At some point in your career you may have wondered ‘How much time off from studying should I take after I failed my FINRA exam?’ Unfortunately, it happens to a lot of people, and there’s no shame in taking a little break. That said, how much of a break you should take is the question. In today’s post, we will discuss that very topic.
Time Off From Studying After I Failed My FINRA Exam…How Much is Reasonable?
Failing your exam can be quite deflating. First, take some time to forgive yourself, and then come to terms with the fact that you may have to ramp up your studying. Although it’s fine to take a break, be careful not to overdo it. After all, if you truly want to pass your exam, you’re going to have to get back into the swing of things soon enough.
To put some numbers around the timing, at Professional Exam Tutoring the thousands of students we’ve seen have given us a sense of how long the average student can go before they start forgetting material. What we’ve found is that most people can go a week without studying and retain almost all of the information they once knew.
Getting past one week, and small bits of information may slip from memory. Therefore, our general recommendation is to give yourself at least a few days, but at most a full week, in terms of time off after I failed attempt.
What To Do After I Fail?
Without getting too promotional, if you missed your passing grade by a lot, you may want to seek out a professional – such as a tutor. If you only missed passing by a few points, then you may already know how to study effectively, but you maybe just need to put in more time.
A common issue we see from students who miss passing by only a few points is that a little more time spent on practice questions would help put them over the finish line.
To get specific, the SIE exam for instance usually requires the average student to complete all eight practice final exams on the STC platform twice around. Targeting a score in the low 80% range will usually get you there. If you’re using Kaplan, you may want a higher score, such as 85% or higher, and to do about 1200 questions.
For the Series 7 Top-Off Exam the number of questions you need to pass may be higher since it’s a more difficult exam. We see good success rates with students who target about 2,500 questions, and can get their score upwards of 82% or higher on a consistent basis.
Overall, most people need to target the same amount of hours, practice questions, and practice scores in order to pass the exam. Generally speaking, if you fail the exam the first or second time around, take some time off, but make sure to leave enough time so that you don’t forget everything you’ve learned because studying is certainly cumulative. And, if you were close the first time around, it shouldn’t take too much more for the next time. If you need any help, feel free to reach out. Good luck!