Pay for Retab? Yes...I'm that guy

Hello,

First of all congrats to EVERYONE who passed…such a great feeling! Congrats on your hard work paying off.

Sadly, I’m not one of those folks…did very well on ethics, corporate finance, fixed income and quant, around 50% in alt/der., econ and PM, but absolutely got CRUSHED in FRA and equity…FRA i know is a soft spot…equity i’m very surprised.

Here’s the thing, and of course this is my own fault, but for the AM section…I realized I was using A #3 PENCIL. I was overtired, stressed, and didn’t realize it. I’m not sure if that would have a bearing on the grading. Used a #2 for the PM section.

My question is do you think its worth it to pay for the regrade/retabulation service.

Just doing a casual search suggests that having the CFA institute even ADMIT the test was misgraded is super rare, let alone change a grade from fail to pass, which I’m not sure has EVER happened. Likely they’ll say: “hey…your $100 was delicious. good luck next year.”

Just wondering what people think. Thanks in advance and here’s to passing this thing…eventually. :slight_smile:

From my understanding, the CFA Institute will ensure that all answers are properly scanned, which effectively mitigates the issue of the scanner not reading your answer properly. Source: https://www.cfainstitute.org/-/media/documents/support/programs/cfa/exam-results-timeline-june.ashx, week 3. Also, the description in week 2 states that “numerous quality control processes ensure that answer sheets are accurately graded.” To start off, I would look at your current score (is it close to the MPS?). If it is very close, then it might be worth a shot just for your comfort in knowing that your score is indeed accurate. I highly doubt, just based on my inference of statistical probability (which of course may be untrue), that it will materially change results.

I have a different issue. My scores are completely out of the ordinary. All my mocks and Q bank were not less than 50%. My strong topics were Equity Eval, FI, FRA and least fav - Cor FIn. Result - 10% overall. Above 70% on Corp Fin which I honestly half guessed in the AM and PM sessions cause worked on it the last. About 10% for Equity, FI and FRA.

It’s just does not make sense to me - if it was like 40-50% - I could understand that I solved something, but it was wrong. But 10%???

What does retabulation do? Will they actually look at my scores sheet and check for mistakes? Everyone seems to think there is no point to pay for it. But I just simply can’t believe 10% percentile when my average was 60-70% and exam also felt medium easy, easier than level 1 and I was not sure I passed level 1 after the exam, but I felt quite confident after level 2.

Any advice?

Machines dont fail!

yes. I think because I was solving the problems not in the paper order but in the order of priority: 1) Equity Val; 2) FRA; 3) FI; 4) Portfolio Management; 5) Alternatives ; 6) Derivatives; 7) quant; 8) econ; 9) corp fin - i am thinking I shifted my answers somehow…I don’t see any other logical explanation to this. It simply can’t be…I have done Wiley mocks and they were 3 times harder than the actual exam but I still got about 50% on them…so I simply can’t accept 10% percentile

Ethics section which was the 1st on AM and PM session I got 90% percentile scores cause I couldn’t have shifted the answers their since it is coming the first in the book and answersheet…already filed for retabulation. let’s see what result will be.

where do you even get a #3 pencil?

So how many % of the exam did you got right? I think 45-50% for the 10th percentile is quite realistic…

that’s the point. I got slightly above 10% of all scores or I am in the bottom 10% which means I should have guessed most of the exam and did not know anything…which is simply crazy…my average on Kaplan was 69-70%. I can’t understand how this is possible?

Co Worker Gave it to me…I feel the same way…hadn’t seen one in ages and didn’t check it until I was half way through the AM session.

Feel the same way about my equity portion…I got WELL below the 10% line, which seems IMPOSSIBLE due to the fact I never got below a 55% on any of the mocks or practice questions I ever took. Seems unlikely.

Save the $100. Or you can buy 25 power ball and 25 Mega Millions tickets with it, and the the payout would not be worse.

I used to grade exams as teaching assistant before. There are 2 steps in grading process. 1st: they scan your answer sheet through machine. 2nd: grader will compare the your paper with the solution. From my experience, the winning chance is very remote. You should move forward. At least you have some ideas what major topics are tested, where you are weak and need to improve.

How do you know what the 10% line means in terms of marks?