Hello guys, just a story about what happened on the exam day. I had a cold and sneezed a lot. I was planning to take tissue paper with me, but the proctor at the check point did not allow. “No , papers!” She said, pointing at the tissue paper in my left hand. “But it’s allowed by the exam policy.” I try to reason with her. “No, no papers. I can’t let you in.” She insisted. Well, I don’t know how many pair of eyes were looking at me, I asked “Is there washrooms inside? Can I take tissue paper there?” “No, you can’t take any paper with you other than the exam ticket.” Ok, I will probably being reported as not cooperating with the proctors if I don’t put my “paper” away. So most time during the exam, I was struggling among three options: 1) go to the washroom to clear my nose; 2) answere the questions with a stuffy nose; and 3) sneeze into my cloth sleeves. Not pleasant experience. There have been many posts here arguing that proctors should be made aware of CFA exam, such as how much effort we have put on it, and what does it mean to a candidate if being “accused” or even found “guilty”. Instead, they know nothing. One more thing I learnt from a proctor was that there was not even a single person from CFAI in the test center, and they don’t know how to find one either. I think there may be some reasons behind the proctors’ low awearness . Because they know nothing about CFA exams, they are more likely to report a candidate if there is anything suspicious. Then PCP investigators will go through all the cases and decide which ones they want to dig deeper, and which ones are just wrongfully accused. However, when there is a dispute, all CFAI can really rest on are the proctors testimonials, and some of the testimonies are really sketchy. Why not have some cameras in the test toom like they did in the accounting designation exams? What if the proctor is hallucinating? Fingers crossed you don’t meet your ex as your proctor.
totally agree, cameras should be installed at all test centers
Agreed; maybe one day charterholders can be proctors!!!
I don’t see why they couldn’t ask for Charterholders in each country to volunteer to oversee this stuff - the proctors in the UK are ridiculously intrusive as it stands, and I know rules have to be followed etc, but that tissue thing is beyond stupid - there’s always room for a bit of common sense.
What a witch!, I mean B****!
Watch what you ask for, that can be worse. A lot of them want to limit the amount charterholders.
if they did that too me, I’ll seriously just blow snot out on the floor next to me.
CFAI website says tissues allowed in exam room as long as you keep them in pockets or underneath chair. Archi, sorry your proctors didn’t get the memo!!! 
The Protctors look at this weird combination of exam takers. Young and old, Asians and few others, ugly guys and gals (except for that one girl in Paris test center who was average), all look miserable and exhausted, they are subject to secuirty checks, nothing is allowed inside,… the Proctors might think the CFA is some sort of a Community Service or a rehab program.
A Facebook friend of mine works at the British Council and she was one of proctors at my test center. I checked her FB friend list and quickly recognized other proctors since they are my friend’s colleagues. So If I have a couple of things that I want to complain about them, I might not be posting on my wall … T__T.
OP: Sorry to hear about your experience. A test taker in my test center had the tissue problem too but after a minute of arguement, she was allowed to take some into the test room.
That’d be awesome. Lean over and do a farmer blow every once in a while. Then give the proctor a look like, it’s your fault B.
the last thing I would be doing is reaching into my pockets during the exam, even to get a tissue.
My experience with the proctors in the UK was overwhelmingly positive. All were very pleasant and helpful and most seemed to be aware of the policies.
One year a female proctor seemed to have a big issue with calculator cases and kept fussing around everyone when we were doing the exam but she was the only one that was in any way arsey.
only downside was that the proctors were mostly really old and took forever to process everyone in the queue, exam ended up being postponed 10 minutes, not what you need when doing level 3 am session
Making a procter look bad is not a good idea. In spite, the procter will write to the CFAI that you gleaned over the paper of the person beside you just for the heck of it. It’s your word vs his word.
Ha Bob, you would’ve been in the same hangar as me - nothing more frustrating. And then them having to read out the Level 1, 2 & 3 instructions out separately…wanted to stab myself with one of my 25 pencils.