A Series 66 dump sheet is a compact set of facts you memorize before test day and reproduce from memory on the erasable noteboard the test center provides, in the first minutes of the exam. The best sheets carry the testable facts that blur under pressure: the investment adviser registration split, the three ways a security registers with a state, the prohibited-practices list, and the formulas from the analytics section. This page is that cheat sheet. Memorize it, then dump it.
What is a Series 66 dump sheet?
A dump sheet (you will also hear cheat sheet) is a short collection of facts, thresholds, and formulas that you memorize cold in the final days before your exam, then rewrite from memory the moment the test begins. The Series 66 is closed book: no notes, no formula sheet, no paper of your own. What FINRA test centers do provide, with the standard station materials you return at the end of the appointment, is an erasable note board and dry-erase markers, and there is no rule against writing on the board before you answer question one. So prepared candidates spend the first two or three minutes of the clock dumping their memorized sheet onto the noteboard, then take the exam with a personal reference sitting next to the keyboard.
One nuance worth knowing: FINRAâs online-delivered exams swap the physical board for a virtual notepad in the exam software, but NASAA offers online delivery of the Series 66 by accommodation only. Plan for the in-person version: a board and a marker.
The two names describe the same technique from different ends. The cheat sheet is the page you build and refine while studying. The dump sheet is what it becomes at the test center, when you reproduce it from memory. Nothing on it can be something you could not write down cold, because you will have to.
The payoff is composure more than raw knowledge. Two hours in, when a question asks where an adviser with $95 million under management registers, you glance at your sheet and move on instead of second-guessing a threshold you knew perfectly at breakfast. (The answer: with the state securities regulator, not the SEC, because $95 million sits under the $100 million line. The full split is on the sheet below.)
Yes. Writing facts you memorized onto the noteboard the test center hands you is normal test-taking, not cheating. The line sits somewhere else entirely: reproducing or sharing actual NASAA exam questions is prohibited. NASAA copyrights every question and pursues violations. Keep your sheet to facts and formulas, and expect to turn the board in when you finish.
What should be on your Series 66 cheat sheet?
Build the sheet around the examâs weights and your own weak spots. NASAA weights the Series 66 at 45% laws and regulations, 30% client recommendations and strategies, 17% investment vehicles, and 8% economic factors. The blocks below cover the testable facts candidates most often blank on. Trim anything you never miss in practice, and fold the rest into the wider plan in how to pass the Series 66.
Laws and regulations: the 45% block
Nearly half the exam comes from the laws, regulations, and guidelines section, so this block earns the most space on your sheet. Start with who registers where.
| Who | Registers where |
|---|---|
| Broker-dealers | With the SEC and with each state where they do business, unless an exclusion applies |
| Agents | In every state where they solicit or place trades for clients |
| Investment advisers | State or SEC, split by assets under management (below) |
| IARs | Always at the state level, even when the firm is SEC registered |
The adviser split is the most quoted line on any Series 66 dump sheet. Under $100 million in assets under management, the adviser registers with the state. Over $110 million, the adviser registers with the SEC as a federal covered adviser (states get a notice filing and a fee, not a registration). Between $100 million and $110 million sits a buffer where the adviser may choose either, so firms do not bounce between regulators every time the market moves.
Next, the three ways a security gets registered with a state, in plain words:
| Method | How it works | Typical use |
|---|---|---|
| Coordination | File with the state at the same time as the federal registration; the state registration becomes effective when the federal one does | IPOs registering federally and in multiple states at once |
| Qualification | Full registration with the state alone, effective when the administrator says so | Intrastate offerings that never touch the SEC |
| Filing (notification) | Simplified paperwork for seasoned issuers that have registered with the SEC before and meet track-record tests | Established companies making follow-on offerings |
Two shortlists round out the block. First, the administratorâs powers: deny, suspend, or revoke a registration; subpoena witnesses and records; and issue cease and desist orders, with or without a prior hearing. The administrator cannot send anyone to prison or award damages; prosecutors and courts handle those. Second, the prohibited practices the exam buries in scenarios:
- Churning: excessive trading in a clientâs account to generate commissions
- Unauthorized trading: placing a trade the client never approved
- Guarantees: promising a client a result or guaranteeing against loss
- Commingling: mixing client funds or securities with the firmâs own
- Insider trading: trading on material nonpublic information, or passing it to someone who does
- Selling away: doing securities business outside your firm without its knowledge and approval
This whole block flows from one body of state law, and the Uniform Securities Act guide walks it section by section if any line above feels shaky.
Make Every Line of the Sheet Automatic
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Choose Your PathFormulas and statistics: the 8% block
The economic factors section is only 8 questions, but it is dense with formulas, and formulas are exactly what evaporate under exam stress. Dump these first.
