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Hi mto, Good to know that I am not alone :). I think that the career usefulness of any certification is something very personal, varying a lot (reaching zero in some cases, like in my CFA/current situation), and that’s what I meant by “questionable” in the intial post. Depends on the employer a lot, as well. But, of course, this and the lack of full scoring transparency from CFAI (that will always bother me and was the reason of this thread) have nothing to do with the effort put by most candidates, which is really admirable. Best of luck,
Thanks for the nice words, Null&Nuller. Well, at least you are making use of this scoring system to improve some simulation skills 
(I am just kidding). Really constructive post and all deserved success to you as well,
hdslj, I think it would be worthwhile for me to comment, as I believe you listed my results above. If you failed what would be gained? I failed previously and the current format gave me enough info to tell me where to focus my efforts. Failing with a 65 or 63 and knowing the exact score doesn’t matter. Knowing where to spend your time is why they give feedback. Otherwise, a simple pass or fail would do. Here are my results from the last go around and today’s. You will see I did very well in AltAsts, Equity, FI, and Ethics. But very poor on Derv., Econ, and Quant. So, I adjusted my studies on the subjects that gave me the most difficulty. The result, I passed, but with a well rounded result. (I will never get Derivatives) I can attest that I know more this go around, even though my results look marginaly better last time. You can argue your position to no end. However, you should really seek out what you can gain with the information that you do know. Fail: (previously) - Alternative Assets 12 - - * - Derivatives 12 * - - - Economics 24 * - - - Equity Analysis 24 - - * - Ethical & Professional Stnds. 36 - - * - Financial Statement Analysis 68 - * - - Fixed Income Analysis 24 - - * - General Portfolio Management 12 - * - - Quantitative Analysis 28 * - - Pass: (today’s grade) - Alternative Assets 12 * - - - Derivatives 12 * - - - Economics 24 - * - - Equity Analysis 24 - * - - Ethical & Professional Stnds. 36 - - * - Financial Statement Analysis 68 - * - - Fixed Income Analysis 24 - * - - General Portfolio Management 12 - * - - Quantitative Analysis 28 - * -
fratboy…just goes to show - the Ethical shall inherit the earth!.. well done!
FYI… Although it probably didn’t happen this way, it is possible that you got up to 45 *MORE* questions wrong than the person in the first of the “pass” results you posted. Most extreme case… you got a 51.66% and the person you posted got a 70.41%. That could be a pretty large difference.
^ sure that is possible, however at the 1% significance level, I will have to reject that hypothesis. I would guess 5-10 less pts.
Hi Fratboy, I just cut and pasted two scores from the list of 100+ posted results that looked similar to mine, with different final results, not paying attention to names. One I really think could be yours. If it was really, thanks for showing up. I also thank you for your constructive post, but being blunt, the choppy information given by CFAI adds little to me, not only because I am out of the program from now, but, also for a candidate that continued in the program it would be confusing, since he(she) would know that at least one other candidate (the other score holder), with same “strengths and weaknesses”, was a passing candidate. This is bad, bad, bad. What would be the MINIMUM improvement necessary to pass, and in which subjects ? None is able to give me this answer with this “black-box” methodology. Not having the right to see explicitly the full score and avoiding a clear criteria that could take someone from their score to their final result is lack of transparency. I can’t believe in anything different than that. Best of luck in future levels,
hdslj, I want to chime in on this even though i have yet to take the exam. I think it is very important to understand one’s own needs and I appluad you for knowing yours. That being said, one never knows what is needed in the long term and you MAY just find yourself back herre again someday. After getting my MBA 7 years ago, I didn’t think the CFA would be of any use to me. But now my path has broaded to the point that the CFA may be just the ticket to get me to the next level on my personal path. Good luck in your career and keep your options open.