Effective October 27, 2025, FINRA announced a reduction in unscored questions on both the Securities Industry Essentials (SIE) and the Series 7 Top-Off exams starting October 27, 2025.
Official communication from FINRA's website:
Effective Oct. 27, 2025, FINRA will reduce the number of unscored (pretest) questions delivered to candidates on the Securities Industry Essentials (SIE), Series 7 - General Securities Representative and Series 79 - Investment Banking Representative exams. Candidates who take these exams will receive five unscored questions instead of 10. The duration of these exams will not change.
Effective Oct. 27, 2025, FINRA will reduce the number of unscored (pretest) questions delivered to candidates on the Securities Industry Essentials (SIE), Series 7 - General Securities Representative and Series 79 - Investment Banking Representative exams. Candidates who take these exams will receive five unscored questions instead of 10. The duration of these exams will not change.
This change from FINRA reflects a reduction in unscored questions from 10 to 5 on each exam. Please note that the total exam time will remain unchanged.