The SIE or Security Industry Essentials is a type of introductory test that gauges your basic understanding of the general concepts needed to work in the securities industry. And it’s a prerequisite for those who are going to start a career as an insurance agent or financial agent.
Passing the SIE exam takes preparation. And if you’re interested to know more about this topic, then we suggest you continue reading as we are going to provide some useful test taking tips that you can follow for the SIE exam.
More Details About The SIE Exam
A candidate who is about to take the SIE exam must register first and then pay $60 to undergo the examination. Then, he or she must have a score of at least 70 to pass the test.
The format of the SIE test is as follows:
- Function 1: Knowledge of Capital Markets (12 questions or 16% of the entire exam)
- Function 2: Understanding Financial Products and their Risks (33 questions or 44% of the entire exam)
- Function 3: Understanding Trading, Customer Accounts, and Prohibited Activities (23 questions or 31% of the entire exam)
- Function 4: Overview of Regulatory Framework (7 questions or 9% of the entire exam)
And after passing the examination, the candidate will be eligible to have a career in the securities industry for 4 years and is qualified to take advance licensing tests (series 6, series 63).
Things You Need To Do During The SIE Exam Proper
Here are the test taking tips you need to follow for the SIE exam:
- Do The Initial Preparations Before The Exams
It is important to condition yourself first both physically and mentally for the SIE exam. Of course, you may feel a bit jittery and nervous, but that’s just normal. So take deep breaths to calm yourself and focus your mind only on the exam.
In addition, clear your head from any distractions that might get in your way from getting the right answers. Check out this link to see the SIE exam difficulty to give you an idea.
- Read All The Questions In Full
Confidence may give you an edge in taking the test, but it can also backfire if your confidence is somewhat misplaced because you will be less careful especially when reading the test questions.
To be specific, being overconfident may cause you to read the questions partially. And this is not good since the SIE test questions are designed to ‘trap’ candidates who don’t really pay attention to the whole idea of what the questions are trying to convey.
So as part of this list of test taking tips for the SIE exams, we advise you to read ALL the questions in full to get the whole idea. And don’t worry about not having enough time because you have 1 hour & 45 minutes to finish the test.
- Be Mindful Of Hedge Clauses
A hedge clause pertains to words or statements (or in this case, questions) that attempts to make you and other test applicants accountable for the accuracy of any information you have included in your answers.
We recommend that you also pay attention to these words and fully consider how these words or statements will actually affect the whole idea of what is being asked in the question.
- Interpret Unfamiliar Questions And Look For Any Keywords Or Phrases That Might Give You A Hint To The Answer
It might be possible that you will encounter questions that you’re not familiar with at first glance. So be sure to read the questions again and try to interpret the information being given so you’ll be able to figure out the meaning.
Likewise, find keywords or phrases that may give you a hint to the answer as sometimes they are also included to test your comprehension of test concepts from different angles.
- Use Information From Previous Questions
Most of the information being provided in the SIE test questions is interrelated, whichever way you look at it. So if you pay close attention you can actually use all the information from the previous question to guess the answer. In addition, these pieces of information mat provide clues on how you’ll be able to answer the other questions later in the test.
- Miscellaneous Tips
And lastly, you also need to keep in mind these SIE test taking tips:
- Don’t forget to bring a calculator as you’ll be using this tool in computing mathematical questions.
- Familiarize yourself with these 3 formulas as they may pop up during the SIE test:
- Sales Charge (load) percentage = (POP – NAV) / POP
- Current Yield = Annual Interest of Payment / Bond Price
- Dividend Yield = the Annual Dividend / the Stock Price
- Always trust your instincts as your first guess is usually the right answer for most of the time.
- Pace yourself and don’t mind much about the time. After all, you have more than an hour to answer 75 items. That is more than enough time for you to think carefully and complete the test with your best answers.
If you need help in passing the SIE exam, you can visit Professional Exam Tutoring’s website today to learn more.
