Securities Industry Essentials (SIE) Study Guide

The SIE is scored on 75 questions, but the screen shows 80, because 5 unidentified pretest items are mixed in with the scored ones. Since October 27, 2025 that pretest count has been 5, down from 10. Nothing marks a pretest item, so every question deserves the same effort. With 105 minutes on the clock, the budget is a little over a minute per item, and the passing score is 70.

Three stem shapes

Almost every item in our bank of 709 published SIE questions opens with a person: a customer, a representative, an issuer, a candidate. The stem tells you what that person did or wants, and the question asks what follows. The first shape is the classify-the-conduct stem: an action is described and the choices are four labels for it, three of which name a real violation or a real product that fits a different story. The second is the where-does-the-risk-sit stem, where two contracts or two parties are compared and you name who absorbs the loss. The third is the arithmetic stem, where a dividend, a premium, or an equity figure has to be computed and each wrong choice is a single wrong step.

Negatives and superlatives

Watch for EXCEPT, LEAST, and MOST. An EXCEPT stem makes three true statements and one false one; read every choice before committing. MOST and LEAST stems concede that more than one choice is partly right and ask you to rank them, so the answer is the choice that responds to what actually changed in the scenario, not the choice that is true in general.

How to use the bank

Make one pass by outline area in the order below, reading the explanation for every miss and every guess. Then switch to mixed sets, because the real exam shuffles areas. The weights set your pacing: Understanding Products and Their Risks is 44% of the scored questions, Trading, Customer Accounts and Prohibited Activities is 31%, Knowledge of Capital Markets is 16%, and Overview of the Regulatory Framework is 9%. Spend your review time in that order.

Knowledge of Capital Markets is 16% of the exam, 12 scored questions, and our bank holds 110 items for it. The which-actor pattern names an action, such as changing tax rates, and asks which body could have taken it; the trap choice picks the wrong branch of government. The direction-of-the-move pattern gives a Fed action or a yield-curve shape and asks what follows; the trap choice reverses the sign. The what-may-the-representative-do pattern drops a customer request somewhere on the registration timeline of a new issue and asks what is permitted at that moment.

Worked example: what-may-the-representative-do

A registration statement for a new issue has been filed with the SEC but has not yet become effective. During this cooling-off period a prospective investor telephones a representative and says she wants to buy 500 shares. What may the representative do?

1. Accept the order and hold the customer's funds in escrow until the registration statement becomes effective, at which point the shares are released and the trade is confirmed to the customer.
2. Accept a non-binding indication of interest and send the preliminary prospectus; no sale, no funds, and no binding order may be taken until the registration statement is effective.
3. Accept the order and forward the firm's own research report on the issuer to help the customer evaluate the investment.
4. Decline all contact with the investor, because any communication concerning the issue is prohibited until effectiveness.

Answer: Accept a non-binding indication of interest and send the preliminary prospectus; no sale, no funds, and no binding order may be taken until the registration statement is effective.

Before effectiveness the only permitted communications are the preliminary prospectus and a non-binding indication of interest. The first choice tempts because escrow sounds cautious, but taking money is taking an order, which is a sale. The third choice fails because a firm research report is sales material that cannot ride along with an offering still in registration. The last choice overshoots: silence is not required, and mailing the red herring is exactly what the period exists for. The answer is the one choice that permits contact yet forbids any commitment.

Worked example: direction-of-the-move

The Federal Open Market Committee directs the purchase of a large quantity of Treasury securities from primary dealers in the open market. What effect is this action intended to have?

1. Bank reserves fall, the money supply contracts, and short-term interest rates are pushed higher, which represents a tightening of monetary policy.
2. Bank reserves rise, the money supply expands, and short-term interest rates tend to fall, which represents an easing of monetary policy.
3. The federal budget deficit is reduced, which constitutes a tightening of fiscal policy.
4. The reserve requirement is automatically lowered, obliging banks to hold more capital against their deposits.

Answer: Bank reserves rise, the money supply expands, and short-term interest rates tend to fall, which represents an easing of monetary policy.

Follow the money. When the Fed buys, it pays the dealers, those dollars land in bank reserves, reserves rise, lending capacity grows, and short-term rates ease. The first choice states the exact opposite chain and is the classic sign error; it describes what happens when the Fed sells. The third choice imports fiscal policy, but the budget deficit belongs to Congress and the Treasury, not to the open market desk. The last choice invents an automatic link to the reserve requirement, a separate tool the Fed changes deliberately, never as a side effect of a purchase.

