Nothing funny that happened at my test center; but here’s my experience: I took the exam in NYC at the Javits Convention Center. I was pleasantly surprised to see a lot more girls than I had expected. The lines for the restrooms were long. At about 8:45am or so, when the head proctor wanted to read out the rules, she said: I see there are long lines for the restrooms but I am going to read out the rules and I want everyone to be seated for that. So either finish it fast or hold it! A lot of the students, who came in for the PM session, did not check in at the proctors’ desk. After a proctor asked this one dude twice, if he had checked in for the PM session, he replied ‘Yes’ and the proctor looked at his admission ticket and said: ‘No, you haven’t. Go and sign up there.’ How can someone say ‘yes’ when he clearly had not checked in? Doesn’t he know that they cross-check to see that everyone they have marked hands in the test? A white guy had 2 HP calculators at his desk and 2 spare batteries, and he was bragging about how he had replaced the batteries on both of them just before the exam. Not something funny, but: An annoying dude probably had stolen horseshoes from the horses in Times Square on his way to the test center and had attached them to his shoes, I guess. Whenever he walked (and he took a lot of water-breaks and restroom-breaks during both the sessions), the noise of his shoes was 2x louder than that of any of the girls wearing heels! Even the proctors were annoyed and kept staring at him and shook their heads whenever he got up.
I did notice one guy making a lot of noise also and had to change my mutterance from f’n b to f’n d!
This girl misplaced her ID . She was a level II and couldn’t take the test. Was quite sad actually…
andyrocks: Were you in Hall A at the Javits Center in NYC, too?
yeah
jpm Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > During the morning session a proctor was looking > over my right shoulder behind me. She wouldn’t > leave. I didn’t want to look over and give the > appearance of cheating. > > That really freaked me out. I had enough to deal > with. I didn’t need her adding to my stress!!! > > I think another procter stood next to her. I > wanted to throw a sharp no.2 at them. > > This was in Denver. By the way, the testing center > was a dump (Denver Merchandise Mart). There was a > gun show at the building next door during the > exam. I loved the signs out front that read “This is NOT the XYZ Gun Show.” I was mildly concerned that someone illiterate would walk in packing something and flip out at seeing a bunch of “nerds” taking a test!
That was the Tanner Gun Show. I saw some strange characters walking around the parking lot that came from that direction. For such a prestigious designation, I would expect a more upscale testing center. I wrote my exam on a piece of plywood from 1970.
By the way, I asked a lead procter how many people came vs. signed up in Denver. 500 people signed up and about 350 showed up (30% no shows).
Siddimaula Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > “If you want to cheat do it in India”. Dude, where > in India did you take your exam? > > I really want to know, cause I was in Bombay, at a > massive exhibition center, and the exam was run > with military precision (there were exactly 120 > proctors for 800 candidates, overkill really. AND > they wore day-glo vests). We were accompanied to > the loo (not inside, but everyone inside the > bathroom was deathly silent, you would have heard > a paper rustle haha), and had to hand over our id > and exam books even for water breaks (water cooler > was literally 20 yards away). > > I’m sure when you took it XX years ago someone > didn’t think to confiscate cellphones, could > happen. However, I call bull****. Schweser notes > were out in plain sight during the exam? REALLY? O boy!! Chennai was exact opposite. Pretty cool people. They did not even know the rules properly. Though the proctor making the announcement read the rules from the exam booklet, and asked us to hand over the exam book and id while going for restroom break, the proctors did not bother to do that. In fact, they asked us to keep the exam ticket etc on our desk and go. They kept visiting everyone’s desk pretty much twice during the exam to check the id and ticket again. What were they expecting? Candidate will change themselves in middle of the exam and ask someone else to take it on his/her behalf?
His NPV is not Negative. Exam cost is sunk cost. the 5 bucks is actually cash inflow 
rkapoor Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > Roya Wrote: > -------------------------------------------------- > ----- > > I made $5 bucks after the test, for completing > a > > survey on the prep providers > > > > Nothing compared to the huge initial outflow > :-))) > > > OMG… your NPV is negative! you shouldn’t have > taken the project!
Yeah that’s what I thought. Exam fees were a sunk cost - they had no bearing on the decision whether or not to take the survey.
