Level 3- Retabulation

Hello everybody,

I need some advise about how to approximatelly compute my scores on different sections and convert them to a single percentage. Here are my scores:

Level 3: Fail

We sincerely regret to inform you that you did not pass the CFA exam. A summary of your exam results is provided below. The three columns on the right are marked with asterisks to indicate your performance on each topic area. Essay

Q# Topic Max Pts <=50% 51%-70% >70% 1 Portfolio Management - Individual 27 * - - 2 Portfolio Management - Individual 9 * - - 3 Portfolio Management - Execution 21 * - - 4 Portfolio Management - Individual 17 - - * 5 Economics 24 * - - 6 Portfolio Management - Institutional 34 * - - 7 Fixed Income Investments 23 * - - 8 Derivatives 13 - - * 9 Derivatives 12 - * -

Item Set

Q# Topic Max Pts <=50% 51%-70% >70% - Alternative Investments 18 * - - - Equity Investments 18 - - * - Ethical & Professional Standards 36 - - * - Fixed Income Investments 18 - - * - Portfolio Management 18 * - - - Portfolio Management - Asset Allocation 18 - * - - Portfolio Management - Individual 18 - * - - Portfolio Management - Performance Eval. 18 - * - - Portfolio Management - Risk Management 18 - - *

We have divided the group of candidates who did not pass into 10 approximately equal score bands. Your score band below shows how your overall score on the exam compares with the overall scores of candidates who did not pass this exam. Your score band: 3

Since I belive that my performance during the AM session of the exam wasn’t that bad as it’s mentioned on the grid, I am considering asking for retabulation. Do you think I’ll be successful getting my results from FAIL to PASS?

Thanks in advance for your advice!

Very unlikely. They will not rescore your AM section, only add up your points again

Also, there’s no point trying to calculate a single percentage from your score band, the range of possible scores make it impossible

Thanks Iteracom.

I know that the “degree” of success during the retabulation is very tiny, but still I put too much effort and was very clear on the first two questions during the AM session I do belive that something is wrong there in the grading process. They were both just graded bellow 50 % which is very surprising to me. Since I lost too much time on the first two questions I was just rallied on the other 7, skipping the Fixed Income question, and the strange thing is that I got on some of them rather good points.For one thing I am convinced- I have a very bad handwriting, which fach actually made me asked for retabulation hoping they should note that some parts were missed by the graders especially because of my awful handwriting.

AFAIK, there is no point in asking as they will not even check your answers at all - it is not regrading or remarking, purely retabulation. This means they will re-add the marks that were given for each question.

They will not look at your answers and see if they themselves were marked incorrectly.

IcebreakerH, I hate to take any hope from you, but in my opinion retabulation is just pointless… I tried it once, having been graded band 10 (!), and the only effect was my bank account shrinked by $100. All I got was a plain email like this below:

"As requested, your June 20XX CFA® examination was manually retabulated to ensure that no errors were made in the scoring of your examination.

Your answer sheets were verified by candidate number and name. Your marked answers were compared to the answer key and your score was compared to your score in the CFA Institute computer database.

No errors were found and your original score remains unchanged.

Sincerely,"

However, if you feel you need it for your peace of mind, I say go for it, but only AFTER they issue AM essay with model answers? So that you could make sure how you really did with the first 2 questions in the first place?

we’ve all been where you are. I remember this feeling well. When you see the model answers you will find that you neglected to use a certain key word or left out something else. You have to be extremely tough on yourself and identify where you missed.

Thanks DoubleDip! Probably, you’re right.

Maybe the essay model answers will give some clue how to cope with the test next year.

Believe me, your handwriting couldn’t have been any worse than mine. That’s a guarantee

Maybe JR_RL_CFA!

Even I myself have problems to read what I have written, for example, two days ago. Mine is such, I don’t about yours!

Hi Cirkon!

How long time you had to wait from the moment SFAI charged your credit card to the moment you got this e-mail?

And just one more thing- which level you have requested retabulation for?

I’m asking you such kind of questions since the low scores or even wrong ones may be due to human mistakes especially for level 3 where the answers and more over their scoring is a little bit subjective one because of bad handwriting for example?

Icebreaker, judging by your last email I think you still do not get what a retabulation entails. Handwriting doesnt matter because they are not regrading your answers. They are taking a calculator and adding up the points. You are paying them money to re-add the marks you received in each section.

That is correct frankz888. My order for retabulation request was considered as complete on August 27, 2012.

The only reason I asked for that is the fact that I am convnced that I had answered the first questions corretcly but since these questions were at the beginning I was under a lot of stress and my handwriting was really bad. The questions I stated only some key words without a plain language were graded more than I was expected. That is really strange to me.

CFA Institute has received your order. Please see the details below. We suggest printing this order confirmation email for your records or to use as a receipt. Date/Time of Purchase (Eastern Time): 8/27/2012 11:35:48 AM Order number: 1-1216604384 Order Status: Complete Amount paid: $100.00

***************************RECEIPT*************************** Quantity Item Price 1 June 12 Retabulations $100.00 Discount $0.00 Shipping $0.00 Tax $0.00 Payment Method: Credit Card Payment Type: MasterCard Transaction Amount: $100.00

I wonder how much of CFAI’s revenues come from retabulation

http://annualreport.cfainstitute.org/assets/CFA_FY2011_Financials.pdf

I wish they broke down their ‘other’ sources of revenue, it would be interesting to see how many people waste their money

At band 3, a retabulation is guaranteed to result in no change.

I know perfectly well ZeroBonus that you’re right, but I have feelings that something wrong might have happened with my score. I really feel sorry for the practice of the CFAI that re-grading is not allowed.

What if you jump from band 3 to pass??..imagine how many ppl would do a retabulation…$$$$ for cfai

I bet the retab generates the best profit margins for CFAI.

Earn $100 for what is a 5min job. And the guy you pay to do it makes maybe $8 an hour

So in his 1hour job, cfai makes over $1000.

If cfai were a stock I would buy as much as possible

i would buy CFAI stock as well

I have a sneaking suspicion that the CFAI retabulation process is a lot like that “Margaritaville Backed Securities” South Park episode where the bank invests and instantaneously loses all of its customers money… AAAAAAAAND IT’S GONE.