Hi guys, I was confident of cracking Level 2 after having done the following:
a)Spent over 400 hours of actual cfa curriculum study.
b)Solved all the end of the chapter questions of CFA books.
c)Scored above 65% in five mock tests
d)Investment banking experience of 10 years in US & Europe.
e)Quantitative science masters plus management qualification; also frm and prm certified.
Alas, the scores were a dismal <50% in all topics with Band 1.
While I was totally taken aback with the results I did recall an incident on the examination day where the proctor erroneously alloted a wrong seat to me in the morning session which was subsequently discovered during the afternoon session registration; as a result my afternoon session allotted seat was different from that of the morning session. At the end of the exam the proctor told me that everything was set right.
Now I strongly suspect that this incident has something to do with my dismal results. I would not have been dissapointed to this extent had I failed with a Band of 9/10. I am unable to digest my failure with a band 1 positioning. Should I request for a retab? Is there any case in the past something similar to my position that has turned into success.
Do seat numbers matter when grading scores? I’m not sure why CFAI would look at seat numbers to grade papers when (assuming) you wrote the same name on both afternoon and morning sessions. I always thought seat numbers were there for if a proctor spots cheating/writing after time they can remember the seat number and write a PCP. Can anyone comment on this?
I think retabulation would be definitely be worth it. Not sure why on Earth you would score band 1 unless they only collected/graded 1 half of your exam
By Retab CFAI Basically mean that they will manually check your answers with answer key.For those who are getting band 8/9/10 I dont think it will help but in your case it is worth trying.It is very difficult to get band 1 after preparing .In 2012 I got band 5 even though i knew only FRA(As I do it on daily basis) and made random guesses for most other questions.Go for it.
Along with retabulation you should definitely contact the CFAI directly via email or phone and give a throrough explanation to what happened on test day along with your preparations/background so they take you seriously. Let us know how this turns out.
This is an interesting situation, if true. Did you get the name of the proctor who made the mistake by any chance? They could trace it back to him / her to verify and see if your answer sheet was actually you or somebody else.
I would guess the only candidates that get band 1 on L2 are those that just don’t study at all and decide to sit for it anyways. With your expertise and studying, no way did you legitimately get band 1. The only thing I can think of is if, as Klaud suggested, you’re numbering got off and you were inadvertantly answering questions next to the wrong numbers. Definitely worth an investigation.
Hi guys, thanks very much for your suggestions. I have decided to request for a retab. I guess the results would take btwn 1-3 weeks. While I acknowledge the rare possibility of the occurence as pointed out by Mr.Klaudnine & Mr.Topperharley, I am very confident that somehere something has gone wrong. It does not mean that I will not accept a failure in CFA level 2 with my background; but definitely not with a band 1. I have sent a mail to CFA institute with a brief on the exam day incident and also my background. I will definitely post the outcome irrespective of the final result.
That might not be the case as the erroneous seat allotted to me in the morning session actually belonged to an absentee. If the computer grades the answer sheet logically it would remove all the absentees first before beginning the next logic. I guess, in my case, most probably the computer would have graded / tabulated only one of the sessions (probably the afternoon session). Amidst all permutation & combinations of assumptions, fingers crossed till the final outcome. Be it pass or fail, all I would like to know is my actual result inorder to analyse for me to progress further. But definitely if the band 1 outcome happens to be the case even after retabulation it would take a lot of time for me to get myselves consoled and come to a positive frame of mind as all the personal sacrifices I did for putting in 400 plus hours of preparation would go abolutely useless. But that is not the end of all. It is a matter of another 1 year.
I have personally come across a candidate last year who did move to pass from fail after retab. He was all the way publicising his near miss and retab application but the crux is that he didn’t utter a word on his retab results and i came to know his results after a few days from his linkedin profile. I am not sure how to read this.
Even in last year’s forum a guy (Dirar) who was all the way active in posting retab related discussions and who himself applied for a retab suddenly disappeared one fine day. Check the link out here.
Probably candidates benefitting from retab are made to sign a declaration. This is purely my guess.
My suggestion is that keeping into consideration of the time it takes to complete cfa a candidate with bizarre unexpetcted results always has the risk - reward ratio in his favour when it comes to retab and thus the risk of losing USD 100 will not be a big deal.
65% on mocks isn’t a recipe for success (I was scoring 70% and failed band 9), but it’s also not a recipe for a band 1. I do know someone who moved from a fail to a pass in Level I. This person similarly had a band 1 outcome, but was scoring over 90% on mocks.
I don’t think the Mocks say much, there are a lot of factors that can derail your score on the big day. I might just be an exception but was around 48-70% on them 4 weeks out and passed.
I submitted my retab last week, I left the exam feeling good about my performance but failed band 8. Do I think my results will change? No, but for $100 bucks I would like the peace of mind (a little bit of closure to my 2014 level 2 experience)
Me too submitted my retab a couple of days back and got the ack. I even sent a mail to CFA describing the exam day proctor error for which I got a response too. I am very confident that something has gone wrong in my case as a band 1 with <=50% in all topics is really the most ridiculous thing after 400 hours of preparation and practising 4-5 mocks. Be it pass or fail I need to know my actual performance.
With regard to mocks usually mocks are relatively more difficult than the actual CFA exams.
I go with Revul on mocks. It all depends on the D day irrespective of whether you score 90% or 50% in as many mocks. I know a person who used to score just above 50% in mocks and cleared L2 in first attempt; but he used to concentrate on the wrong answers and goes back to the concepts related to the wrong answers. There are candidates who have consistently scored above 80% in mocks but have failed in band 9/10 and also there are candidates who have consistently scored around 50% to 70% and passed. Hence I feel that one should not be overconfident on a score of 90% in mocks and at the same time should not lose heart on a score of 50% either.
