Too many Band 9 and 10 re-takers!!!!

CFA Level III
#1

Realized there are a lot of re-takers with Band 9 and 10, especially band 9. Interesting to see how we will do next month!!!

Should have a slight advantage but u never know with this exam!!!

#2

technically there should be an even distribution of Bands but a lot of people are Band 9/10… I have never seen someone mention failing Band 1or 2 and apparently Band 5 is rare also…

#3

the main requirement for joining the band 9-10 club seems to be not having practiced AM session enough and having rocked in the afternoon. I think I would avoid any mention to it is I was band 5 or lower, maybe that’s the reason we don’t see that many.

#4

Lol. This thread.

#5

There are supposed to be roughly even numbers of people in each failing band. Thus, if it feels like there are too many band 9 and 10 people, here are a few possible explanations:

  1. People in the lower bands post here, but don’t mention they were like band 3.

  2. Most of the people in the really low bands gave up.

  3. The people in the really low bands are disproportionately not English speakers, and are less likely to post on an English speaking forum.

  4. Some people who say they were band 9 or 10 are really much lower.

#6

My guess is that the range between band 10 (the MPS) and band 5 is about 15% … most people taking the exam are scoring between 50-70% and they set thr MPS around 65%

unadjusted Score Estimate

Band 1-3: <40% “winged in” (zero/no points in AM and about pure guesses in PM

Band 4-5: 40-50% unprepared/ dillusional if believed they had a real chance

Band 5-6: 50-55% maybe went through material once… not enough studying

Band 7-8: 55-60% too many holes in knowledge, struggled with AM

Band 9: 60-63% close but poor exam execution

Band 10: at MPS /incredibly unlucky… missed by 1-3 points

#7

If I get Band 2, which is possible. I won’t be afraid to show it. I’ll make it by signature. I’ll tattoo it to my forehead. I’ll shout it off the top of the mountain.

#8

I believe you are wrong assuming every band has an equal number of fails… Assuming a normal distribution at the midpoint, band 10 would have the highest number of fails, 9 would follow and so on. If the average passing score is somewhere north of the midpoint of all the scores tallied then one would have to do remarkably poorly to achieve a band 7 or below.

#9

according to CFAI… the group of fail candidates is divided into 10 groups (1000 fail = 100 in each group, no?)… the mystery is the distribution of the scores in each group.

I imagine a “leptokurtic” distribution of exams score centered near the MPS (obviously)… I think A LOT of people that fail are scoring between 55-65% which means the difference between the top Bands 10 and 8 may be like 2% points…

#10

what are those bands? never heard

#11

you gotta beat that median candidate. what do they look like? leaves an entire AM problem blank. gets the hardest AM problem wrong

#12

Average Joe is a median candidate or maybe better said average Rahul.

#13

I respect the average level 3 candidate… at least they passed level 2 which is not joke…

I think the average candidate gets all the “easy” questions right and passing the exam comes down to the extra points you can squeeze out… last year I though I was better than the average candidate despite a weak exam performance… and failed so it is what it is…

#14

What about us with broken English but from second world?

#15

What if someone from 3rd world with weaker english takes exam in London? or native english speaker takes exam in Dubai?

#16

“3rd world”, “broken english” candidates have better chances as they write less…

#17

What’s wrong with Broken English? The name of my favorite album of Marianne Faithfull.

#18

Danv0330,

First, I am not sure what you mean by third world countries, I do not think there is a term like that. Second, how do you know people from these “third world countries” have weak English skills, have you ever had conversations with them or read documents written by them.

I think by third world countries you are referring to people from developing countries (economies). Some of these countries have English as their official language.

unless CFA is doing a handicap push " to promote global recognition"

There is no need to insult CFA candidates from these regions just because you failed in 2016. GO GET A LIFE

#19

Well I’m sorry if anyone was offended by the phrase but apparently it’s a legitimate term to describe poor developing countries. https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/third%20world

Obviously there are 1000s’ of CFA Charterholder from developing countries and I’m sure many are more intelligent and wealtheir than I am. And I know there are very poor people in rich countries. My point is that it must be very difficult for people from poor countries (generally) to complete the program and I’m very impressed regardless…

Simply the registration fee of about $750 would be equivalent to the many months average salary in many parts of the world and that shows the added financial burden placed on candidates from “developing countries”. How do people afford it? I would actually be supportive of varying exam fees across regions to help with this… while some people would find it unfair.

I simply assume that people from ANY country where English is not the primary language have difficulty completing a written exam with a time constraint as “technically complex” as CFA level 3…

It’s very possible that the passing rates vary between regions. It I am STILL surprised or impressed people pass the exam when many factors make it even more difficult.

#20

Even the “ethics adjustment” sounds like it’s unfair to people with weak English skills… presumably someone can be a math and finance wizard but the ethics question which test reading comprehension penalize people – from developing countries (that don’t speak English natively)… is this really controversial?