I logged in this morning and saw about a half-dozen topics that can be summirazed as “OMFG!!! This exam was soooo tricky with extremely difficult questions that weren’t anywhere but the Curriculum. I’m screwed!”
Here’s something to think about - this would be a problem if there were a fixed MPS - in other words if the MPS were set at 70 (or 68, or whatever). But supposedly, the CFAI sets a different MPS for each exam using a Modified Angoff method. In this method, for each question, they assess what percentage of “minimally qualified candidates” should be able to answer correctly.
So theoretically, if there are more difficult questions, it should be reflected in a lower MPS. That is, if they correctly assess the percentages that should be able to answer correctly. I think it makes sense to assume that they’re doing it as they said, rather than start hyperventilating about whether they’re trying to clamp down on the % who pass.
I realize it’s hard, but try to relax and breathe - you’ll get your results in 8 weeks (a long time, I know). At that time, you can decide. Worrying about it beforehand is normal, but helps no one and will make you crazy.
So kick back a bit, go to the gym, reconnect with some friends/family/significnat others, and in general try to get back in the groove. You’ve just gone through a pretty intense past couple of weeks, but it’s time to let it go for a bit.
Hi busprof - in your time being involved with AF, how do you compare the general level of pessimism on the boards today versus the days following prior exams? S2000 may have good insight on this as well. Thanks in advance!
I’ve been here only a little over a year; this doesn’t seem all that different from what I recall last June, or last December.
As busprof says, relax. You did what you could on Saturday, and you cannot change the results. Relax, enjoy life, and await the results on July with eager anticipation.
Things don’t change - some are extremely optimistic, and some are Eeyores. I think what makes it difficult to get any sens out of these data is that we see only the extremes - the few, the proud, and the panicked. So there’s an extreme selection bias.
I see the same thing on RateMyProfessor - students tend to either love me or hate me. Since I’m a walking, talking example of fundemental attribution error, I assume that those that love me are rational and those that don’t are idiots
I used to laugh at a lot of the comments on RateMyProfessor_ s _. I got everything from “don’t ever take a class from this guy . . . ever!” to “good teacher overall”.
I’d love to see the correlation between comments and the amount of study time the students put in.
Haha thanks. I actually got out of the exam pretty angry. One of the head proctors actually wasted 10 minutes of my testing time because she was unsure if I should put my middle name on my answer sheet.
Which was really stupid because during the morning session I specifically asked another proctor if I needed to put my middle name and they said I didn’t have to.
But for some reason during the afternoon session one of the Orange bumble bees decided to come up to me make me remove my ear plugs and started a conversation with me asking me if I should put my middle name or not. I took my test in Beijing, China so her English wasn’t really good I guesss…so she herself didn’t really understand what was going on…
Anyways, I explained to her I didn’t in the morning and on the paper it just says given name. However, she went on questioning if I should or not…I was like thinking omg…do you not know I’m taking a test here…I guess she thought I was done already since I already filled out all my ovals…but she kept going on…anyways after 5 minutes of back and forth she left and I continued on…
about 20 minutes left…she came back again and asked me are you sure you don’t have to put your middle name? I wanted to smack her down…literally…cause I had to remove my ear plugs…was in the middle of a calculation trying to get one of those fixed income questions…I was like god I’ll just write my middle name alright…
I wonder if it’s an ethics violation if you lay the smack down on a head proctor during the middle of the exam?
I’ve been on AF for years, and the sentiment is probably a slight tad negative then what I’ve seen. again, you have to remember the people who complian and whiners are generally the loudest, so don’t read too much into seeing 5 threads of people complaining about certain topics and what was asked.
It’s been well known CFAI will test obscure formulas or topics buried in some seemingly un-important side paragraph or appendix. there are times where big topics are not tested at all. It’s not unfair, because it forces you to study everything, unless you want to take a gamble.
