The most-cited study-hour figure comes from CFA Institute: successful candidates report spending over 300 hours preparing for each level of the CFA exam, and even so only 43% of Level I candidates passed in August 2026. For most other exams there is no official hour count at all. The numbers people repeat come from prep companies or small surveys, and this page says which is which.
Below is one table covering 19 exams in finance, medicine, graduate admissions, law and driving, with each figure linked to where it comes from. Pass rates name their year and cohort, because "the pass rate" without a date means very little.
Official study-hour guidance comes from only one exam body in this table, CFA Institute. Everything else in the hours column is an estimate from a named prep provider, test maker or published survey.
| Exam | Recommended study hours | Typical weeks | Latest pass rate | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| CFA Level I | 300+ (successful candidates, self-reported) | No official figure | 43% (August 2026, 28,145 tested) | CFA Institute |
| CFA Level II | 300+ (successful candidates, self-reported) | No official figure | 43% (May 2026, 18,111 tested) | CFA Institute |
| CFA Level III | 300+ (successful candidates, self-reported) | No official figure | 50% (February 2026, 11,269 tested) | CFA Institute |
| FINRA SIE | At least 50 (Kaplan estimate) | No official figure | Not published by FINRA | Kaplan |
| Series 7 | 80 to 100 with a finance background, about 150 without (Kaplan estimate) | No official figure | Not published by FINRA | Kaplan |
| Series 63 | 30 to 40 (Kaplan estimate) | About 1.5 (10 days, Kaplan) | Not published by NASAA | Kaplan |
| Series 65 | No official figure | No official figure | Not published by NASAA | FINRA |
| Series 66 | No official figure | No official figure | Not published by NASAA | FINRA |
| CPA exam (4 sections) | 400 to 600 total, 100 to 150 per section (Becker estimate) | No official figure | 42% (FAR) to 78% (TCP), 2025 cumulative | AICPA, Becker |
| MCAT | 200 to 300 for students who do well (Princeton Review estimate) | 13 to 26 (3 to 6 months, Princeton Review) | Scored, no pass mark | Princeton Review |
| USMLE Step 1 | About 390 in the dedicated period (11.0 hours a day, one-school survey, 2014 to 2015) | About 5 (35.3 days dedicated) | 93% (2025, first-time US/Canadian MD, 23,028 tested) | USMLE, Burk-Rafel 2017 |
| USMLE Step 2 CK | No official figure | No official figure | 98% (2024 to 2025, first-time US/Canadian MD, 22,249 tested) | USMLE |
| USMLE Step 3 | No official figure | No official figure | 96% (2025, first-time US/Canadian MD, 21,589 tested) | USMLE |
| NCLEX-RN | No official figure | No official figure | 86.7% (2025, first-time US-educated, 192,916 tested) | NCSBN |
| LSAT | 250 to 300 (Princeton Review estimate) | About 13 (3 months at 20 hours a week, Princeton Review) | Scored, no pass mark | Princeton Review |
| GMAT | Median 50 (US) to 100 (East and Southeast Asia), GMAC survey 2015 to 2016 | 4 to 6 most common (28% of US takers) | Scored, no pass mark | GMAC |
| GRE General Test | No official figure | 4 to 13 (most prepare 1 to 3 months, ETS) | Scored, no pass mark | ETS |
| Bar exam (all US jurisdictions) | 40 to 50 a week for 8 to 10 weeks (BARBRI estimate) | 8 to 10 (BARBRI) | 76% (2025, first-time takers, 46,356 tested) | NCBE, BARBRI |
| Bar exam (ABA law school graduates) | As above | As above | 81% (2025, first-time takers, 39,630 tested) | NCBE |
| UK car theory test | No official figure | No official figure | 44.8% (Great Britain, April 2025 to March 2026, 2,924,430 tests) | DVSA |
Pass rates are not comparable across rows. USMLE, NCLEX and bar figures here are for first-time takers; CFA, CPA and theory test figures include everyone who sat the exam. All figures checked September 2026.