Numbers and rules the bank keeps testing

• The Fed runs monetary policy; Congress and the President run fiscal policy, which is taxes and spending.
• Fed purchases of securities ease; Fed sales tighten. A higher reserve requirement also tightens, but the Fed rarely touches it.
• The discount rate is set by the Fed and charged to banks that borrow from it; the federal funds rate is negotiated between banks for overnight reserves.
• A firm commitment underwriter buys the issue and owns the unsold-share risk; a best efforts underwriter is an agent and the issuer keeps that risk.
• Municipal and U.S. government securities are exempt from Securities Act registration; mutual fund shares are not.

Trap to avoid

Candidates lose this area by answering the question they expected instead of the one asked. They know the Fed manages the economy, so any lever offered gets assigned to the Fed; they know buying is expansionary, so a stem in which the Fed sells gets answered as easing too. Before you choose, write the chain: who acts, what happens to reserves, which way rates move. If the action is taxing or spending, the Fed is out. If the Fed is selling, the banking system is losing money, not gaining it.

Understanding Products and Their Risks is 44% of the exam and 33 scored questions, the largest area by far, and our bank carries 315 items for it, so it gets two sections here. This one covers stocks and bonds. The who-gets-paid-first pattern lists claims on a company and asks for their rank in a liquidation or a dividend queue. The arrears and yield arithmetic pattern gives a par value, a rate, and a price or tax bracket, and each distractor is one wrong operation. The which-risk-just-changed pattern moves rates or prices and asks which named risk the holder now faces; the distractors are risks a different move would have triggered.

Worked example: who-gets-paid-first

A corporation is liquidated. Its capital structure includes secured mortgage bonds, unsecured debentures, subordinated debentures, cumulative preferred stock, and common stock. In what order are these claims satisfied from the liquidation proceeds?

1. Secured mortgage bonds, subordinated debentures, unsecured debentures, preferred stock, common stock.
2. Secured mortgage bonds, unsecured debentures, subordinated debentures, preferred stock, common stock.
3. Unsecured debentures, secured mortgage bonds, subordinated debentures, preferred stock, common stock.
4. Preferred stock, secured mortgage bonds, unsecured debentures, subordinated debentures, common stock.

Answer: Secured mortgage bonds, unsecured debentures, subordinated debentures, preferred stock, common stock.

Creditors first, owners last, and within each group the contract sets the rank. The first choice is the one most candidates pick, because it leads correctly with the mortgage bonds and only swaps the two debenture classes; but a subordinated debenture is defined by standing behind the general creditors, so it can never be paid ahead of them. The third choice puts unsecured debt in front of collateralized debt, which erases the meaning of a lien. The last choice pays equity before creditors, and no shareholder of any class collects a dollar until every lender is whole.

Worked example: arrears arithmetic

A company issued 6 percent cumulative preferred stock with a $100 par value. Because of financial difficulty it paid no preferred dividend for the past two years. The board now wants to resume dividends and also pay a dividend on the common stock this year. How much must be paid per preferred share before any common dividend may be paid?

1. $6, representing only the current year's dividend.
2. $12, representing only the two years in arrears.
3. $12 plus accrued interest on the two years of unpaid dividends, compounded annually.
4. $18, representing the two years in arrears plus the current year's dividend.

Answer: $18, representing the two years in arrears plus the current year's dividend.

Six percent of a $100 par is $6 a year. Two skipped years are $12 of arrears, and the current year’s $6 must also be paid before common receives anything, which totals $18. The $6 choice forgets that the cumulative feature preserves the missed dividends. The $12 choice remembers the arrears and forgets the current year. The choice that adds compounded interest is the subtle one: it treats preferred like a bond, but a dividend is not a debt, so nothing accrues on the unpaid amounts. The claim is preserved, not compensated.

Numbers and rules the bank keeps testing

• Liquidation order: secured, general unsecured, subordinated, preferred, common.
• Cumulative preferred: arrears plus the current dividend come before any common dividend, with no interest added.
• Rates up, bond prices down; long maturities and zero-coupon bonds swing the most.
• Below par, current yield exceeds the coupon; above par, it falls short.
• Taxable equivalent yield is the municipal yield divided by one minus the tax rate.
• Falling rates bring call risk and then reinvestment risk to a callable bond, and prepayment risk to a mortgage pass-through; rising rates bring extension risk.
• A right is short-lived and priced below market; a warrant is long-lived and priced above market.