Hopefully the sunk costs will be covered by a higher future positive cash flow produced by the charter eventually
CPierce Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > So question - those of you that took the test in > Manhattan - if you didn’t test there - what is the > next closest location? > > I live in a big exam city, but decided to take the > test a few hours away as the next location is > about 1/5th the size of the city I’m in. Pace University, Westchester, NY Nothing particularly funny occured at my testing center unless you consider the “number of people/red shorts and flip-flop” ratio to be too high.
I took it in Chicago. I wasn’t very focused on what type of women were there. Either they were mostly subpar or I was too focused. Let’s hope its the latter. I did notice a pregnant lady (like could pop any minute pregnant). I was wondering what kind of mayhem would unfold if her water broke. I was also wondering if she would name the child something CFA-ish in the even that she passed. The exam hall was freezing. The A/C was on too high. My allergies came out in full force and my nose started running. Apologies to all those who were distracted by my continuous sneezing and snorting. I would have taken one of the non-drowsy medications I had at home but many a times have those put me to sleep. I wasn’t about to risk that on the big day. Oh yeah, I went for a walk during the break and my exam ticket fell out of my back pocket so I retraced my steps for about 2 blocks until I luckily found it on the ground. I had a spare ticket but I’m sure someone would have been in this thread talking about a random guy trying to convince the mormon proctor to let him sit for the second session even though he lost his original ticket. I was also very intrigued by the pple with 20+ pencils. Maybe they broke them in half for every question they got wrong…lol
> I did notice a pregnant lady (like could pop any > minute pregnant). I was wondering what kind of > mayhem would unfold if her water broke. I was also > wondering if she would name the child something > CFA-ish in the even that she passed. These babies are normally privileged. I heard some airlines have a rule that if the baby is born on board, he/she can travel free of cost for the whole life on that airline. I am not sure if CFAI will consider baby CFA charterholder from the birth itself if he/she is born in the exam hall. LOL
Not so much funny as it was terrifying but… I took the test in Seattle. I brought two HP 10bII calculators, which apparently are not allowed to be used for the exam (no idea why that is). I was FREAKING out because the proctors were telling me that since I had already checked in, I wasn’t going to be able to leave. They finally let me leave, and I went to Fred Meyer’s, Wal-Mart, and Radioshack, all of which only sold scientific calculators. I thought all hope was lost when the Radioshack lady told me that there was a Staples a few miles away. Luckily Staples had HP 12Cs. 97 dollars later, I got back and the proctors let me start the test about a half hour late. Still think I have a good shot at passing though! Sidenote - How is the HP 12C the newest version of financial calculator HP makes? It looks and works like it was made in 1984! Took it back to Staples and returned it the next day
ScottyAK Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > Sidenote - How is the HP 12C the newest version of > financial calculator HP makes? It looks and works > like it was made in 1984! Took it back to Staples > and returned it the next day No idea, but I share your feelings about the HP12C. If we could only get the darn thing up to 88 miles per hour and engage the flux capacitor, it’d be an awesome looking calc. See Image: http://cdn.pocket-lint.com/images/y3CC/aotd-flux-capacitor-ipad-iphone-1.jpg?20101126-100030 I
ScottyAK Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > Not so much funny as it was terrifying but… > > I took the test in Seattle. I brought two HP 10bII > calculators, which apparently are not allowed to > be used for the exam (no idea why that is). I’m sure you’re a smart guy and all, but how on earth did you not know what the approved calculators were?
RANDOM POINT OF INFORMATION… I felt more secure after going through CFA proctor security check-point to enter the testing room than I do after going through a TSA check-point at the airport.
jpm Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > That was the Tanner Gun Show. I saw some strange > characters walking around the parking lot that > came from that direction. > > For such a prestigious designation, I would expect > a more upscale testing center. I wrote my exam on > a piece of plywood from 1970. Ha. I literally got a few splinters from the table that I didn’t notice until the end. My table-mate and I also discovered a disturbing drawing of a person in pen that covered half the table. I guess we were too focused on the exam to notice it until the end. These testing barns seem to be prevalent. When I took L1 in San Francisco two years ago, it was at the Fort Mason Center, which popped right back into mind when walking into the Mart.