I’m just going through the CFA site to get some questions answered in the FAQs. It appears that if you do not take the full 3 hours at each session, you have to sit and wait until the 3 hours are up before you can leave (for lunch or the day). Is this correct? http://www.cfainstitute.org/cfaprog/resources/examdetails/examdayexperience.html Also, since the test is given in book form as opposed to computer-based, is it okay to underline keywords in the question and cross off answers that we know are incorrect? Thank you!
yes, it is correct. And you will NEED 3 hrs for the most part. I did LI quite efficiently and had about 20 mins in morning and afternoon to do review, LII, probably less so considering my score, but still only had about 10-15 mins each to review. I don’t anticipate any free time on L III in June. Bottom line: You have bigger fish to fry than thinking you’ll be done an hr early
I was not implying I would be done early, just one thought leading to another… CFA Halifax, do you have a response to the 2nd part of the original post?
Yeah. I had about 7 or 8 mins left at the end of L1 to use for the problems I guessed on and try to figure out the stuff I wasn’t so sure of. At L2, I had a little more time, maybe 20 mins or so, and plenty of things that I could use it to try to figure out (though at L2, if I didn’t know something, thinking about it for a while didn’t usually help too much.) Advice. At 5 minutes to go, make sure you fill in all of your guess ovals (I recommend using “D”, since you won’t get to do it next year). That way you won’t be caught with zero time left trying to fill in items. If you do have time left to change an answer, it’s quick enough to erase a guess if you need to.
Its ok to mark on the question sheet. You will be given instructions on the same by the proctor before the exam starts.
bchadwick Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > > Advice. At 5 minutes to go, make sure you fill in > all of your guess ovals (I recommend using “D”, > since you won’t get to do it next year). That way > you won’t be caught with zero time left trying to > fill in items. If you do have time left to change > an answer, it’s quick enough to erase a guess if > you need to. LMAO!
You can leave early during the first 2.5 hrs, just not the last 30 min of each session.
Welll I guess your question was answered soxboys, sorry I am just a Yankee fan so I guess I assumed that you think you’ll go 19-0 on the exam! In all seriousness though, bchad is right, make sure you guess on everything. I would always circle my anwers on the exam book as well, and go through witha few mins left doing a random audit (check answer 63…then 28 etc.) making sure I didn’t screw up the series of numbers by skipping one etc. Good luck my friend!~
I always finish in like 2:31 minutes then end up having to sit there for 29 minutes
I never left early for any of the exams although I could have a few times. Another 30 minutes isn’t going to kill you and I used that extra time to go over the exam a few more times to ensure I marked the answer I intended to (an audit).
Actually, I’m a ChiSox fan… Does that change your opinion? =)
soxboys21 Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- … > It appears that if you do not take the full 3 > hours at each session, you have to sit and wait … > … is it okay to underline > keywords in the question and cross off answers > that we know are incorrect? a) I believe you’re allowed to leave until ~30 minutes remain, but if you’re serious about the test you will probably not have finished until the very last minute. b) I did and I passed. As a matter of fact, the booklet serves as scratch paper, so underlining and crossing out was one of my exam strategies. The booklets are collected at the end together with the scantron sheets. It is a very strict and rigorous process.
bchadwick Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > Advice. At 5 minutes to go, make sure you fill in > all of your guess ovals (I recommend using “D”, > since you won’t get to do it next year). A shame the LOS don’t cover http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monty_Hall_problem, because this directly leads to a better guessing strategy than one founded on assuming the CFAI, out of foreseen nostalgia, will lean toward parking correct answers under the never-to-be-seen-again “D” choice. Here’s what you do. 1. Assume contestant role. Randomly pick an answer. (E.g., number of seconds on your watch mod 4, map to [A…D] ) 2. Now you’re Monty Hall. You have to “open a door” which has a goat behind it. This is usually easy to do – most exam questions will have one or two answers which are obviously wrong. Identify that wrong answer, and pretend you’re showing it to yourself. Draw a light “X” through the known goat answer if that helps your role play. 3. Back to contestant role. Switch your original answer to one of the remaining 2, as this will demonstrably improve your likelihood of nailing the correct answer. A marginal improvement, but on exam day we’ll welcome all the help we can get. By the way this explains a lot of the mumbling you see candidates doing near the end of each 3 hour session – during step 2 above, many candidates subconsciously say “Do you want to switch to Door Number 2” as they finish the MH bit.
mark up that book as much as you want, but do not use your exam ticket for scrap paper!!
DarienHacker Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > bchadwick Wrote: > -------------------------------------------------- > ----- > > Advice. At 5 minutes to go, make sure you fill > in > > all of your guess ovals (I recommend using “D”, > > since you won’t get to do it next year). > > > A shame the LOS don’t cover > http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monty_Hall_problem, > because this directly leads to a better guessing > strategy than one founded on assuming the CFAI, > out of foreseen nostalgia, will lean toward > parking correct answers under the > never-to-be-seen-again “D” choice. > > Here’s what you do. > > 1. Assume contestant role. Randomly pick an > answer. (E.g., number of seconds on your watch > mod 4, map to ) > > 2. Now you’re Monty Hall. You have to “open a > door” which has a goat behind it. This is usually > easy to do – most exam questions will have one or > two answers which are obviously wrong. Identify > that wrong answer, and pretend you’re showing it > to yourself. Draw a light “X” through the known > goat answer if that helps your role play. > > 3. Back to contestant role. Switch your original > answer to one of the remaining 2, as this will > demonstrably improve your likelihood of nailing > the correct answer. > > A marginal improvement, but on exam day we’ll > welcome all the help we can get. > > By the way this explains a lot of the mumbling you > see candidates doing near the end of each 3 hour > session – during step 2 above, many candidates > subconsciously say “Do you want to switch to Door > Number 2” as they finish the MH bit. Marilyn says to switch
I don’t know why everyone here is against leaving early. For both L1 and L3 I left the morning session with 30-45 mins left and used the extra time on my lunch break to regroup and get ready for the afternoon session.
Again, I’m not saying I will be leaving early, but if you get done 45 minutes early, is there someone you had your test/book to or do you leave it on the table and they pick it up?
If you have extra time, you could always compose a poem to the pretty proctor on the outside - just make sure that the right proctor gets it! Or maybe “Ode to CFAI”. I’m taking L3 this year… maybe it will be fun… “So, the target immunization rate is 6.3%… by the way, did I mention how great you look today?”
soxboys21 Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > Actually, I’m a ChiSox fan… > > Does that change your opinion? =) Absoluetly yes it does! Though I will like you more tommorow no doubt. Hughes pitching, probably not going to be our night. 2/3 isn’t bad though.
soxboys21 Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > Again, I’m not saying I will be leaving early, but > if you get done 45 minutes early, is there someone > you had your test/book to or do you leave it on > the table and they pick it up? The proctors collect it when you are done.