Trap to avoid

The most-missed distinction is which risk a rate move switches on. Falling rates are good news for a plain non-callable bond, but the bank’s items describe a callable bond or a mortgage pool, where falling rates let the issuer or the homeowner hand the money back early. Candidates who answer purchasing-power risk to any bond stem are answering a rising-prices scenario the stem never described. Rates fell: think call, prepayment, reinvestment. Prices rose: think purchasing power.

The second half of the 44% Products area covers funds, exchange-traded products, options, annuities, and alternatives. The where-does-the-risk-sit pattern compares two products with similar names and asks who absorbs a loss: the insurer or the owner, the fund or the issuing bank. The premium arithmetic pattern gives a stock cost, a strike, and a premium and asks for maximum gain, breakeven, or profit at expiration. The which-fund-structure pattern describes how shares are bought or priced and asks which fund type that is.

Worked example: premium arithmetic

A customer owns 500 shares of a stock purchased at $42 per share and writes 5 call contracts with a $50 strike, receiving a premium of $2 per share. Ignoring commissions, what is the customer's maximum gain if the stock rises sharply and the calls are exercised?

1. $1,000
2. $4,000
3. $5,000
4. Unlimited, because the customer owns the underlying shares.

Answer: $5,000

A covered call caps the stock position. On exercise the shares go out at $50, so the customer keeps the distance between $42 and $50 on each share plus the $2 premium, and across 500 shares that is $5,000. Unlimited is the tempting choice because the customer really does own the stock, but the short calls promise delivery at $50 no matter where the stock trades. The $4,000 choice counts the stock gain and drops the premium; the $1,000 choice keeps only the premium, as if the shares were never sold.

Worked example: where-does-the-risk-sit

A customer is deciding between a fixed annuity and a variable annuity from the same insurance company. Which statement correctly identifies where the investment risk lies during the accumulation period?

1. In a variable annuity the purchase payments are held in the insurer's separate account and the contract owner bears the investment risk, while in a fixed annuity the payments are held in the general account and the insurer bears that risk.
2. In both contracts the insurance company guarantees the accumulated value against loss.
3. In a fixed annuity the contract owner bears the investment risk because the crediting rate is tied to the performance of a market index.
4. In a variable annuity the insurer guarantees the value of the separate account during the accumulation period, and only the amount of the eventual payout varies with investment performance after the contract is annuitized.

Answer: In a variable annuity the purchase payments are held in the insurer's separate account and the contract owner bears the investment risk, while in a fixed annuity the payments are held in the general account and the insurer bears that risk.

The account tells you the answer. General account money is the insurer’s promise, so the insurer eats any shortfall in a fixed annuity. Separate account money is invested in subaccounts the owner selected, so the owner takes the result, which is why the variable contract is a security sold by prospectus. The second choice gives both contracts a guarantee that only the fixed one has. The third choice describes an indexed crediting rate, not a fixed annuity. The last choice is the polished distractor: it moves the guarantee into the accumulation phase, but a variable contract guarantees mortality and the death benefit, never account value.

Numbers and rules the bank keeps testing

• Open-end shares are bought and redeemed at the next computed NAV; closed-end shares trade on an exchange above or below NAV. A UIT is a fixed, unmanaged portfolio.
• An ETN is the issuing bank’s unsecured note and carries its credit risk; an ETF owns assets.
• Selling just below a sales-charge breakpoint without mentioning it or a letter of intent is a prohibited breakpoint sale.
• Covered call maximum gain is strike minus cost plus premium; a long put breaks even at strike minus premium.
• Variable annuity: separate account, owner bears the risk, prospectus required. Fixed: general account, insurer bears it.
• Replacing an annuity restarts surrender charges and needs a customer benefit, not a fresh commission.

Trap to avoid

The most-missed distinction is between a guarantee and a wrapper. Candidates see insurance in an annuity stem, or exchange-traded in an ETN stem, and assume a protection the product does not carry. An annuity’s insurance features are the death benefit and the lifetime payout; the separate account itself can fall. An ETN’s listing gives it liquidity, not collateral. Ask what promise is being made and who is making it, and the tempting choice dissolves.

