You seem to be in a good situation if you have charterholders at work who will back you up, say how long you’ve worked, etc.
I agree that ‘appearance of cheating’ is poorly defined by CFAI and gives them huge lattitude with regards to what they want to interpret under that clause. As the posting from the boardmember said, the process is biased toward finding you guilty. To me that’s pretty unethical for a professional association that is supposed to stand FOR ethics.
Yes it sucks, it is unfair, and that’s because the system here is flawed in my opinion.
The best you can hope for is a good defense and getting the sympathy of those reviewing your case.Once you’ve prepared your defense and sent it off, try to do something else to keep your mind off of it. Check back with them once a month or more often to make sure they know you’re serious. That’s the best you can do.
I’m sorry that sucks. I take the test in a third world country for this reason. Americans are too obsessed with rules and catching people. Land of the free my ass. This is really just another example like that of snowden.
Next time take the country where the proctors will help you cheat (think Asia).
Thank you again for your support. I can’t help thinking if I seek help from people at work and CFAI makes the judgement against me, I will be completely ruined…Sorry to think like a coward, but my mind is burning in hell now…
There is no way that having this issue will ever ruin you. The CFA is just an academic credential. Sure, one that takes a hell of a lot of pain to acquire, but nonetheless it cannot substitute for your work experience or people skills.
Besides, the knowledge you have acquired by taking CFA levels 1-3 is with you. In the worst outcome you can still claim you passed levels 1 and 2 on your resume, and studied for 3.
Had you done something obscene like cheated using an electronic device or checked formula sheets in the bathroom, you’d probably get expelled from the program. I think that’s extremely unlikely in your scenario. Most likely they’ll give you a suspension for a certain time and then let you take it again. So that can’t mean you are ruined, just horribly inconvenienced and I’d say INSULTED is the worst part of it.
There is nothing more insulting than being prepared and being honest, and being punished. But ruined? Not over this.
Public censure could be ruinous as employers now google people’s names and/or do fairly sophisticated checks. Not trying to scare anyone but these are the reasons I wear blinders when I take these exams. Not worth someone’s subjective decision to say I glanced anywhere. Totally not worth cheating on an exam or give the appearance.
Public censure is not likely in this case I think, the evidence appears to be pretty weak in my view (too circumstantial, without a concrete example such as similar responses). I think that public censure reserved for blatant violations where there is no reasonable doubt, and enough stupidities like that get done (e.g. people cramming formula sheets in the bathroom, sharing exam info over the internet, etc).
Andreason simply needs to put a solid defense together. If I found that someone put up a solid, respectful defense and didn’t have any other accusations against them, even if I wasn’t convinced I’d lean toward a more lenient sentence. Especially someone who passed two levels so far without a hitch.
How bad does it get over there? I literally wouldn’t even know how to cheat on this exam unless one were two just bring in the actual curriculum on exam day.
I wonder how they determine the proctors. In my country which is very small, the proctors become known to you after seeing them year after year. (Hopefully this is my last)
They know you so well that when I turned up this year, the lady said to me that" I was sure you passed last year. I never thought I would be seeing you"
In the developed world, USA, Canada and UK its way too large to ever know a proctor.
Why then are the proctrors not CFA Charterholders, so that they ensure that they understand what;s on the line and will use “best judgement” or the proctors should be at least the same persons who do PCP investigations
This really needs some sort of review and rehash by the Institute.
P.S Why don’t the institute pay for cameras in the testing room, surely our fees can go towards that.
I totally agree, but the problem is that they have no real incentive to - the candidates who face this issue are relatively small in relation to the populus and aren’t strong enough to affect change on their own. Sadly to say most of the time for an organization to change it needs to feel pain or see the threat of it.
I was angry when I saw the procter said I glanced at other candidate’s answer sheet for 10 fxxking times and 5-10 secs each time! They are so keen to make their story look like truth. If I spent that much time peeking and was able to see, I would be able to copy the whole blxxdy answer sheet! This makes me look really bad and even guilty if I bring the report to my boss and colleagues. CFAI can be dead to me for good but I can’t stand the doubt people might have from their false accusation!
It’s really a delimma and I barely ate for the last 2 days. Can’t figure out why this is happening to me
I haven’t actually seen much cases where people sue the CFA institute, i often wonder why? If you are damn sure of your innocence, and the CFA pronounces you guilty of exam misconduct, surely that may amount to defamation of character or something? and shouldn’t you be able to take legal action - to force CFA into providing clear evidence that you are indeed a cheat?
This idea of determining a candidate’s guilt or innocence of a charge, based on the testimony of 1 or 2 proctors - who may just be having a bad day with their wives, belong to the 15th century! The idea that more than 300 hours of toiling could be flushed down the toilet, because a proctor determined - using only his own discretion - that a candidate gave the “appearance” of cheating, is crude and does not belong in today’s world.
Andreason, I went through this same thing last year for a different reason though. My “crime” was more clear cut.
I did not sleep for weeks and my productivity at work slumped.
I implore you to send the email within the thirty days, you will have to wait at least 8 months for a final answer. You will see on their website 484 persons are still pending cases from last year.
I also implore you to get back on your feet, I know its easier said than done and right now it feels like your life just went down the drain. I went through the same thing last year and into this year.
You must not let this dominate your whole life. What ever you need to do to get it off your mind just do it and as the time go the paid will ease.
Then chose only those whom you don’t fear you’ll have any professional reprocussions.
Honestly, if the person you are working with is a decent human being they’ll understand that this goes under the category of ‘sh*t happens’. If they step out to give you a recommendation, they should feel vested in the process. To put their and your mind at ease, show them the posting of the CFAI boardmember that I posted a link to earlier in this post. It says pretty clearly that the process is biased toward finding you guilty. So whomever you are asking will realize that your chance of getting a fair trial are small.
Like I said, only a complete idiot would cheat by copying off of someone else at the CFA exam. Whomever knows you probably knows that you aren’t that stupid, let alone unethical.
Anyway, get proactive: draft your letter and get your testimonies prepared. And don’t forget to celebrate your 300 hours of studying. You honestly studied for this exam and what happened to you was unfair. That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t reward yourself for the hard work you did.
As far as getting the letter from your eye doctor, ask for the paper from the original diagnosis, rather than just a letter that your doctor would write today. This is because it shows that there was an issue before the exam, rather than having a letter whose truthfulness may be compromised, due to you could have “asked a favor” to get it written though you may not have any eye issues.
As previous posters mentions, I would indicate the stupidity of even trying to look at anyones paper:
How would you know that your question 1, 5, 37 etc is the same as your neighbors? Maybe they mix up questions.
Maybe they even mix up the entire exam with a completely different set of quesitons altogether.
Following up on 3, indicate how many hours you have studied, so that were probably more prepared and knowledgeable than your neighbor anyway. (assuming you put in tons of hours anyway)