I wrote in June Difficulty in June: 9/10 Difficulty in Dec: 3/10 Wasn’t even comparible. I kept rereading questions trying to figure out where the twist in the question was, thinking “there is no way they were asking a question this easy”, although I did catch a few curve balls you would have missed if you weren’t careful. AM and PM felt very straightfoward and basic, and I’m not surprised most people feel very confident about their performance. This means that pass rate will be much higher for Dec, or more likely the MPS will be 72-73+. I think there will be people who assumed they passed, but failed. I work in a firm where there are candidates writing each level each year, and this is the most optimistic I’ve ever heard a group writing a CFA exam. The range is typically “I bombed it no question” to “it could go either way, I wouldn’t be surprised if I failed.” After writing in Dec, I’ll be F’ing pissed if I didn’t pass, considering I was prepared for a much tougher exam.
This is exactly how i feel … i think we might see a couple of people get above 70 on everything and still fail in the 10th band … im just scared it might end up being 75% or higher … im gonna drive myself crazy thinking about it for 6 weeks …
@marmcn is it really true that even if you had one section scored low, say, below 60%, (and suppose MPS is not super high, higher than what you scored on another section), you still can pass? Just wondering how they handle the two section scores, esp. if there is a great disparity between the two.
mo_khan Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > This is exactly how i feel … i think we might > see a couple of people get above 70 on everything > and still fail in the 10th band … im just > scared it might end up being 75% or higher … im > gonna drive myself crazy thinking about it for 6 > weeks … Impossible. This will never happen
it has happened, my coworker got a 72 and failed about 6 or 7 years ago.
PC79 Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > it has happened, my coworker got a 72 and failed > about 6 or 7 years ago. How would your coworker know his score when they only post ranges…he would not have this information
I’ve found the morning one pretty straightforward. The afternoon I blacked out for a bit, maybe it was the exhaustion. I think I did enough to pass it this time around. But they were some questions which I had to guess. Whatever if I have to retake this I will but it will really sucks. I don’t think we should worry about the passing rate, it will all depends of how people do in certain topics such as FRA
erickevin72 Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > I’ve found the morning one pretty straightforward. > The afternoon I blacked out for a bit, maybe it > was the exhaustion. I think I did enough to pass > it this time around. But they were some questions > which I had to guess. Whatever if I have to retake > this I will but it will really sucks. I don’t > think we should worry about the passing rate, it > will all depends of how people do in certain > topics such as FRA I’m confused… I though it was just final score that mattered. What does passing rate have to do with individual sections like FRA?
Why worry so much about how exams are graded?? You guys seriously need to hug each other and sing the song “let it be”
I read somewhere a guideline that CFAI uses the 70th percentile of top 1% scores? Doesn’t that mean a 70% will always be a pass, unless i’m missing something here?
Although the exam was easier than I anticipated, I still feel that I stumbled on several questions. I averaged 75-80 on all of my practice exams. I took 3 Schweser mocks and the CFAI mock with the CFAI mock being by lowest score. It worries me that everyone thinks that this exam was so incredibly easy. Like I said it wasn’t nearly as difficult as I had anticipated, but I still feel there’s a very good possibility that I did not pass.
spreads Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > I read somewhere a guideline that CFAI uses the > 70th percentile of top 1% scores? Doesn’t that > mean a 70% will always be a pass, unless i’m > missing something here? Just like you said, this is a GUIDELINE. The CFAI can adjust that number up or down depending on the difficulty of the test.
WTF Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > Why worry so much about how exams are graded?? You > guys seriously need to hug each other and sing the > song “let it be” LOOOOOL! Let it be
Omar Adnan Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > WTF Wrote: > -------------------------------------------------- > ----- > > Why worry so much about how exams are graded?? > You > > guys seriously need to hug each other and sing > the > > song “let it be” > > LOOOOOL! Let it be Haha, right. I don’t think I’m ready to get stressed out again just yet. Let it be…
I did the exams in Sydney. The demographic was interesting - about 80-90% young Chinese people. Some of them seemed a little unprepared i.e. having the wrong calculator or not having any calculator and I guess about 15% of the seats were no shows. One of CFA qualified workmates reckons that some friends of his that thought they passed the exam easily in previous years actually failed, while others that felt negative and beaten up by the exams. So I would caution against post mortems and attempts at self assessment - best to forget about it all til late January.
The exam was not difficult, i finished each session in 2 hours, but unfortunately I am not sure if I passed. The most relatively difficult parts for me were ethics and quantitative methods. In most of the schweser practice tests I got 75% and above, in CFAI mocks a little lower. This period till january is gonna be stressful for sure.
I thought the exam was a piece of cake. I was done in about 2 hours 15 mins for each of the sessions and found ethics to be the only slighty difficult Section. The mocks I took were much harder but I’m glad I took them because I think they helped me avoid careless mistakes and recognize the kind of mistakes that the CFAI was looking for unprepared candidates to make. I read that the MPS was calculated as 70% of the top 1% so it can’t be higher than 70%. you all need to relax. If you studied hard for it and were doing well enough on the mocks, I’m sure you’ll be fine.
amalj Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > If you studied hard for it and were > doing well enough on the mocks, I’m sure you’ll be > fine. +1
I have been an anonymous visitor here for a while but I decided to join in the ongoing discussion about last weekend’s L1 exam and the MPS discussion. I decided to search CFA site for any information about the results / grading process and found a 12-paged pdf that clearly explains the process. You can search for the document on the CFA site using the keyword “CFA Exam Results .” You’ll see the pdf titled “Learn more about the minimum passing score (MPS) and how exams are graded” The main gist there is that the MPS is not an absolute 70% but the MPS is set "approximately five to six weeks following the Level I exam and approximately seven weeks after the Level II and III ". Also, an assessment of the "difficulty of the examinations and the demonstrated competency of candidates " is taking into consideration while setting the MPS. In addition the document clearly states that “Pass rates are calculated from those candidates who actually sat for the examination” So I guess no-shows won’t help as much as some people believe. In any case, I wish everyone the best and can only join others in painfully counting down for the next couple of weeks.