mcap11-like I said , keep it coming…
Monk - I see you have a bit of a track record with this issue. You must be unlucky with non english speaking graders or it might be the answers you’re writing down.
http://www.analystforum.com/forums/cfa-forums/cfa-level-iii-forum/9815877
Good luck to you in future exams, I hope one day you’ll learn from your past mistakes.
This is very interesting because I stacked my answers and thought that may have been the problem on AM (messy, confusing)! I think I think the way you did it this year is better and I’m going to do it that way in 2013, I wouldn’t change.
The graders are charterholders with enough mastery of English to pass the test which is something I couldn’t do. I think my problem was what I wrote, not the language I wrote in or the native language of the grader.
In short, it ain’t qqqbee doing the grading!
How do you know that-that the graders have enough “mastery” of English?
Monk, as has been said before, own your own outcome… seems pretty unlikely that you’d have a poor outcome due to catching a different, low grader for each question. AM is harder than PM. The sooner you own up to it, the sooner you can spend your energy either studying for next year, or pursuing something else that you feel is beneficial to you.
Ok, maybe this will help…
Grader = CFA charterholder
CFA charterholder = Passed all CFA exams
All CFA exams = Given in English
Accordingly…
Grader = Passed all CFA exams = The exams are given in English
I think it’s safe to assume they have the requisite skills to grade the exam.
They could have passed despite poor Englsih skills-see for example the posts here from those who say that they have passed Level 3.
Marking/Grading on the other hand requires comprehension skills of a higher order.
As I said in the original post-that CFA seems to require a cut and paste straight out of the text has become an increasingly common complaint.
One likely reason-markers who are not able to interpret (not merely translate) sentences in English and need to rely on a written guideline. Give poor English langauge skills, in their case the guideline is no longer a guideline , it becomes gospel.
It is the marker who determines if any given answer which does not exactly match the guidleine in form (not necessarily substance) is also acceptable-so it is unlikely, that in these cases, the CFA claim that a variety of answers would be acceptable or otherwise recevive partial credit, could hold true.
The basis of your argument would have to assume the graders have a degree of latitude that, in all likelihood, is not afforded by the CFAI. It’s also a good bet that the graders are instructed to grade what the candidate actually wrote and not an interpretation. I wrote in another thread that one of the greatest difficulties I had in studying for the essay portion was objectively grading my mock essays. I would “interpret” what I wrote or say “well that’s what I meant and the grader will get it”. In practice that wasn’t the case.
Grading the exam is not about language it’s about words–specifically keywords. I think that’s what the CFAI looks for and it’s not a function of the graders’ English skills, it’s because that’s the way the CFAI wants it.
So to confirm what you have said : CFAI looks for keywords-not at whole sentences .Is that correct?
I think that’s right, they do look for keywords and to lesser degree the whole sentence. One of the common themes among passers is they wrote their responses in short bullet points. It would naturally follow that it is to your advantage to be concise and accurate (keywords).
Look at posts from the people who fail Level 3 with a low score or a few times and then pass. They’re not saying “oh, the graders finally learned to speak English”, they’re saying “I finally learned what the CFAI wants in the essays”.
Ok-thanks for the clarificiation.
So-CFAI does not look at whole sentences-it looks for keywords-and this is a postgraduate course?
And-CFAI has consistently said that there is no “CFA way” of answering questions-so CFA is not being entirely thruthful?
Entertaining thread, but there’s an elephant in the room.
Monk, I am sorry to say this but you are simply wasting your time.
thanks for taking the time to tell me so
monk, I feel for you! However you are just in denial and the sooner you realize this the better.
Actually, if you haven’t noticed this exam is administered by CFAI and played by their rules. If you don’t like it you shouldn’t be signing up for it. Go do the sing and dance elsewhere and move on with your life. Just stay as far away from anything and everything CFAI.
This should hit home, I think.
are monk and bleach actually the same person???
A whole team grades just one question, supervised by a team captain. The graders have full guidelines on exactly how to mark the one question they’re assigned, and they have briefings and de-briefings each day to review and resolve any issues or questions. If there is a deviation in scores given by a single grader compared to the rest of the graders there will be reviews to validate this.
It is not poor English on the grader’s part that’s causing any failures.
The article in the original post speaks of a group of graders. Having marked papers at tertiary level I am not sure that these checks that you have mentioned are going to ensure that the problems raised are not going to occur.