I recently finished taking my Series 62, i.e. the abridged 7, and wanted to post on hear my recommendations for future test takers as when I was preparing there was not a lot of information available on what to do an what to expect.
- Do Not and I repeat Do Not purchase the Wiley Review Guide. I did this the first time, and failed because it is completely incorrect. The book in itself does a poor job of explaining subjects, but the practice exam is where it fails spectacularly. The 400 question test bank is really a 200 question test bank that repeats, I shit you not. Also, all the questions care about are the specifics of the NASDAQ system. The actual exam has maybe 3 questions out of 120 on this, but you wouldn't guess it from their practice exam that thinks it's 80%.
- I went with STC after, as there was Knopman available for Series 62. I took 14 practice tests before the exam, and scored the following: 58%, 65%, 75%, 73%, 71%, 68%, 71%, 68%, 78%, 72%, 84%, 74%, 78%, 84%. STC has unlimited practice tests as they draw from a large pool of questions.
- My final score on the exam was an 85%. In comparison, I feel that the STC questions are more detail orientated that the actual exam. As in, the practice exam would usually have a questions such as what are the defining categories of a REIT, with two answers listing the full specifics but one having one of the percentages off by 5% which throws you off. However, I felt it prepared me well, the subjects were identical and some of the questions were verbatim identical. There were only 3 questions on the full exam that I had to flat out guess because I had never seen anything similar before.
I hope this helps future test takers!