Trading, Customer Accounts and Prohibited Activities is 31% of the exam and 23 scored questions, and our bank holds 230 items for it, split here into two sections. This one covers orders, accounts, and margin. The which-order-does-what pattern describes a price move, often a gap, and asks what each order type does. The is-this-discretion pattern describes an instruction and asks whether written authority was needed, or describes a death or a joint registration and asks who may act. The equity arithmetic pattern gives a market value and a debit balance and tests maintenance.

Worked example: which-order-does-what

A customer holding stock trading at $46 enters a sell stop-limit order with a stop price of $40 and a limit price of $40. Overnight the company reports disastrous news, and the stock opens the next session at $34 and continues lower. What is the most likely outcome?

1. The order executes at $40, because the limit price guarantees the customer that price.
2. The order executes at $34, because a stop-limit order becomes a market order to sell as soon as the stop price has been elected, and the limit price applies only to the election of the order.
3. The order is automatically canceled, because the stock never traded at the stop price.
4. The order is elected when the stock trades through $40, but it may then go unexecuted, because the limit forbids a sale below $40 while the stock is trading in the $34 range.

Answer: The order is elected when the stock trades through $40, but it may then go unexecuted, because the limit forbids a sale below $40 while the stock is trading in the $34 range.

Two prices, two jobs. The stop at $40 wakes the order once the stock trades at or through it; the limit at $40 then forbids any fill below that level. A gap open at $34 elects the order and makes it unfillable. The first choice reads the limit as a guarantee, which no limit is. The second describes a plain stop, which would have sold near $34 and at least closed the position. The third fails because trading through a stop elects it just as trading at it does; the stock never had to print $40.

Worked example: is-this-discretion

A customer tells his representative: 'Buy me shares of that pharmaceutical company we discussed — you pick the moment today and get the best price you can.' The representative buys the stock later that afternoon without written trading authorization on file. Which statement best describes this situation?

1. The representative exercised prohibited discretion because no written authorization was on file
2. The order was not discretionary, because the customer specified the security and the action, leaving only time and price to the representative
3. The order was discretionary but permissible because it was executed the same day
4. The order required approval by the customer's spouse

Answer: The order was not discretionary, because the customer specified the security and the action, leaving only time and price to the representative

Discretion means the representative chose the asset, the action, or the amount. Here the customer named the company and the action of buying; only the moment and the price were left open, and time-and-price judgment needs no written authorization. The first choice treats any judgment as discretion, which would make every working order discretionary. The third choice concedes the wrong premise and rescues it with same-day execution; that limit governs how long a time-and-price instruction stays alive, not whether it needed paperwork. The last choice adds a spouse with no standing over an individual account.

Numbers and rules the bank keeps testing

• A limit sets the worst acceptable price; a stop is a trigger that becomes a market order; a stop-limit’s trigger becomes a limit order and can go unfilled.
• A short seller protects with a buy stop above the market; a long holder with a sell stop below.
• Discretion covers asset, action, and amount; time and price alone are not discretion.
• Margin equity is market value minus debit, and maintenance is tested against market value, never the debit.
• A power of attorney dies with the customer; open orders are canceled and the account is frozen until estate documents arrive.
• Rights of survivorship pass to the survivor; tenants in common passes to the estate.
• SIPC replaces missing cash and securities at a failed firm, never a market decline.

Trap to avoid

The most-missed distinction is between a trigger and a price. A stop price decides when an order comes alive and promises nothing about the fill. Candidates with a limit-order mindset expect to receive the stop price; candidates with a stop-order mindset expect a stop-limit to fill at all. When a stem gaps the stock past the trigger, ask in order: has the order been elected, and can it execute under its own price restriction?

The second half of the 31% Trading area is conduct: manipulation, fraud, account abuse, and the anti-money-laundering rules. The name-the-violation pattern describes a scheme and offers four labels, three of which share one symptom with the right one. The what-does-the-representative-do-next pattern places the representative in front of a red flag, such as split cash deposits or a colleague overtrading, and asks for the next step; the trap is the step that feels helpful and is prohibited. The who-benefits pattern describes a gift, a loan, or a trade sequence and asks why it is improper; follow the money.

Worked example: name-the-violation

Two representatives at different firms coordinate a plan for a thinly traded stock: throughout the day, their customers repeatedly buy and sell the same shares to each other at successively higher prices. No party's economic position meaningfully changes, but the printed trades create the appearance of rising demand, and outside investors begin buying. Which prohibited activity does this scheme best illustrate?