To turn any row into a weekly schedule, put the hour figure and your exam date into the study hours calculator. MCAT students can use the dedicated MCAT study calculator, which works from a baseline and target score.
Of the 19 exams above, only CFA Institute puts an hour figure on its own exam pages, and even that is a self-reported average from people who passed.
Prep-company numbers are still useful. Just read them as a planning range from a company that sells prep courses, not as a measured average.
The CFA is the only finance exam with official study-hour guidance and a complete public pass rate record; FINRA and NASAA publish neither.
For a week-by-week breakdown, see how long to study for CFA Level 1 and how long to study for CFA Level 3.
The format of each exam is official and published. Study times are prep-provider estimates.
| Exam | Scored questions | Time | To pass | Study hours (Kaplan) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| SIE | 75 | 1 hour 45 minutes | Score of 70 | At least 50 |
| Series 7 | 125 | 3 hours 45 minutes | Score of 72 | 80 to 100 (about 150 without a finance background) |
| Series 63 | 60 | 75 minutes | 43 of 60 | 30 to 40 |
| Series 65 | 130 | 180 minutes | 92 of 130 | No official figure |
| Series 66 | 100 | 150 minutes | 73 of 100 | No official figure |
Formats: FINRA pages for the SIE, Series 7, Series 63, Series 65 and Series 66. Series 63, 65 and 66 are NASAA exams administered by FINRA and also include unscored questions.
The "71% Series 7 pass rate" is a 2019 number. FINRA does not publish pass rates on its exam pages. The figures that circulate trace to 2019 FINRA data as reported by Kaplan: a 71% Series 7 pass rate for October 2018 to March 2019 (10,542 test takers), and for the SIE, an 82% overall pass rate and 74% for 58,264 first-time takers as of August 31, 2019 (Kaplan).
Those windows are more than six years old, and we could not find the underlying figures on finra.org. For the Series 63, Kaplan itself says "no official pass or fail rate has been recorded." Treat any current-looking Series 63, 65 or 66 pass rate as a guess.
Per-exam guides: how long to study for the SIE, how long to study for the Series 7, studying for the Series 7 and 63 together and studying for the Series 7 and 66.
Becker estimates 400 to 600 hours for the full CPA exam, or 100 to 150 per section (Becker). Its per-section estimates line up closely with AICPA's 2025 cumulative pass rates: the sections Becker says need the most time are the ones fewest people pass (AICPA).
Early 2026 results are similar: FAR at 42.95% and TCP at 79.53% for the first two quarters combined. Related: using AI flashcards for the CPA exam.
USMLE pass rates for first-time US MD students are above 90% on every Step, and no official body publishes recommended study hours for any of them.
The MCAT is scored, with no pass mark. The Princeton Review says most students who do well spend 200 to 300 hours preparing, usually starting 3 to 6 months before test day (Princeton Review). See how long to prep for the MCAT, or plan it with the MCAT study calculator.
The drop coincides with the pass/fail switch and the higher passing standard, but the USMLE data alone cannot show which one caused it. Planning guides: a USMLE Step 1 study schedule, how long to study for Step 2 CK and how long to study for Step 3.
NCSBN publishes no study-hour guidance. The NCLEX study planner builds a schedule from your test date, and the NCLEX flashcards guide covers what to put on the cards.
Whichever exam you are working toward, most of those hours should go on practice questions and self-testing rather than rereading. If your material is in lecture slides or PDFs, StudyCards AI turns them into flashcards so the hours go into recall rather than card-writing.
None of LSAC, GMAC or ETS publishes a recommended hour count; the best official data is a GMAC survey of how long test takers actually prepared.
The Princeton Review recommends 250 to 300 hours of LSAT preparation and calls a three-month period at about 20 hours a week a good goal for most students (Princeton Review). More detail in how long to study for the LSAT.
GMAC's survey of prospective students (2015 to 2016, published 2017) found the median number of GMAT preparation hours varied twofold by region (GMAC):
Among US test takers, 28% started preparing four to six weeks ahead, 22% one to three weeks ahead and 16% ten weeks or more. 16% started less than a week before or did not prepare in advance at all. The survey is from 2015 to 2016, so treat it as a historical baseline. See how long to study for the GMAT.
