Supervisory Analyst Exam (Series 16) Study Guide

The Series 16 (Supervisory Analyst Exam) is split into two separately administered parts, each with its own item count, time limit, and passing standard. There is no single combined score — you pass or fail each part on its own terms.

• Part I: Regulations — 50 items, 90 minutes, passing score of 72%.
• Part II: Valuation of Securities — 50 items, 120 minutes, passing score of 74%.
• Exam fee — $325 for Parts 1 and 2.

Eligibility requires the candidate to be associated with and sponsored by a FINRA member firm (or another applicable self-regulatory organization member firm). The Series 16 has no corequisite exam requirement. Candidates who have already passed the CFA Level I exam are exempt from Part II (Series 162).

If you fail an attempt, you must wait 30 days after the date of the prior attempt before retaking. After three or more failed attempts in succession, the wait extends to 180 calendar days from the last attempt. Because each part is scored independently, plan your study time so you meet the specific bar for the part you are sitting.

Part I focuses on the supervisory analyst's role in overseeing research analyst communications for regulatory compliance. FINRA organizes this part's 50 items around two functions:

• Reviewing and approving research analysts' communications to ensure compliance with applicable SEC and FINRA rules, regulations, and firm policies and procedures — this is the larger function, accounting for 34 of the 50 items.
• Serving as liaison between the Research Department and other internal and external parties — accounting for 16 of the 50 items.

The weighting tells you where to spend your prep time: the bulk of Part I tests your ability to actually evaluate a piece of analyst communication line by line against compliance standards, not just recite rule categories. Expect scenario-style items describing a draft report, email, or public appearance script, where you must decide whether it can be approved as written or needs revision.

The liaison function tests a different skill: understanding how the supervisory analyst coordinates between research, compliance, legal, trading, and outside parties like issuers or the media, and knowing where information barriers and escalation paths belong in that workflow.

Part II shifts from communications compliance to the substance of research reports themselves. Its 50 items split across two functions:

• Assessing the accuracy, consistency, and sources of data and calculations in the report — 16 items.
• Reviewing the report to ensure a reasonable basis exists for the analyst's conclusions — such as price targets, recommendations, ratings, estimates, and valuation parameters — 34 items, making it the dominant function in this part.

Because the second function carries more than double the weight of the first, most of your Part II study time should go toward evaluating whether an analyst's stated conclusion is actually supportable given the underlying model, assumptions, and market data presented. That means being comfortable with how valuation methodologies connect assumptions to outputs, and recognizing when a price target or rating does not logically follow from the analysis shown.

The smaller data-accuracy function still matters: you need to be able to spot inconsistent figures, mismatched sources, or calculation errors within a report before you even get to judging whether the conclusion is reasonable.

Before you can sit for the Series 16, you must be associated with and sponsored by a FINRA member firm (or another applicable self-regulatory organization member firm). This is a sponsorship-based exam, not an open-enrollment one — your firm registers you, and you cannot simply sign up as an individual candidate off the street.

Unlike many FINRA representative-level exams, the Series 16 does not carry a corequisite exam requirement, so you do not need to pair it with something like the SIE to register, which simplifies scheduling for firms bringing on supervisory analysts.

One notable path shortens the process: if you have already passed the Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) Level I exam, you are exempt from Part II of the Series 16 (Series 162) and only need to complete Part I (Series 161). If you hold this exemption, redirect essentially all of your study time toward the Regulations content in Part I, since Part II will not apply to you at all.

Confirm your specific eligibility and exemption status directly with your sponsoring firm and FINRA before you build a study plan, since these determinations affect which part(s) you actually need to prepare for, and mistakenly studying an exempted part wastes valuable prep time.

Because Part I and Part II are scored separately with different passing standards (72% versus 74%) and different time allotments (90 minutes versus 120 minutes), treat them as two distinct study projects rather than one combined effort.

• For Part I, weight your review toward communications review and approval, since that function makes up the majority of the 50 items. Practice working through realistic draft communications and identifying compliance gaps quickly, since 90 minutes for 50 items leaves limited time per question.
• For Part II, weight your review toward evaluating the reasonable basis for analyst conclusions, since that function dominates the 50-item section. Use the fuller 120-minute window to work through valuation logic carefully rather than rushing.

A general pacing principle that applies to any timed, item-based exam: do a first pass answering everything you're confident about, flag harder items, and return to them with remaining time rather than getting stuck early and running short. Track your practice accuracy separately for each function within each part so you know exactly where your weak spots are before exam day.

Reading the outline tells you what's tested; practicing under exam-like conditions tells you whether you can actually apply it fast enough. Run practice sets that mirror each part's real constraints — 50 items in 90 minutes for Part I, 50 items in 120 minutes for Part II — so you build an accurate sense of your pace against the real passing bar for each part.

As you go, separate your missed questions by function rather than lumping everything together. For Part I, note whether your misses cluster in communications review versus liaison scenarios. For Part II, note whether you're missing data-accuracy items or reasonable-basis-for-conclusions items. This function-level breakdown mirrors how FINRA structures the outline itself and will show you exactly where additional review time pays off most.

Retesting is costly in time even before you count the fee, since a first failure carries a 30-day wait and repeated failures extend that wait significantly — so treat a full practice run at real time and passing-score thresholds as your final check before you schedule the actual exam.