Seven SIE facts most prep sites still get wrong (checked against FINRA, September 2026)

On September 22, 2026, we checked the basic facts about the Securities Industry Essentials® (SIE®) Exam as stated on the prep sites and practice-test pages that rank for the main SIE search terms, against what FINRA publishes on finra.org and in its content outline. Seven facts were wrong on at least one first-page site, and several were wrong on most. The table lists each with its correct value and FINRA source.

Limits of the survey: a one-day check of public pages on September 22, 2026; sites change, and a site wrong that day may be right by the time you read this, so no site is named.

The correction table

1. The exam has 80 questions, not 85

The version of FINRA's SIE content outline that the SIE page links, © 2025 (the PDF is dated October 22, 2025), states that the exam consists of 75 scored multiple-choice items plus 5 additional, unidentified pretest items placed at random, for 80 items delivered. The previous outline, © 2024, said 10 pretest items and 85 delivered. That older PDF is still reachable at an undated URL, and FINRA's own Quick Reference Guide, last edited in December 2025, still says 10, which explains part of the confusion. FINRA's guidance is to refer to each exam's content outline, which says 5.

As of the survey date, several widely used prep sites still describe the exam as 85 questions with 10 unscored, and at least one sells a full-length practice exam built to the 85-question shape. Candidate accounts from before the change also describe "10 experimental questions", which keeps the old figure in circulation. The difference matters for pacing: 80 questions in 105 minutes is under 80 seconds each.

2. The fee is $100, not $60 or $80

The SIE enrollment fee has been $100 since January 1, 2026, under the fee schedule FINRA filed as SR-FINRA-2024-019. It was $80 in 2024 and 2025. On the survey date, three free practice-test sites, two of them updated in 2026, still listed $60, and two other prep pages listed $80. The fee is not refundable or transferable, and each retake is a new enrollment at the same fee.

3. Passing is 70 on an equated scale, and "53 of 75" is not a FINRA figure

FINRA states the passing score as 70 on a scale of 0 to 100. It also states that all candidate scores are placed on a common scale by a statistical process called equating, so that every candidate is held to the same standard regardless of which set of items they received. Because different forms have different difficulty, the number of raw correct answers that equates to 70 is not fixed, and FINRA does not publish it.

Several prep sites, including a free practice-test site ranking on the first page for the main SIE search term, translate the 70 into "53 of 75 correct" or "at least 53 right", which is 70 percent of 75 rounded down. This is vendor arithmetic, not a FINRA statement, and it can mislead in both directions: a candidate might need more than 53 on a form with easier items or fewer on a harder one. The honest way to read a practice score is as a raw percentage on that practice set, with no claim about the equated result.

4. A fail report does show a score

The statement "results are pass/fail only" is true for candidates who pass and false for candidates who fail. FINRA's test-center results page says that a candidate who passes receives no additional scoring details; a candidate who fails receives their overall exam score and their performance on each of the topic sections. Candidates who have shared fail reports describe a numeric score and a performance label for each of the four sections; the label wording is candidate-reported, not published by FINRA.

At least one widely read resource page, updated in August 2026, states without qualification that results are pass or fail only, and one practice-test site on the first page describes a per-section pass/fail indicator that does not match what candidates report. If you fail, the section breakdown tells you where to focus.

5. There is no published SIE-only pass rate

The "74%" that circulates across prep sites and blog posts is a 2019 figure. Two vendors relay it with different bases: one attributes it to first-time candidates as of August 31, 2019; another to "the first 16,000" candidates. No page on finra.org carries either version, and FINRA publishes no SIE-specific pass rate today.

The only current primary statement is in FINRA's rule filing SR-FINRA-2026-014 (p. 9): "Over 70 percent of individuals pass these qualification examinations on the first attempt", referring to 2024 first attempts aggregated across the SIE, the Series 7 and the Series 24. That figure cannot be separated into an SIE rate. Pages that state 74 percent as current, or pass rates "between 70% and 80%" from unidentified surveys, are not citing FINRA. Vendor-reported pass rates for their own students (87 percent, 93 percent, 98 percent and similar) rest on self-reported surveys or undisclosed methods, at least one of them counting candidates who needed multiple attempts, and are not comparable to any FINRA number.

6. Retake waits are 30, 30 and 180 days, and the 15/60 change is not in effect

Under FINRA Rule 1210.06 as it operates today, a candidate who fails must wait 30 days before the second attempt, 30 days before the third, and 180 days after the third and every later fail. FINRA has amended the rule to reduce these to 15 days and 60 days (the 60-day wait applying to three or more fails within a two-year period). The amendment was filed as SR-FINRA-2026-014 on June 29, 2026. FINRA's Weekly Update of July 1, 2026 states that the reduced waiting periods are not yet in effect and the current ones remain unchanged. As of September 22, 2026, no implementation notice has been published.

One practice-test site presents the 15-day and 60-day waits as current. A candidate planning around the shorter wait would find the 30-day wait imposed on rescheduling. When FINRA publishes an implementation date, this page will be updated.

7. The SIE is not a license or certification

FINRA is explicit: "Passing the SIE alone does not qualify an individual for registration", and "The SIE does not have a registration category". A passed SIE appears in no public registration record and confers no authority to act in the securities business. It is a co-requisite for the representative-level exams (Series 7, Series 6 and others), which require sponsorship by a FINRA member firm. A pass is valid for four years for an unregistered candidate.

Several prep sites, including at least one whose article body correctly says the SIE is not a license, still title their pages "SIE license" or call the exam an "entry-level certification". The phrase is common because people search for it, but a candidate who tells an employer they hold an "SIE license" is misdescribing what they have. What the SIE does offer, unlike every other exam in the FINRA sequence, is that anyone 18 or older can enroll and sit it with no firm, no sponsor and no Form U4.

How StreetPrimer's figures are sourced

Every exam fact on this site (question count, time, section allocation, fee, passing standard, score-report contents, retake waits, validity) is taken from a finra.org page or a FINRA PDF, quoted in an evidence log with the date it was fetched, and carries that date where it appears. Facts that FINRA does not publish (an SIE-only pass rate, sub-section question counts, the raw score that equates to 70) are stated as unpublished rather than estimated. Our methodology page lists each source and the date it was last checked, and every result screen carries the line: the real SIE reports an equated score on a 0–100 scale; passing is 70; a raw percentage is not an equated score.

The free run is one full-length, timed 80-question practice exam with raw results and a worked rationale for every item, with no account required before you take it.

Independent study tool; not affiliated with FINRA.