ETS gives a duration rather than an hour count: "According to ETS research, most test takers prepare for 1 to 3 months" (ETS). Our guide on how long to study for the GRE converts that into weekly hours.
About three in four first-time bar takers pass: 76% of 46,356 in 2025, according to NCBE.
On hours, BARBRI describes bar prep as a full-time job of 40 to 50 hours a week for 8 to 10 weeks, and notes that many students believe they need 400 to 500 hours (BARBRI).
AccessLex's study of first-time California bar takers in the seven weeks before the July exam found that pass likelihood was strongly associated with average daily study hours, but graduates averaging 10 or more hours a day were more likely to report running out of time on the exam, a sign of diminishing returns (Jackson and Cochran, AccessLex, 2021). Working during bar prep was associated with lower pass rates. For tactics, see bar exam flashcards and how to use AI to study for the bar exam.
Fewer than half of car theory tests in Great Britain are passed: 44.8% of 2,924,430 tests in the year to March 2026, according to DVSA.
The 2020 to 2021 spike needs a caveat. Only 891,279 tests were taken that year, less than half the 1,865,740 of the year before, because of COVID-19 restrictions, so the candidate mix was unusual. DVSA publishes no recommended revision time. Our guide on how long to revise for the theory test gives a practical range.
We used primary sources only: exam bodies (CFA Institute, FINRA, AICPA, USMLE, NCSBN, NCBE, ETS, GMAC, DVSA), peer-reviewed research and, where no official figure exists, the named prep provider's own page. We did not use statistics roundup sites. Every number was checked against its source in September 2026. Where a source reported a figure we could not trace to the exam body, we say so. Pass rates use the most recent complete period published, and we label whether they cover first-time takers or everyone. Hour figures from prep companies are estimates for planning and have not been independently measured.
You are welcome to use these statistics in your own writing. Please credit StudyCards AI with a link to this page.
APA
Groves, C. (2026). How Long to Study for Major Exams: Hours and Pass Rates. StudyCards AI. https://studycardsai.com/blog/exam-study-hours-statistics
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<a href="https://studycardsai.com/blog/exam-study-hours-statistics">How Long to Study for Major Exams: Hours and Pass Rates</a>
CFA Institute says successful candidates report spending over 300 hours on average preparing for each level, and that includes Level I. At 15 hours a week that is roughly 20 weeks. It is a self-reported average from people who passed, so treat it as a floor. Only 43% of the 28,145 Level I candidates passed in August 2026.
FINRA does not publish pass rates on its exam pages. The widely quoted figures, 71% for the Series 7 (October 2018 to March 2019, 10,542 test takers) and 74% for first-time SIE takers (as of August 31, 2019), come from 2019 FINRA data reported by Kaplan. Treat them as dated estimates, not current official rates.
No official body publishes a figure. In a University of Michigan survey of 274 students (Burk-Rafel and colleagues, 2017), students studied 11.0 hours a day over a dedicated period of 35.3 days, which is close to 390 hours, after already starting during preclinical years. In 2025, 93% of first-time US and Canadian MD students passed Step 1.
None of the test makers publishes an official hour count. The Princeton Review recommends 250 to 300 hours for the LSAT. A GMAC survey from 2015 to 2016 found US GMAT takers prepared for a median of 50 hours. ETS says most GRE test takers prepare for 1 to 3 months.
NCBE data shows 76% of 46,356 first-time bar exam takers passed in 2025, tying 2020 for the best first-time rate of the past decade. First-time graduates of ABA-approved law schools did better, at 81%. Repeaters passed at 34%, and the overall rate across all 67,442 takers was 63%.
DVSA figures show 44.8% of car theory tests in Great Britain were passed between April 2025 and March 2026, out of 2,924,430 tests taken. The rate was 65.4% in 2007 to 2008 and has stayed below 46% every year since 2022 to 2023. You need 43 out of 50 on the multiple-choice part and 44 out of 75 on hazard perception.
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