The Hidden Challenge With the Series 82: Bad Study Materials
Updated: Aug 11
At Britehorn Securities, we’ve long believed the Series 82 is one of the most useful exams — allowing our Reps to raise capital (in a primary offering) for their clients. For professionals focused primarily on private placement work — the Series 82 remains one of the best options. It is certainly much more targeted and compact of an exam than the much-larger Series 7, which also allows Reps to engage in secondary markets or with public securities.
The Real Challenge with the Series 82
Increasingly, we here at Britehorn have noticed a frustrating industry problem among our reps:
While we almost never see reps fail the Series 7 or Series 79 on their first try (even though those are longer exams), it's a pretty regular occurrence with the Series 82. We do not think the Series 82 is inherently “harder” than the Series 79 or Series 7 — so what's the problem?
The Series 82 suffers from significantly worse pass rates than the Series 79 or Series 7 — and we're convinced it's due to the study materials.
From everything I've personally experienced and heard from others in the industry, Kaplan offers better prep materials for securities-related exams than any other competitor. Plenty of reps have passed their exams using Kaplan's practice tests alone — which are known to have questions that closely resemble the actual exams. With huge question banks and the ability to take practice tests over and over (and review reasoning for wrong answers) — Kaplan does an excellent job preparing reps for the real thing.
Unfortunately, while Kaplan has study materials for the Series 79 and Series 7, it does not have them for the Series 82. They just don't see it as a popular enough exam, so we encourage all reps reading this to reach out to Kaplan to request its addition.
The providers of Series 82 study guides are:
And unfortunately, we repeatedly hear from candidates that those guides often do not resemble the actual exam particularly well — and in some cases, candidates believe the prep materials themselves contain incorrect answers. I’ve personally reviewed portions of some of these materials when representatives flagged concerns — and candidly, I do think some of their materials are actually inconsistent with FINRA rules and regulations.
That creates a difficult situation where highly competent professionals who likely would have no issue passing the Series 79 or Series 7 with strong prep materials may instead struggle because the preparation ecosystem for the Series 82 simply is not at the same level.
Why This Matters More Than Ever
Ironically, this issue matters precisely because the Series 82 is otherwise such a strong fit for so many professionals in our industry.
Modern lower middle market advisory work increasingly includes:
minority recapitalizations,
sponsor-backed transactions,
growth equity raises,
private placements,
and hybrid M&A/capital raise engagements
That’s exactly the type of activity the Series 82 was designed around. And at Britehorn, we still absolutely support the Series 82 as an excellent licensing option for many independent advisors.
So What Are Your Options?
We would love to see Kaplan Financial Education launch a comprehensive Series 82 prep platform, but they do not currently see it as popular enough to be a priority. Thus, regardless of what you do, we encourage all reps reading this to reach out to Kaplan to request its addition.
The more demand the industry shows, the more likely it becomes that the Series 82 finally gets the quality prep ecosystem it deserves.
In the meantime, you can proceed to take the Series 82 with the help of Pass Perfect or the Securities Institute of America — but what I would also encourage all reps to do, is to carefully read FINRA's official Series 82 content outline, and maybe even ask their AI of choice to built a supplemental study guide pulling purely from published FINRA rules and regulations. Consistent feedback we have heard from our Reps includes:
Know every possible obscure type of security and its FINRA definition.
Memorize the actual numbers of all the rules covered by the Series 82 content outline and what they cover.
Be prepared for Bar-exam-style situational questions that ask you to analyze hypothetical situations and apply the rules to them.
Make sure you're consistently scoring over 90% on any practice exams, as this number will drop for the actual exam.
The other option is to opt for the Series 7 and use Kaplan. It's a longer, more expensive exam — but it's a great alternative that will also allow you to engage with secondary offerings and public securities. (Contact us for a 15% discount code with Kaplan.)
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