I think the exam definitely tested the depth of your understanding of certain concepts and asked you to apply some in a different context than is typically reviewed. I understand the need to test obscure concepts but I do wish there was a way to achieve this without leaving out, IMHO, some significantly more important/relevant topics. Overall I think it was a fair test and about what I expected in terms of difficulty, just would’ve liked to have seen more balance between core topics (even if these were to be designed in a more challenging manner) and less obscure nuances. Just my two cents. Hope everyone performed to the best of their abilities and congrats on completing the exam.
Not to be a CFAI apologist, but they have to come up with multiple versions of the exam each year (since it’s given in different time zones, they need something like 12-24 versions) on an exam that consists of 240 questions covering 500+ learning outcomes. And they have to do it in such a way that the exam has good descriminatory power - ideally, a quesiton would be such that if you truly got the concept you’d get the correct answer and if you didn;t, you’d perform at random chance levels or worse.
Having written many exams over the years, I’d say that they do a remarkable job.
The problem with an exam is that you tend to remember the quesitons you missed, and forget the ones that were smooth sailing. So there’s definitely at least one (and possibly several) cognitive biases there.
Would you probably send a complaint to CFAI about this? If I were you, I would ! Proctors are paid (may be by fees we paid to CFAI) to do their job properly
Last year one of proctors kept standing right besides me in the last 20 mins of PM session, flipping over my passport back and forth (guess she was surprised when seeing I have been to many countries in the world). She was even staring at the beta asset formula written on my paper. The formula seemed to be a rocket science for her. Anyway, it was distracting
As about your question on an ethics violation, I am not sure…but I do believe that in no case should you do such the thing to women !
I did send in a complaint to them. They said they’ll “Look into the matter” and were really sorry for my experience and would ensure that this would not ever happen again in the future…they also said they take pride in making sure the proctors know what they were doing…right…anyways can’t do much now.
Haha well I was joking about laying the smack down on her, but seriously that was really really really rude of her to keep bothering me like that.
I had a bad experience with a proctor as well. The person next to me finished early, and asked the proctor if he could leave. She apparently did not know, and started to joke and make random chit chat with the other candidate. Finally telling the candidate it was OK to leave, even though it was after the 30 minute mark. The candidate was about to get up, another proctor comes over and explains that he can’t leave. The two proctors are now discussing with each other… This is with 20 minutes to go!!!
I did not realize there were that many versions. Agree on the cognitive bias and I certainly did not mean to come across as bitter. I was impressed w/ the exam design as a whole and my one minor constructive criticism is that it might have been more comprehensive had they included a few more key concepts but perhaps these were contained in other versions. Thanks for the insight busprof!
Totally agree with you bostoncfa from further above. I feel confident that I passed but I can still tell you that I feel a bit ripped off. I’ve been somewhat disappointed over the past couple days thinking about and wondering what the CFA program is really all about? I’ve always viewed it as this beacon that provides knowledge. Don’t get me wrong, it does provide just that and I’ve learned a ton thanks to the CFAI, but it all boils down to the day. I mean come on…go through all this discovery and months of study and it all builds up to this one epiv, marvelous day…buuut…theeeennnn…ohhhhh…the exam was largely comprised of trivial matters? I couldn’t help but want so many of those questions to be more…satisfying. I wish I could go into detail here but I think you know what I mean. What about testing people on what really matters…or at least put a little more focus on it…or balance as you mentioned. Perhaps it gets a little more fundamental as time goes on? Hope so…I want to craft and be tested on my abilities as an analyst…not a master of trivia and one of those “well I know this little fact and that little fact nerds”. That is not what ultimately manages risk and makes us $$$.
Anyway, I still have faith in the CFA program and look forward to hopefully more meaningful discovery paired with true tests of one’s ability to research and analyze. Good luck to all.
Man I wasn’t bout it bout it wit dat exam. It was straight and all, but i agree wit ya’ll about the content, feel me. When we put in work, like 300-400 hours and it becomes a guessing game, I’m not w/ it. Good luck to ya’ll hope we pass.
