Series 52 Cheat Sheet.
The night-before summary, built like the exam.

The numbers to remember

• 75 scored questions — but 80 total questions appear on screen, because 5 additional unidentified pretest items are mixed in and do not count toward your score
• 150 minutes total testing time (roughly two minutes per question on average)
• 70% passing score — a fixed cut score, not a curve
• $260 registration fee
• Corequisite: the SIE (Securities Industry Essentials) exam must also be completed
• Governing body: the MSRB

Content domains and weights

• Municipal Securities — 60%: the core of the exam and roughly 45 of your 75 scored questions. Bond structures, pricing, trading, underwriting, and municipal-specific analysis all live here.
• Securities Laws and Regulations — 26%: roughly 20 scored questions on the MSRB rulebook and related regulatory requirements for municipal securities professionals.
• Economic Activity, Government Policy and the Behavior of Interest Rates — 14%: roughly 10 scored questions on how macro conditions and policy decisions move rates and municipal bond prices.

High-yield review areas

• Since Municipal Securities is worth 60% of the exam, it deserves the largest share of your final review time — more than the other two domains combined.
• MSRB rules (26% of the exam) tend to be tested in a literal, detail-driven way — review specific rule concepts rather than general regulatory themes.
• The interest-rate/economic-policy section is only 14% of the exam — a solid conceptual grasp of how rates and bond prices move is enough; don't over-invest limited review time here relative to its weight.
• Because 5 of the 80 total questions are unscored and unidentified, review your pacing so you never assume a question doesn't count — answer everything as if it's scored.
• Since scoring is a fixed 70% threshold across all questions combined, aim for consistent accuracy across all three domains rather than excelling in one and neglecting another.

Top traps

• Treating all three content areas as equally important — they are not; Municipal Securities alone is worth more than the other two combined.
• Skipping regulatory review because it feels dry — at 26% of the exam, weak performance there can sink an otherwise strong score.
• Losing track of time: with 150 minutes for up to 80 questions, get in the habit of flagging tough items and returning to them rather than stalling on any single question.
• Forgetting the SIE corequisite — the Series 52 registration path requires it alongside this exam, so plan your registration timeline around both.
• Assuming a low-weight domain (like the 14% economics section) isn't worth studying at all — a handful of easy points there still add up toward the 70% threshold.