Pass The 65: A Plain English Explanation To Help You Pass The Series 65 Exam 1st Edition

I ordered this book just to get some light reading done before taking the 65 exam, and before I decided which crash course I wanted to take.I started to read mixed chapters and realized how well written it was.This book runs you through the fundamentals of being in the securities industry, and how to apply knowledge and wisdom to your career.I ended up reading the entire book from cover to cover. Even if you are not taking the series 65, this book is essential to anyone's financial life. PLAIN ENGLISH.I took the exam and passed with 83%. I wasn't trying to ace it anyway, I took it easy on the exam, but I read this book from cover to cover. This is a masterpiece, put it up on your bookshelf for when you need fundamentals practice.A month later I ordered the series 7 books, and got the online crash course as well.I think it's worth it to go straight to examzone.com and just order the crash course bundle while you are at it. The examples and teaching style of Robert Walker is some of the best I have ever seen on the crash course. I have a degree in Finance, and Robert Walker would probably be one of the best university professors. This is a real life finance in a book. Legendary.Thank you to the team at examzone!! I would recommend this to anyone looking to pass any securities exams!

Ive read and watched a lot of material on topics covered in this book and this is by far the best I've come across for learning the material in a clear and concise step by step way. It brings many seemingly disparate concepts together into a framework. If you are preparing for the 65 its an obvious way to go. However, after reading through it, I would go further and suggest every investor wanting to better understand the financial markets (not just stock markets) should read/study this book.

Original 05/13/15: I'm under no pressure to take the exam but wanted to have a thorough enough understanding and comprehension of the material to take the exam should I decide to do so. I considered doing one of the $300+- packages with books, videos, online instruction, and quizzes. However, after doing a bit of research, which included reviews here, I decided that this book coupled with the free Series 65 Investopedia Exam Prep Quizzer should be more than adequate. The Author steps through the subject matter in a very simple and readable style and I expect to complete the reading portion in 20 to 25 hours. The Investopedia Exam Prep Quizzer is a great tool which can be quickly configured to exam section, number of questions, timing and tracking. I am finding the combination to be the perfect solution. I bought the Kindle version of the book for portability and easy reading.Update: 05/02/15: Once I got going, I didn't stop. After 18 days of study, I passed the exam with plenty of room to spare. I started with strong investor knowledge which gave me a leg up but the law and the recommendation material (80 of 130 questions) was all new. I reduced my rating from 5 stars to 4 stars because while the book was easy (and mildly entertaining) reading; I learned that some of the material was out of date. I did make heavy use of the Investopedia practice exams but found that some of that material was out of date as well. (When I refer to out of date, I refer primarily to various numerical statutory or tax code limits.) Overall, I think I would have passed the exam had I stopped there; however I did not. I found the Solomon Series 65 App for Android with 400 Q's for $10. The format is terrific and the material is current; however the 50 Q exams do not provide the ability to request new Q's and the repetition rates is extremely high. I did 11 exams (550 Q's) and was still hitting new Q's. I give the app credit for putting me over the top. Solomon sells a full-blown Series 65 Online Exam Simulator for $105; however (based on looking at the free demo) I think the Android App is a far superior format.

I passed the 65 yesterday with an 86 while using only this book and the practice exam bank. As others have mentioned the writing style makes the sometimes boring material much easier to get through. His definitions of options were the best I've seen (I took the 7 about 15 years ago)...referencing a guy walking into a bar and betting with patrons on the stock prices of Coke vs. Pepsi. This kind descriptive storytelling made the material much easier to retain. The lemonade stand analogy for income statement study was excellent, too. Chapter 4 became a bit of a grind...even Walker couldn't find much of anything humorous about the multitude of laws, regulations and rules around security and adviser registrations, but he did his best. The guy can be pretty funny. If you're taking the 65, buy this book and the associated exam bank...nothing else (including the go/no go exams) is necessary. Study it well and you'll do fine.

I have been using this book a week now to study for the test. It is clear to me that the people saying the glowing reviews are all fake were right. The book is laid out amateurishly. There's at least one paragraph that they just copied and pasted and seemed not to notice. It is confusing and doesn't break down subjects easily. There's a glossary but not an index. I'm constantly going to Investopedia to understand what they're talking about. They use words and expect you to know it then, and then define them 10 pages later. The quizzes at the end of the chapters are much too brief. The whole point of this book is to get you to buy their other study material. Pass and get a real study book.