1. Market manipulation through matched trades intended to create a false appearance of trading activity
2. Churning, because the accounts show excessive trading relative to the customers' objectives
3. Insider trading, because the representatives acted on information the public did not have
4. Front-running, because the representatives traded ahead of anticipated customer orders

Answer: Market manipulation through matched trades intended to create a false appearance of trading activity

Look at who is being deceived. Nobody’s economic position changes, and the prints exist to lure outsiders; that is manipulation by matched trades. Churning is the seductive wrong answer because the accounts trade constantly, but churning is a representative overtrading a controlled account for commissions, and the victim is that customer, not the tape. Insider trading needs material nonpublic information, and there is none; the price is being invented, not leaked. Front-running needs a known pending customer order to jump ahead of, and no such order exists.

Worked example: what-does-the-representative-do-next

A customer who normally deposits modest sums brings in a total of $28,000 in currency over four consecutive business days in amounts ranging from $6,800 to $7,400, remarking that he wants to keep each deposit under the reporting threshold. How should the representative proceed?

1. Take no action, because each individual deposit falls below the currency transaction reporting threshold.
2. Accept the deposits but advise the customer that the firm intends to file a currency transaction report, so that he has an opportunity to explain the pattern before the report is submitted.
3. Refuse the deposits, close the account, and send the customer a written explanation of the firm's reasons.
4. Escalate the pattern to the firm's anti-money-laundering compliance personnel for evaluation and possible suspicious activity report filing, and say nothing about it to the customer.

Answer: Escalate the pattern to the firm's anti-money-laundering compliance personnel for evaluation and possible suspicious activity report filing, and say nothing about it to the customer.

Splitting cash to stay under a reporting line is structuring, and this customer announced his intent out loud. The representative’s only job is to escalate quietly. The first choice reasons from each deposit alone, which is precisely the loophole structuring is built to exploit. The second choice feels fair and is itself a violation: telling a customer that a report may be filed is tipping off. The third choice punishes and explains, which both alerts the customer and takes a decision that belongs to the anti-money-laundering officer, not to the representative.

Numbers and rules the bank keeps testing

• Matched or wash trades with no real change in ownership are manipulation; churning is overtrading a controlled account for commissions.
• Freeriding is paying for a cash-account purchase by selling the same shares; borrowing exists only under a signed margin agreement.
• Selling away is a private securities transaction without prior written notice to the firm; off-book trades and a finder’s fee are the tell.
• Structuring deposits to dodge the currency report is an offense; escalate to AML staff and never tip off the customer.
• Gifts tied to the recipient’s employer’s business are capped per person per year; paying personally changes nothing.
• Borrowing from or lending to a customer is barred unless a listed exception applies.
• A firm trading ahead of its customers’ orders violates customer priority.

Trap to avoid

The most-missed distinction is between violations that share a symptom. Heavy trading appears in both churning and matched trades; compensation appears in both selling away and churning; a customer instruction appears in both freeriding and ordinary cash trading. The distractors name a violation that shares one symptom with the correct one. Decide by victim and mechanism. Churning harms the account holder through commissions; manipulation harms the market through false prints; selling away defeats the firm’s supervision through concealment.

Overview of the Regulatory Framework is 9% of the exam and 7 scored questions, and our bank holds 54 items for it. The which-statute-or-body pattern asks which law or regulator owns a function; the distractors swap the two. The what-passing-the-SIE-gets-you pattern describes someone who passed the SIE without a firm and asks what that result is worth later. The registration paperwork pattern asks what happens to a Form U4 or U5 after a complaint, a resignation, or a conviction.

Worked example: which-statute-or-body

A customer asks a representative to explain how the Securities Act of 1933 differs in purpose from the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. Which explanation is correct?

1. The 1933 Act governs secondary market trading among investors and the conduct of the exchanges, while the 1934 Act governs the registration of new issues sold to the public and the delivery of a prospectus in the offering.
2. The 1933 Act created the Securities and Exchange Commission, while the 1934 Act established FINRA as a federal agency.
3. The 1933 Act governs the registration and full disclosure of new issues offered to the public, while the 1934 Act governs secondary market trading and created the SEC to oversee broker-dealers, exchanges, and market conduct.
4. Both statutes apply exclusively to municipal securities, which are otherwise unregulated at the federal level.