Time value of money comes down to two decision rules. Net present value is the present value of an investmentâs future cash flows minus what you pay today: a positive NPV means take the project, a negative NPV means pass, and an NPV of zero means the investment earns exactly the required rate. Internal rate of return is the discount rate that makes NPV exactly zero, and for a bond the IRR is its yield to maturity.
| Measure | What it tells you |
|---|---|
| Mean | The arithmetic average; pulled around by outliers |
| Median | The middle value; resists outliers, so it is better for skewed data |
| Mode | The value that appears most often |
| Standard deviation | Total risk: how widely returns swing around the mean; higher means more volatile |
| Alpha | Return above or below what the benchmark predicted; positive alpha means the manager beat expectations |
| Beta | Market risk only: 1.0 moves with the market, above 1.0 swings harder, below 1.0 swings less |
| Sharpe ratio | Risk-adjusted return: portfolio return minus the risk-free rate, divided by standard deviation; higher is better |
Write the Sharpe ratio on your sheet in words: excess return over the risk-free rate, divided by standard deviation. The exam likes to check that it uses total risk (standard deviation), not beta. The economic factors guide works through the whole section, and the calculators are a quick way to check your work on the fund math that shows up across securities exams.
Financial ratios
Five ratios cover almost everything the Series 66 asks about company financials. The formulas matter less than the one-line reading of each.
| Ratio | Formula in words | What it tells you |
|---|---|---|
| Current ratio | Current assets divided by current liabilities | Short-term liquidity; above 1.0 means current assets cover current bills |
| Quick ratio | Current assets minus inventory, divided by current liabilities | A stricter liquidity test that drops the hardest asset to sell |
| Debt-to-equity | Total debt divided by shareholdersâ equity | How much the company runs on borrowed money; higher means more financial risk |
| Price-to-earnings | Price per share divided by earnings per share | What the market pays for a dollar of earnings; high can mean growth hopes or overpricing |
| Price-to-book | Price per share divided by book value per share | Market price against accounting value; below 1.0 can flag a bargain or a problem |
One caution for the sheetâs margin: no ratio means anything alone. The exam wants a comparison, against industry peers or the companyâs own history, before it rewards a conclusion.
Accounts and ownership quick facts
| Item | The fact to remember |
|---|---|
| JTWROS | Co-owners hold equal interests; a deceased ownerâs share passes automatically to the survivors, outside probate |
| Tenants in common | Each owner holds a set fraction; a deceased ownerâs share goes to that ownerâs estate, not to the co-owners |
| UGMA / UTMA | Custodial account for a minor: gifts into it are irrevocable, the assets belong to the child, and control transfers at the age of majority; UTMA can hold more property types |
| TOD | A transfer-on-death designation names who inherits the account directly, skipping probate, without changing ownership while you are alive |
| Traditional IRA | Contributions may be tax-deductible; withdrawals are taxed as ordinary income |
| Roth IRA | Contributions are after-tax; qualified withdrawals are tax-free, and the original owner never faces required minimum distributions |
Ownership questions on the Series 66 are scenario questions in disguise: who inherits, who pays the tax, who controls the account. The JTWROS and UGMA/UTMA glossary entries go one level deeper on the two that appear most often.
How do you actually use a dump sheet on exam day?
The technique has three steps: memorize the sheet cold, reproduce it fast, and glance at it instead of recalculating.
Memorize it cold in the last three days. Use the blank-page test: sit down with nothing and rewrite the whole sheet from memory, once or twice a day across your final three days. Compare it against the original, fix what you dropped, and repeat. When two rewrites in a row come out clean, the sheet is ready. If one line refuses to stick, that line is a flashcard problem; drill it separately instead of hoping exam-day adrenaline will save it.
Reproduce it as soon as your exam starts. Your testing station comes with an erasable noteboard and marker. When the clock starts, spend the first two or three minutes writing the sheet: the AUM split, the three registration methods, the Sharpe ratio, the five financial ratios, and whatever you personally confuse. Do it before you read question one, while your head is still quiet. Those three minutes cost you almost nothing against a 150-minute budget.
Glance instead of recalculating. The sheet earns its keep at question 80, not question 8. Late in the exam, tired candidates start re-deriving facts they already know, and re-derived facts wobble. A two-second glance at âover $110 million: SECâ settles the question with zero doubt and moves you on.
Run the routine in rehearsal too: start every full-length practice exam with the dump so the habit is automatic before it counts. The study timeline guide budgets 4 to 6 weeks for the Series 66; your cheat sheet belongs to the final week, after the learning is done and the drilling is underway.
A dump sheet that takes ten minutes to reproduce costs more than it saves. Cap it at one page, written in three minutes or less, and cut any line you have never actually missed on a practice exam. The sheet is stress insurance for your shakiest facts, not a copy of the textbook.
Memorize the sheet, then go test it
A Series 66 cheat sheet only earns its place if the lines on it are the ones you actually miss. Take a full-length Series 66 practice test, run the dump at the start, and watch which lines you reach for. Cut what you never glance at, drill what you missed anyway, and rewrite the sheet one notch sharper. Do that a few times and exam day becomes routine: the same dump, the same glances, and 150 minutes to prove what you already know.