and records. Each candidate sees 130 items, the 125 scored plus 5 unscored pretest items placed at random, down from 10 pretest items and 135 in all before October 27, 2025; the 3 hours 45 minutes did not change. That is about 104 seconds an item (our arithmetic). There is no penalty for guessing, so answer every item. FINRA lists the passing score as 72. Because scores are equated across exam forms to account for slight differences in difficulty, the number of correct answers that clears it can differ slightly from one form to another.

FINRA’s Series 7 page, content outline and FAQs state no pass rate. If you have seen 71%, it comes from FINRA’s 2019 annual conference, as Knopman Marks reported it: the share of candidates who passed the Series 7 on their first attempt after passing the SIE on their first attempt, among top-off exams taken through March 31, 2019, when FINRA counted 10,542 Series 7 exams taken. It leaves out everyone who passed on a retake and everyone who needed a second try at the SIE, and it dates from 2019, so it is not a pass rate for the exam you will sit.

FINRA’s published format shows how the Series 7 differs from the SIE. The bar is 72, against 70 on the SIE. The session is 130 items in 3 hours 45 minutes, against the SIE’s 80 in 1 hour 45 minutes. And nearly three quarters of the scored questions sit in one job function, recommendations and the information behind them. The Series 7 study guide works through each function, and the practice test lets you check a section score before booking.