Guys your opinions matters!! (CFA Level 02 )- on Retake, Re-tabulation and advices

CFA Level II
#1

I did level - 02 exam first in 2013 and got down with Band score of 08, I knew after the exams I will be failing because my effort wasnt enough and my strategy was to ace in heavy weights, as I expected I scored <70% for FRA, Ethics & Corporate finance and 50 - 70% in Equity & portfolio management and others were below 50%. To be honest to my self I did not know the depth of other subjects in my firts attempt.

But in my second attempt in 2015, I was more confident, I knew all the areas (though not 100% comprehensively), after the exam I straight away knew I will be scoring more than 70% for FRA, Equity, Corp Fin & Ethics and hoped other subjets will be easily between 50 - 70% because I made educated guess.

My results were surprising and hard to digest, because I failed in Ethics, which I was very confident of passing easily and in my practice session I scored more than 50% of Ethics questions right.

Result is as follow;

Alternative Investments 18 * - - - Corporate Finance 36 - - * - Derivatives 36 * - - - Economics 18 - * - - Equity Investments 72 - - * - Ethical & Professional Standards 36 * - - - Financial Reporting & Analysis 72 - - * - Fixed Income Investments 36 - * - - Portfolio Management 18 - * - - Quantitative Methods 18 * - -

Failed with Band - 9, I was damn sure I probably would have got easily more than 10 - 15 questions right than in previous attempt (hence provided last year difficulty level was maintained I could have jumped band 9 & 10) and 100% confident I could have passed the Ethics.

My question here is;

Do you think if Ethics moves up to atleast 50% in Re Tabulation will I be passing? and In Re tabulation process, do they manualy check my tick with answer list?

Because I felt a trivial incident while I am marking my oval shapes, which is, I bought CFA prescribed pencils however the oval was not dark enough to my eyes, I know this would not have been the reason but I just felt.

Please let me know your thoughts on my performance and Re tabulation process. Thank you very much in advance.

#2

I think maxing out Portoflio Management and Fixed Income while getting Ethics and AI to the middle range would have helped you pass.

Don’t waste money with the retab, they already do QC on the papers before publishing the results.

#3

Band 10 fail is painful.

#4

Item Set

Q# Topic Max Pts <=50% 51%-70% >70% - Alternative Investments 18 - - * - Corporate Finance 36 - - * - Derivatives 36 - - * - Economics 18 * - - - Equity Investments 72 - * - - Ethical & Professional Standards 36 * - - - Financial Reporting & Analysis 72 - - * - Fixed Income Investments 36 - * - - Portfolio Management 18 * - - - Quantitative Methods 18 - * -

fail with band 10. Do you think doing retab will help?

#5

@Gobi - This is just speculation, but I would think the Ethics bump only effects Band 10 candidates. I have no way to back that up, just a guess.

Hate to say it man but the lower weighted topics killed you. And even if you were a bit closer Ethics was going to be your undoing. I don’t see how a retab would help in this case… as based on everything I’ve read here it has helped literally no one in the past decade.

#6

I’m considering retab but I dont quite understand the process. I heard that they go to through an efficient QC process. I’m band 10 fail and I think I was a few questions (1-3) from passing.

#7

Guys,

need your advice. I did L1 in June-14 and my first attempt for L2 this year turned out the following:

<50%

Quant, PM, Alternatives

51%-70%

Corporate Finance, Equity

70%<

Ethics, Economics, FRA, Fixed Income, Derivatives

looks quite Ok, but I failed Band 10. Now not sure if I should go for a retab just to get peace in mind and then focus again on L2. What do you think? I also collected some topic scores from users out of the forum and made some comparisons (min pass, 35/55/75, 40/60/80, max pass) and at every single assumptions I’ve scored better than several “Passed”-results…

Thanks for your advice.

#8

Band 9 with those equity and FRA results? You must have done extremely well on the ones you got over 70%

#9

What is this about an ethics retabulation? Is that a real possibility? I was band 10 and considering wasting the $100 for peace of mind because i 100% didnt pass because ethics was ridiculous this year.

>70: Equity, FRA

50-70: PM, Deriv, Corp Finance, Econ, Fixed Income

<50: Ethics, Alts, Quants

PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE and THANK YOU

#10

I have pretty much the same scoring matrix as you and failed Band 10.

I’m considering retab too but I heard its pointless since they do QC

#11

Sorry to hear bro. I think I speak for many whan I say Ethics was unnecessarily vague and almost punitative this year. I bombed Ethics too (passed the exam, though).

That said, you bombed three other sections in addition to Ethics (4 out of 10 sections you bombed). Is it possible you *think* you abandoned your “ace the heavyweights” strategy, but really didn’t? The fact the only three you scored above 70% were the biggies (FRA, Corp Fin, and Equity) says that may be the case. There’s a tendency to “cling” to areas you are stronger on, that way you feel better when you score higher. Reject that tendency going forward.

Sorry, I have no key insight into the retab pocess, but I’ve heard it rarely results in a different result. And you are a band 9, not a band 10. You should do it if you feel you are right, though.

If not, however, the areas you failed (sans Ethics) are tiny on a volume standpoint, but may be more formula and compute-based.

Again, sorry bro.

#12

I wasted my money on a retab last year and I did it again this year because I was shocked to see I got less than 50% in ethics. I got over 90%+ on all EOC’s and mocks in ethics and then less than 50% on the exam I can’t believe it. Considering how much time and money you’ve spent so far I have no problem spending the $100 for the peace of mind