Series 65 · Investment Adviser Law Examination
The Series 65 pass rate: what the numbers actually say.
Roughly 1 in 3 first-time takers fails. There's no official pass-rate statistic — NASAA has never published one — but the number that decides your result is official and fixed: 92 correct out of 130. This page separates the real numbers from the marketing ones.
No account, no email, no card. 10 timed questions, scored like the real exam.
Series 65 by the numbers
~65–70%
First-time pass rate estimate
NASAA publishes no pass rates. This is the consensus range prep providers report from their own student data.
92 / 130
Passing score official
About 71% correct. Fixed by NASAA — every candidate faces the same line.
180 min
For 130 scored questions official
About 83 seconds per question. Pacing fails as many candidates as content does.
30 days
Wait before a retake official
After each of your first two failed attempts (180 days after a third), plus the exam fee again each time.
Why there's no official pass rate: NASAA, which owns the Series 65, has never published pass-rate statistics for it — so any precise-sounding figure you see online is an estimate, including ours. What is official: the 92/130 passing score, the 130-question / 180-minute format, and the section weightings below, all printed in NASAA's exam specifications. Our advice: ignore the pass-rate debate and train against the number that's fixed — can you get 92 right at 83 seconds per question?
Step 1 · Free
Find out if you'd pass — in 14 minutes
A 10-question diagnostic sampled from every section, on the real 83-second clock, graded against the real pass line. You'll know immediately which sections would sink you.
Real pacing, on a clock
83 seconds per question — the same rate as 130 questions in 180 minutes. If you've only practiced untimed, this is where you find out.
Scored against 92/130
Your report grades you against the actual passing standard and breaks results down by section, so you know exactly what to study next.
An explanation for every answer
Right or wrong, every question ends with a plain-English explanation — a missed question becomes a concept you keep.
Original questions only
Written to test the concepts on NASAA's published outline. No recycled or reconstructed exam content — that's someone else's IP and worse practice anyway.
Step 2 · When you're ready to train
Series 65 full access
$49 one-time
- Complete original question bank, weighted to the NASAA outline
- Unlimited timed mock exams and per-section practice
- Explanations and difficulty ratings on every question
- Score reports with section-by-section breakdowns
- 12 months of access, on any device with your access code
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Series 65 pass rate — common questions
What is the Series 65 pass rate?
There is no official figure — NASAA, which owns the exam, has never published pass-rate statistics. The consensus estimate from exam-prep providers' own student data is roughly 65–70% for first-time takers, meaning about 1 in 3 fails the first attempt. Treat any precise Series 65 pass-rate claim you see online as an estimate, because that's what it is.
What score do you need to pass the Series 65?
92 correct out of 130 scored questions — about 71%. This is official and fixed by NASAA. The exam also includes 10 unscored pretest questions, so you'll see 140 questions in total.
How hard is the Series 65?
The content is learnable; the format is what surprises people. You get about 83 seconds per question for 180 minutes straight, and 60% of the exam sits in the two heaviest sections (client recommendations, and laws & regulations). Candidates who only practice untimed questions routinely run out of clock. The fix is practicing full-length, exam-weighted, exam-timed mocks — which is what this site sells, and why the diagnostic is free.
What happens if you fail the Series 65?
You must wait 30 days before retaking it. Fail three times and the wait becomes 180 days. Each attempt also means paying the exam fee again — so a failed attempt costs both money and, for anyone with a job offer or clients waiting, a month of momentum.