Series 26 Cheat Sheet.
The night-before summary, built like the exam.

The numbers to remember

• 110 total questions
• 165 minutes (2 hours and 45 minutes) time limit
• 70% passing score, with no separate scaled-score chart to memorize
• $200 exam fee
• Must be sponsored by a FINRA member firm (or applicable SRO member firm) to sit for the exam — you can't self-register
• Corequisite: SIE and Series 6 or Series 7 required to hold the registration
• SIE exam valid for up to 4 years; most other qualification exams stay valid for 2 years after registration termination
• Retake wait: 15 days after a first or second failure; 60 days after three or more consecutive failures within two years

Content domains and weights

• Function 2 — Supervises Associated Persons and Oversees Sales Practices: 49 questions (the largest function — nearly half the exam; covers correspondence review, sales-practice oversight, and complaint handling)
• Function 3 — Oversees Compliance and Business Processes: 45 questions (books/records, financial responsibility, AML supervision — nearly as heavy as Function 2)
• Function 1 — Personnel Management Activities and Registration: 16 questions (smallest function by count, but still fully scored toward your 70%)

High-yield review areas

• Supervisory review of correspondence, advertising, and sales literature before it goes out
• Customer complaint handling and escalation procedures
• Books and records retention requirements for principals
• Financial responsibility oversight and AML program supervision duties
• Registration and personnel-management requirements for associated persons
• Distinguishing which control or approval step would have caught a given supervisory failure in a scenario question

Top traps

• Underweighting Function 2 in study time because it feels procedural — it's nearly half the exam
• Skipping Function 3 compliance detail since it's technically smaller than Function 2 — it's only 4 questions behind
• Assuming you can retake immediately after a miss — a first or second failure still costs 15 days, and a third consecutive failure costs 60
• Forgetting that sponsorship by a member firm, not self-registration, is required to even sit for this exam
• Treating the SIE and Series 6/7 corequisites as optional add-ons rather than requirements for holding the registration
• Pacing poorly across 165 minutes and 110 questions — practice the full length under timed conditions before exam day
• Confusing knowledge gaps with careless errors when reviewing missed practice questions — the fix for each is different