Answer: The 1933 Act governs the registration and full disclosure of new issues offered to the public, while the 1934 Act governs secondary market trading and created the SEC to oversee broker-dealers, exchanges, and market conduct.

Issue, then trade. The Securities Act of 1933 governs the first sale to the public through registration and a prospectus, and the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 governs everything that happens afterward in the trading markets, including the creation of the SEC. The first choice is the mirror image, picked by candidates who memorized two descriptions without anchoring them to a year. The second choice hands the SEC to the wrong statute and promotes FINRA to a federal agency, which it is not; it is a self-regulatory organization under SEC oversight. The last choice invents a municipal-only scope for both laws.

Worked example: what-passing-the-SIE-gets-you

A candidate passes the SIE exam but takes a job outside the securities industry and never joins a broker-dealer. Which statement correctly describes her regulatory status?

1. She is registered with FINRA in a limited capacity until she lets the result lapse
2. She is not registered with FINRA, and her passing result remains valid for four years
3. She is fully registered with FINRA and may service retail customers immediately
4. Her passing result never expires, but she must join a firm within four years to claim it

Answer: She is not registered with FINRA, and her passing result remains valid for four years

Two facts settle it: the SIE alone registers nobody, and a passing result lasts four years. Any choice that calls her registered, even in a limited capacity, fails at the first word, because registration needs a firm, a Form U4, and a representative-level exam; the first and third choices make that error in different sizes. The last choice inverts the clock: the result is what expires, and it does so after four years whether or not she ever joins a firm. Only the correct choice keeps both halves straight: no registration now, and a result that stays usable for four years.

Numbers and rules the bank keeps testing

• The SEC oversees FINRA, a self-regulatory organization, not a federal agency.
• The SIE is open at age 18 with no firm and no prerequisite exam; the result lasts four years; it is a co-requisite to the Series 7 and by itself registers nobody.
• Form U4 must be amended promptly for reportable events such as customer complaints, proven or not.
• Form U5 is the firm’s filing when a representative leaves, with a copy to her; FINRA jurisdiction outlives the departure.
• A recent felony conviction is a statutory disqualification, curable only through the eligibility process.
• Continuing education: an annual Regulatory Element per registration plus a Firm Element from the firm’s needs analysis.

Trap to avoid

The most-missed distinction is between being eligible and being registered. Anyone of age can sit for the SIE with no firm behind them, and candidates carry that openness one step too far and assume a pass creates a registration. It does not; the SIE is only the shared first half of a pair. Any stem in which a candidate tells friends she is registered, or expects registration upon hiring, is testing exactly this, and the correct choice is the one that adds the second exam.

Order the two weeks by scored weight. Understanding Products and Their Risks carries 33 of the 75 scored questions, Trading, Customer Accounts and Prohibited Activities carries 23, Knowledge of Capital Markets carries 12, and Overview of the Regulatory Framework carries 7. Products gets the most days because it has the most questions to lose, and Regulatory gets a single evening because its rules fit on one page.

Week one: one area at a time

• Monday and Tuesday: equity and debt. Read the equity-and-debt section above, then work Products items on the SIE practice exam until the liquidation order and the yield relationships come without thinking.
• Wednesday and Thursday: packaged products, options, and annuities. Draw the general-account versus separate-account split and the covered-call payoff on paper before each session.
• Friday: orders, accounts, and margin. Every stop and stop-limit item you miss, rewrite as a timeline: trigger, then execution.
• Saturday: prohibited activities. Sort every miss by victim and mechanism.
• Sunday: Knowledge of Capital Markets in the morning, Overview of the Regulatory Framework in the evening, then the SIE cheat sheet once before bed.

Week two: mixed sets and timing

• Monday through Wednesday: mixed sets only, timed to the real pace of 75 scored questions in 105 minutes. Log every miss under its outline area.
• Thursday: return to the two areas with the most logged misses and redo their sections above, including the worked examples, without looking at the answers first.
• Friday: one full timed set, then the cheat sheet’s if-then rules read aloud.
• Saturday: Products only, one more time, because 44% of the exam lives there.
• Sunday: rest. Reread the night-before checklist on the cheat sheet and confirm your Prometric appointment details on FINRA’s page.

If you are scoring above the 70 passing mark on mixed timed sets by the second Thursday, keep the schedule; if not, trade the Saturday rest for a second pass through whichever area is dragging the score.