The National Commodities Futures Exam, commonly called the Series 3 exam, was created by the National Futures Association (NFA), the self-regulatory organization for the U.S. futures industry. The purpose of the Series 3 Exam is to screen an applicant's fitness to engage in business as a futures professional.

The exam encompasses two sections - market knowledge and regulatory requirements - and each section is scored separately.  A 70 percent minimum score on each section is required to pass the exam. The test consists of 120 True/False and multiple-choice questions, in two sections:

• 85 questions cover industry and technical information (market knowledge)
• 35 questions cover regulations and compliance (regulatory requirements).

Please expect to spend approximately 3 hours at the Center as it will take time to sign in, go through the pre-test directions screens and answer any sample questions that you are given that affect neither your score nor count towards your test time. The Series 3 Exam contains five (5) additional experimental questions that do not count towards your grade. Extra time is built into the exam to accommodate these five (5) questions. You will have 2 hours and 30 minutes to complete the actual test and required 120 questions.