What Score Do You Need to Pass the SIE Exam?
Navigate the SIE Exam: learn about its passing score, scoring methodology, results, and retake process.
The Securities Industry Essentials (SIE) Exam serves as a foundational assessment for individuals seeking to enter the financial services industry. Its primary purpose is to evaluate a candidate’s basic knowledge of the securities industry, including its products, risks, and regulatory structure. Understanding the requirements and scoring for this exam is an important step for anyone aspiring to a professional role within this sector.
Understanding the Passing Score
To successfully pass the SIE Exam, candidates must achieve a scaled score of 70. This is not a raw percentage of correct answers. The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) uses a scaled scoring method to ensure fairness across different exam versions. A scaled score accounts for variations in question difficulty between different exam forms, ensuring every candidate is held to the same passing standard.
This means achieving a 70 does not require answering 70% of the questions correctly. The scaled score converts a candidate’s raw score into a standardized scale, allowing for consistent evaluation regardless of the specific questions encountered.
Exam Content and Scoring Methodology
The SIE Exam consists of 75 multiple-choice questions, which candidates have 1 hour and 45 minutes to complete. The exam also includes 10 additional, unidentified pretest items that do not count towards the overall score. These experimental questions are randomly distributed to test new questions for future exams.
The exam content is divided into four main functions, each with a specific percentage contribution:
Knowledge of capital markets (16%)
Understanding products and their risks (44%)
Comprehending trading, customer accounts, and prohibited activities (31%)
Familiarity with the regulatory framework (9%)
Performance across these content areas is combined to calculate the overall scaled score.
Receiving Your Exam Results
Immediately upon completing the SIE Exam, candidates receive an on-screen notification indicating whether they have passed or failed. A detailed score report is then provided. This report is available regardless of the pass/fail outcome and offers specific insights into exam performance.
The score report displays the candidate’s scaled score and a breakdown of performance by each of the four content areas. This detailed analysis helps identify areas of relative strength and weakness, which can be useful for candidates who may need to retake the exam. The content area breakdown is for informational purposes only and does not represent individual passing scores for each section.
Retaking the Exam
If a candidate does not achieve the passing score of 70 on the SIE Exam, there are established procedures for retaking it. After a first unsuccessful attempt, a waiting period of 30 days is required before a candidate can re-register and retake the exam. If a second attempt also results in a failure, another 30-day waiting period applies.
If a candidate fails the SIE Exam for a third time, the waiting period extends to 180 days before a subsequent attempt is permitted. There is no maximum limit to the number of times a candidate can take the SIE Exam, but these waiting periods must be observed after each failure. Candidates should also anticipate incurring re-examination fees each time they register to retake the exam, with the exam cost being $80.