The SAFE Mortgage Loan Originator National Exam Study Guide: Second Edition Study Guide Edition

I have worked in the mortgage industry for 10 years and as a Loan Officer for the last 5. I am licensed in multiple states but never took the National Exam as I earned all four of my licenses before it was introduced (I ended up paying four 4x SAFE tests, one for each state of licensure--very expensive!). This year I wanted to add a fifth state and needed to take the National Exam in order to do so. I did not want to pay hundreds of dollars through one of the online purveyors of LO training as I've been doing this long enough that it would be a waste of my time and money. What I did want was a refresher of applicable lending laws and guidelines. As any mortgage professional can attest, the content of government mandated tests doesn't have tremendous overlap with the daily tasks associated with writing mortgages.Patricia O'Connor's eBook was exactly what I wanted and needed. Broken down by sections covering every area of the National Exam, all of the information was clear and well-presented. As a hint for others who have been in the industry a while: the first thing I did was take one of the two practice tests located at the back of the book (passed by the skin of my teeth with a 76%). I then took note of my wrong answers and broken them down into areas of greatest need and studied those chapters specifically. That approach worked very well. I passed the National Exam with a 107 / 115 for 93%, far in excess of the required 75%What I liked best:1) Chapters are laid out logically and progress from topic to topic in a seamless way2) Each chapter concludes with a practice test3) Each chapter also includes a summary of the main points of the chapter (these are very useful for study purposes)4) The final exams were VERY similar to the actual National Exam I took5) The book is FULL of hyperlinks to all applicable data sources for the content of the chapters; this book really is a dictionary for mortgage lending. The research that went into it was fantastic.What could have used improvement:1) The "key" for scoring the tests doesn't play nicely with my kindle--the last answer to each string of twenty five questions (25, 50, 75, 100, and 125) appeared on a different page than the rest of the answer which made scoring the practice tests a bit more of a chore than it already is2) It would be really nice to have a web-link to an online practice test that would allow for faster test taking as scoringI would not necessarily recommend this book to someone totally new to the industry looking to pass the National Exam for the first time. You may be better off taking a more comprehensive online or live class (at 15-20x the cost of this book!). That said, if you are already reasonably knowledgeable OR have very good study habits, you could absolutely pass the National Exam using only this book, especially if you take all the practice tests at the end of each chapter and the two final exams at the back of the book. If you can pass those, you can pass the national exam. This approach will require more from you, but its totally doable if you're dedicated and take notes as you read.For my particular purposes, the book was perfect. I did find a few small typos, but they were very rare indeed and did not take away from the quality of the book as a whole. I will be recommending this one to my fellow LOs at my office and have no problem recommending it here on Amazon as well.*****Update 01-09-2015*****As the author states in the comments section of this review, this book IS NOT a replacement for the NMLS mandated 20-hour course for those applying for a license for the first time. My situation was a little unique, and I overlooked that bit of information.Also, regarding the sole 1-star review of this book: I encountered NO questions with wrong answers in my reading of the book or in the practice tests I took. I would ignore any comments to the contrary.

The study guide is very well-done and you will learn lots of valuable information. I especially appreciated the "Important things to remember" section at the end of each chapter. I read through the entire guide and completed the tests initially, but my primary usage method was taking the tests over and over and over, and reviewing the "important things to remember" section periodically. I learn far better by doing, and seeing the concepts in practice rather than just reading about them. It helps that I am currently working in the industry, but I am brand new (under a year) and found this book to simplify and break down the concepts extremely well.With all this said, DO NOT ONLY use this book to prepare for the test. The actual NMLS test is FAR HARDER. I was consistently getting 95-100% on all the practice tests in this book, and I made sure it wasn't from simply memorizing the questions - I really had a good grasp of all the concepts referenced in the guide. I completed the NMLS test this past weekend and passed my first time with a 83%. I went through the Pro Schools 20 hour course in addition to this guide which helped me get over the top. If I had only used this Study Guide for the exam, I would estimate I would have received a 60-65%, and that's with working in the industry.Do yourself a favor and supplement your learning with other materials. And be sure to understand the concepts, because between the Pro Schools test and this Study Guide there were probably only 10% of directly correlated questions. The majority of questions were completely concept related and they purposely try to trick you so read the questions thoroughly.In short, buy this book, it is well worth the investment. I only advise to use other materials in addition to it to fill in the gaps.

The media could not be loaded. This study guide has been a Godsend. I found the author’s exam prep videos on YouTube and decided to order her companion book. I wish that I had ordered the book sooner because I was taking notes during the videos and the book already has everything that you need. It would have saved me a lot of time. Kudos to Ms. Pat for this easy to follow guide that covers the NMLS test outline exactly. She’s a Realtor and MLO, so she has a great perspective of the industry and she keeps it simple.

This book was recommended by a mortgage loan originator. This book does come with some simple explanation of the content that will most likely be on the test. There's also a quick review at the end of each chapter also with an exam of possible questions. I would say that this was fairly helpful. I did note that some subjects could have been more in depth. I discovered this when I paid for the services of a tutor who was familiar with this book. The tutor had handed me other study material from a real estate prep School in the greater Houston area. Their content not only covered the same from this book but was far more in-depth. Overall, this book will definitely help you to possibly pass that test the first time around.