I took the CFA Level 1 in June 2014. Yesterday, I just received a letter from CFA Institute mentionning “cheating attempt” and they require me to send them an email explaining those allegations.
Of course, I did not cheat at all. Actually, 2 of them refer to my neighbour (I did not know him or her at all, I can’t even remember if it was a man or a woman). According to the Procter, I looked in his/her direction while I was actually just looking into space (therefore not looking at any specific thing) which is the only way I can think of something. I am actually a very distracted person and I am almost uncapable of staring at my sheet of paper for 3 hours in a row (additionnally, I am also completely uncapable of reading letters that are more than 60cm away from my eyes as I am slightely far sighted) . Similarly, they accused me of kind of monitoring where the Procters were while I was just looking at him/her because he/she was the only moving thing in the whole big room, and once more, it is the kind of thing I am used to do when I need to think on a specific topic or just to take a “mental break”.
Therefore, I never intended to cheat or monitor anyone’s position, I was just being distracted because I need it to think hard and that’s it!
I have never been involved in such cheating attemps throughout my whole academic years (7 years, passing all diplomas with distinction) and I would never ever take such a risk, as I got accepted for a permanent position which requires me to pass CFA Level 1!
Therefore, could you please help me out by telling me what I should tell them in order not to be rejected of the program (I admit I am freaking out).
Write a reply in which you describe your point of view. Be very detailed (as in this post) but avoid any emotional stuff (anger, self-pity, etc.) and do not brag about your past achievements. Simply focus on their points of accusation and counter each and everyone with your objective (and hopefully truthful) account of events. Do not worry too much, cases in which people who did nothing wrong got fried are very rare. However, it can take several months for the PCP to arrive at a decision. Your case seems to be strong enough to avoid voiding your exam results, but if you failed in the exam, the PCP decision will not arrive within the registration deadline for the Dec Level I exam, that is if you think about retaking it.
These kind of accusations happen every year, which highlight the importance of keeping head down and eyes on paper. Some proctors are over-vigilant, and will report the slightest deviation-- stretching, gazing, looking up often, etc.
This year I caught one proctor staring at me from about 10 feet away, and I’m sure if I had in that moment in time looked in the direction of a neighbor for more than a second, I would have been written up. It was obvious she was targeting me for some reason, maybe because I was dressed like a homeless person, and had a hat on. I just gave her a nasty look, like “WTF are you looking at”, and kept on working.
Anyway, for your violation, get a optician’s report that you are “near-sighted” (in the U.S., that means you can see things better near to you (not far-sighted, which means you can see better far). Also, state that the proctors walking around you was distracting, and that sometimes you unconsciously look up while pondering the answer to a question.
Thank you very much for your answers. I will write a very detailed email rescribing my point of view and everything.
Unfortunately, I will never be able to get an optician certification in time, as it takes almost 6 months to get an appointment with such a professionnal in my city (Paris, France).
If anyone has another comment, advice or anything, please do not hesitate.
99% chance you will have result voided and then receive up to 2-years exclusion frrom the program. In other words you can most likely forget achieving the CFA unless you can see yourself studying it still in 2019?