Marc LeFebvre

[biuku]

@googs1484

@cfapasss

You must have misunderstood Marc.

I think he means to label the answer with USD or $ rather than leaving the answer (number) unlabeled.

e.g if the answer is fifty thousands, write it $50,000 or USD 50,000 rather than 50,000

Good luck!

Nope. It was very clear what he said to us. It was clarified exactly what he meant.

it’s hard to believe CFAI would be obtuse or rigid on a Q where there’s only euro and USD. I’m Canadian – I’m extremely aware of the need to identify CAD vs USD online and with any non-Canadian. Everyone assumes $ = USD. I’d say the need to distinguish when appropriate is far more intuitive and natural to me than most graders.

If I’m helping my brother convert euros to USD, I’m not going to tell him “BTW, that symbol means USD not CAD in this case.” We passed grade 8. We get context.

[danv0330]

The bigger point is that the questions (in recent years) clearly say go “solve in USD” or another currency

I’d be curious if they knock you a full point or just half a point if you just leave it as an integer

[rollerbladerlevel3]

I do recall Marc saying candidates need to specifically clarify “USD”. Writing “$” instead of “USD” would lose a point.

S2000magic, did CFAI get back to you?

[S2000magician]

Straight from the horse’s mouth:

Dear Bill,

I appreciate your patience. After speaking with exam development, I received this answer: “They do not have to say ‘USD’ and using $ is acceptable. The question asks ‘in USD’ merely to make it clear the answer should be in a numerical format as opposed to a return percentage”.

I hope this is helpful. If you need further assistance, please respond to this email or call us at +1 (434) 951-5499. Toll free numbers can be found on our contact us page.

Regards,

So, remarkably, I was correct for once.

[Onward]

Thank you for the update Bill! This makes total sense on their part.

[S2000magician]

@Onward

This makes total sense on their part.

I know.

Weird, eh?

[rollerbladerlevel3]

someone should tell Marc this because he clearly said “$” is -1 point and that candidates MUST write “USD”

[Onward]

@S2000magician

@Onward

This makes total sense on their part.

I know.

Weird, eh?

haha, maybe we should start going “easy” on them thanks once again!

[M_Mitchell08]

@rollerbladerlevel3

someone should tell Marc this because he clearly said “$” is -1 point and that candidates MUST write “USD”

He will probably see this discussion, I know he is on the message board.

[CashIsKing]

@S2000magician

@Onward

This makes total sense on their part.

I know.

Weird, eh?

Really appreciate you following up on this. I’d also like to pat myself on the back for calling out the absurdity of the logic of grading this way in the first place lol! Can’t believe people were actually defending the merits docking points over “USD” in this thread.

[googs1484]

Cashisking is suffering frm hindsight bias and self attribution bias lol. Easy to take credit now right It is understandable why they would, however, more logical why they wouldnt. Most of us were just reiterating what we were told. I wasted .01 seconds by writing USD rather than $. Oh well.

Bill, thank you for the message and clarification. It makes sense and exactly how I hoped their minds would work over there. I have more faith now they don’t try and trick us as much as others think.

[CashIsKing]

@googs1484

Cashisking is suffering frm hindsight bias and self attribution bias lol. Easy to take credit now right It is understandable why they would, however, more logical why they wouldnt. Most of us were just reiterating what we were told. I wasted .01 seconds by writing USD rather than $. Oh well.

Bill, thank you for the message and clarification. It makes sense and exactly how I hoped their minds would work over there. I have more faith now they don’t try and trick us as much as others think.

guilty as charged! And agree, this makes me feel much more comfortable

[S2000magician]

@rollerbladerlevel3

someone should tell Marc this because he clearly said “$” is -1 point and that candidates MUST write “USD”

I owed him an e-mail anyway, so I told him about this thread and the ensuing discussion.

[NoSurrender]

After many years away, I’m considering taking Level III. Not so much because I need to, but because I want to beat it!

The thought of returning to Schweser doesn’t appeal, but Marc LeFebvre’s weekly videos do. Unfortunately, as others have said he is a little light on the marketing side. Can anyone please advise:are the videos are downloadable on an ipad or other tablet?

Thanks

[UnderRighter]

I am sure Marc’s L3 videos are good. I used his videos for some topics when he was teaching for Schweser during L2, and they were amazing.

You can also try considering IFT(Arif Irfanullah’s) for L3 videos. They are very good.

[lammy]

So this past year, I studied using the CFAI curriculum, Schweser, FinQuiz, GoStudy, and LevelUp.

I started studying by reading the curriculum, but I was spinning my wheels not knowing what to focus on.

I switched to Schweser but found it too condensed. That’s been my impression since Level I. That said, it’s the market leader because others love it.

Finquiz - Great Smart Summaries.

GoStudy - Too high level and too much information is dismissed as in being “in the weeds.”

LevelUp - Love it. I attended the Bootcamp and watched the videos. For once, I really understand the material and remember it a month after the exam. LOL.

I ended up being bombarded with work in May and didn’t sit for the exam. Sigh. Maybe if I had started with LevelUp instead of coming across it after bagging other providers I could have gotten through all the material and scraped by on the exam. Next year, I guess.

[danv0330]

the number of actual real candidates that would get pushed into a Band 10 (from a pass) because of not using $/USD is infinitely small… sure every point counts but that’s not the reason someone will fail