Customer Reviews

Pass the 65: A Training Guide for the NASAA Series 65 Exam (First Books Training Library)

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Ignore the long rants that Amazon prominently highlights and look at the overwhelming number of 4 and 5 star recommendations from satisfied customers.

Disclosure: this is the only "exam prep" material that I used, so I can't compare Walker's book to the (more expensive) Kaplan and STC material.

If you want to pass the 65, buy this book, read it, and follow the very explicit instructions Walker includes. For example, one should probably look at Form ADV and peruse the NASAA website for a couple hours. Visit treasury direct. Open a brokerage account and do some paper trades. If you're only relying on a "study guide" and totally ignoring primary materials, you probably shouldn't be taking the test.

The book itself is very readable, engaging, and as humorous as security law gets. As other reviewers have noted, the colorful (hence memorable) examples crystallize important concepts.

I bought the book on Thursday afternoon and crushed the Series 65 on Monday after about 20 hours of studying interspersed with lots of NCAA final four action. I also used and recommend the two practice exams available in .pdf format on Walker's passthe65 website.

Might there be some questions on your actual exam that address material not covered in the book? Sure, but that might account for 5-10% of questions, and you only need a 72% to pass. Also, those questions are dealing with relevant information; it's not like NASAA asks you to balance a chemical equation or something. If you master the material in the book, you will pass.

The book tries to use humor to illustrate some very technical and boring concepts, which keeps you interested. However, it is a fact as many others have stated that this book doesn't cover everything on the exam. If you have very little finances background, this will definitely not be enough. If anything it is just a start for you to get the basic exam concepts down, which you must then supplement.

I also don't quite like the way it is organized, the "Lessons" are okay until you get to lesson 4 which is disproportionately large and feels like the place where everything else didn't fit. Unlike with the previous three lessons, Lesson 4 has no helpful study sheet. That was a big minus, because lesson 4 to me is the most difficult and challenging to get right.

As other reviewers noted, the practice finals ARE a bit too easy in my view, and each final repeats certain questions from the earlier final. I'd rather he not repeat any questions, this way each exam has more value to it.

I also think that while humor is good when presenting the material, the exam certainly doesn't joke around - I wish that he had toned it down in the test questions and made them more realistic.

I passed the test first time around, but it wasn't without a lot of help from investopedia dot com's Series 65 review (check under Exam Prep, its free), and other finance knowledge I had.

Unfortunately there aren't as many Series 65 books as Series 7 or Series 63, so the choices are more limited. To boot, this book is certainly not cheap. Get it from your library if you can.

This book helped get the job done efficiently; I passed having read it through quickly one time. To give some background to this, I've been in this business since 1982 and was familiar with many of the concepts, so this book was more of a brush-up resource for me than a learning tool.

I also used a *.PDF format book I bought online (from MoMetrix Media LLC). Walker's PASS THE 65 helped clarify everything in it, too, and I liked having the two complementing each other. I also found Walker's writing style, approach, and perspectives refreshing and useful.

This book was the reason that I passed the S65. I used different study material the FIRST time that I took (and failed) the series 65. Discouraged and frustrated, I surfed the internet and found Robert Walker's Pass the 65. Reading this book made all the difference to me - it is written in plain English (like a novel instead of a dry text book), injecting humor so it keeps your attention. It breaks down the concepts into real life situations that you can understand and remember. Most importantly for THIS exam, he teaches you how to take the exam! This exam is designed to try to trick you, and Robert's book teaches you how eliminate the wrong answers, giving you a better shot at success. Lots of practice tests are available, so you can hone your test taking skills.

I am living proof that this book is great - in 5 weeks I went from another brand of study material and an exam score of 57% to Robert Walker's Pass the 65 and a PASSING SCORE OF 77%!

If you ace this book, you will pass with 85% score.You need to memorize everything in it.

The best book to read and learn, but has to be aided with test taking software.

Book is a pleasure to read, and I still reach for it, from time to time.

I only studied from this book for the test barely passed by score of 68, This book makes for easy reading as it is written with a flowing easy language plus it is written with humor.

If you are going to take the Series 65, I highly recommend this study guide. It is way better than the Kaplan book in terms of its readability and ability to explain difficult topics. It will tell you what you need to know to pass the test. There are also free weekly training sessions given by the author and supplemental materials available on his website.