Has anyone ever heard of getting an investigation notice regarding a similarity analysis and “unusual similarities” between test answer sheets? Is this common?
Search on here. Basically they think you might have copied from the person sitting next to you.
Ok, and what if you didn’t? I can’t seem to find a relevant thread as most exam related PCP incidents seem to be involving proctor’s writing up candidates for looking at other papers, or written past the time limit… this is absolute non-sense.
Try this http://www.google.com/#sclient=psy&hl=en&source=hp&q="PCP+investigation"+site:analystforum.com
So you got a letter from CFAI?
mpr4437 Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > Ok, and what if you didn’t? I can’t seem to find a > relevant thread as most exam related PCP incidents > seem to be involving proctor’s writing up > candidates for looking at other papers, or written > past the time limit… this is absolute non-sense. This is based on statistical analysis. They know who was sitting around you and they have tools to flag any very low probability events/ patterns. The CFAI is very advanced when it comes to this there are papers published explaining the models if you are interested check out Google Scholar ( google: Detecting cheating in multiple choice tests) If you’re involved in one of those, don’t even think about fighting it, the math is irrefutable.
Well, it would suck if the guy was copying off of you, creating the unusual similarities, even if you were eyes down all the time.
^Yeah, if two answer sheets are similar, it doesn’t prove who cheated. Moreover, it might happen just by chance.
Chance, not really. But yeah if other person copied not sure what they would do next.
I don’t know how CFAI defines “similar”. If two answer sheets of neighbouring candidates are almost identical, it is of course because one of them cheated.
Dude_CFA Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > Chance, not really. But yeah if other person > copied not sure what they would do next. I believe they suspend both for a year. This is not the US justice system, there is no innocent until proven guilty.
cityboy Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > I don’t know how CFAI defines “similar”. That’s why they have statistics.
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higgmond Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > Search on here. Basically they think you might > have copied from the person sitting next to you. I have a similar case. I also received a mail saying that my answers are similar to another person. The person sat next to me passed without getting an investigation, how we knew eachother was because we exchanged phone numbers after the test was done. In the mail the CFA institute said to me that my answers are similar to another person in the testing center, not specifying who. So shouldn’t the investigation be on two people? Could it be that the person sitting behind me have copied my answers?
Billgates Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > higgmond Wrote: > -------------------------------------------------- > ----- > > Search on here. Basically they think you might > > have copied from the person sitting next to > you. > > > > I have a similar case. I also received a mail > saying that my answers are similar to another > person. The person sat next to me passed without > getting an investigation, how we knew eachother > was because we exchanged phone numbers after the > test was done. In the mail the CFA institute said > to me that my answers are similar to another > person in the testing center, not specifying who. > So shouldn’t the investigation be on two people? > Could it be that the person sitting behind me have > copied my answers? I suppose your answers could have been similar to the guy infront of you, the guy behind you, or the guy on the other side of you (assuming there was only a few feet gap between tables). There should be two investigations though.
Yep, correlation is not causation. It would be supreme doufussness if they assumed that whoever got the higher score was the innocent party. (I’m not assuming that the other guy scored higher than you, but how else would one make a decision to investigate one side without investigating the other?).
Billgates Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > higgmond Wrote: > -------------------------------------------------- > ----- > > Search on here. Basically they think you might > > have copied from the person sitting next to > you. > > > > I have a similar case. I also received a mail > saying that my answers are similar to another > person. The person sat next to me passed without > getting an investigation, how we knew eachother > was because we exchanged phone numbers after the > test was done. In the mail the CFA institute said > to me that my answers are similar to another > person in the testing center, not specifying who. > So shouldn’t the investigation be on two people? > Could it be that the person sitting behind me have > copied my answers? TY for the answer, In the letter to the CFA (damn it, it’s against the rules to use “CFA” as a noun, but whatever"), I asked them TO please check the video recordings during the testing sessions, assuming they had it, and asked them to give me the test again for a retake so I can prove I did the answers all by myself, but they haven’t replied yet, so I have two questions: 1. If after 30 days when the investigation closes, they somehow found a very strong correlation in the answers, which serves as a circumstantial evidence, to “prove” one of the person of the similar answers cheated, but they don’t know who So, my question is that, is the CFA institute more likely to drop the case or find both parties guilty? And what are the initial penalties? (before I can appeal) Higg said that both parties would receive a year of suspension, which in my case, it would be very unfair and I have no ways of proving myself innocent or the other guy cheated off of my test, and I know that the CFA institute does not use the U.S. justice system in which any suspects would be innocent until proving guilty, in fact, it’s the opposite way around, so if I can not prove myself innocent, therefore, I must go down with the cheater? 1. But, what are the likely penalties? permanently barred? LoL? 2. And are they going to let me retake the exam to show them that I can get almost exactly the same answers as the first time I took it?
Billgates, Regarding your first point - the notion of circumstantial evidence doesn’t really come into play here. Since this is a civil matter, the burden of proof the CFAI legally has to meet is not reasonable doubt, rather it is on a balance of probabilities. In order for the CFAI to sanction you and not be subject to legal recourse (i.e. a lawsuit), they must be reasonably satisfied that the similarities between the two answer sheets is more likely (ie: >50%) to be the result of cheating than not. That said, this argument applies to both parties involved. There should be two investigations going on. I can’t speak to the possible penalties. Good luck.
It’s very tough. The situation is like the prosecutor and jury are on the same side. I think they do have an “independent panel” that is supposed to remove any bias, but again they have no upside to fighting for you vigorously. In these cases, I can imagine the innocent being taken as guilty. Obviously, they won’t let you retake it and match your scores, so forget about that working out. I doubt you would get a permanent ban. check out the punishments they listed on their site. For “cheating during test” people tend to go for a few years of suspension usually
I wonder what level of significance their statistics are set for? There’s something like 100,000 candidates these days, or is it 200,000. A 5% alpha level would imply that 2500 - 5000 people might be false positives (assuming a single tail). A 1% alpha level would imply 500-1000 people might be false positives. It’s fine to use statistics for screening for possible cheating, but there’s got to be other types of evidence before one can summarily suspend people. I understand that this is a private organization and so CFAI can more or less do what they want, applying whatever standards they feel, but surely it can’t be good to say… Please take our test, and by the way, we’re going to throw about 2.5% of you out each year and accuse you of statistically cheating.