Introduction
Hello! Solomon Exam Prep has helped thousands of individuals pass the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) Securities Industry Essentials (SIE) licensing exam. The Securities Industry Essentials exam contains 85 questions and covers general securities industry knowledge. Of these, 75 questions are scored. The remaining 10 are experimental questions that FINRA is taking out for a spin before deciding whether to use them as scored questions. These experimental questions—FINRA calls them “pre-test items”—are not identified and are distributed randomly throughout the exam.
You get 1 hour and 45 minutes to complete the SIE. A passing score is 70%.
Any individual 18 or older may take the SIE exam. Unlike other FINRA securities exams, employment and sponsorship by a FINRA member firm is not required in order to take the SIE. To become registered, however, FINRA requires individuals to also pass one or more of the specialized representative level “top-off” exams, such as the Series 6, Series 7, or Series 79. In order to take a representative level exam, such as the Series 6, Series 7, or Series 79, one must be employed and sponsored by a FINRA broker-dealer.
FINRA has outlined the SIE exam content and categorized it into four “functions” or categories. The accompanying chart shows the exam functions and where each Solomon chapter fits into the FINRA content outline.
Function 1: Knowledge of Capital Markets—12 questions (16% of the exam)
Chapter 6: Issuing Securities: The Primary Market
Chapter 7: The Securities Markets
Function 2: Understanding Products and Their Risks—33 questions (44% of the exam)
Chapter 1: Equity Securities
Chapter 2: Debt Securities
Chapter 3: Investment Companies, Life Insurance Products, and Other Packaged Securities
Chapt