Hello all, I was very surprised to see that I failed the exam this time. I felt soooo much better about it this year than I did last year. I was pretty sure I passed…only to find out I failed with a band 3! I couldn’t believe it…I was sure they sent me the wrong scores. 8 sections were below 50 (there is no way that’s possible…considering the way I felt after the exam), and 2 were 51-70 (Ethics and Equity). There were several sections I felt great about leaving the exam that I got below 50 on. Needless to say, because I was so confident that I’d passed this exam, I submitted a request for a retabulation on Friday. For those of you who had a retab this year, how long has it taken? I know it says 30-60 days, but I’ve seen times that were much shorter. The wait is driving me crazy. I’m almost certain that my scantron somehow got out of line in the machine, or something else wacky happened. I’ve taken enough of these exams to know if my scores match up with the way I felt, and they always have before…but this time, they made no sense at all. Thoughts/opinions?
Band 3 does sound very fishy if you were fairly confident about passing. Usually, anyone that is remotely confident coming out of the test passes (qqqbee) aside. I have no thoughts on the retabulation process but wish you good luck.
This retabulation could be a record-setter…
I don’t think anyone in the history of AF has ever challenged and won a retab. I’m really hoping you will be the first. But just remember there are many people before you who were 100% sure of passing only to misread the question, miss the trick, moved too quickly or simply underestimating the question. I can tell you that the majority of lvl 2 candidates cannot confidently put hand on heart and bet their life that section X would score above 70%. And remember that the bottom tier is less than or equal to 50%. So for the small vignette, if you get 3 out of 6, that’s basically puts you in the bottom tier. 3 out of 6 (or 6/12 etc) for 8 sections is not impossible for a good candidate.
spaiydz Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > I can tell you that the majority of lvl 2 > candidates cannot confidently put hand on heart > and bet their life that section X would score > above 70%. > Actually for Quant, I was 100% sure I nailed every one. For a section like quant, you know it or not, there’s very little grey area.
No way, they ask you lots of jargony stuff in Quant that you can easily misinterpret.
You may have been blindsided by the tricks that CFAI loves to throw in to the answer choices. One way or another, you never really know if you pass these exams walking out because you may have fallen for all the wrong but right looking answers. Your supreme overconfidence indicates that you may have been blindsided. Let us know how it goes either way. You may be right, but I doubt the CFAI would make such an egregious error.
to me…its easier to spot traps in quants than in other sections…
I remember a guy a couple of years ago that was sure that he passed Level II (he was really active on the forums seemed to know the material cold) and got a Band 1 or 2. He was sure that something got screwed up with the scantron. I think he retabed and it came back he failed Band 1 or 2. So, this is just one example of how messed up these exams can be.
Thanks for all the responses! Last year in Quant I felt really good about it and got above 70%. I felt even better about it this year and got below 50%…just doesn’t make sense. I’ll let you all know how it goes. I also knew about and was aware of many of the tricks they try to pull, so I feel like I dodged several of those. If the results come back the same, I’m just not sure how to feel about it. I felt like I nailed that test. It was the first CFA exam I actually felt good about…and I did horrible. So frustrating.
Last year I got a band 5 and felt pretty horrible about the test. This year I felt really good about it and got a band 3.
I alway hear how L2 2010 was crazy hard and the one in 2011 was quite easy…then judging from the pass/fail matrices posted online the MPS must have been quite low for 2011…somethings fishy!
Yeah that’s definitely the way I felt. I thought 2010 was extremely hard…and this one seemed relatively easy. Guess they tricked me!
CFAtaker7, I had results that were VERY similar to yours. I failed Band 4, seven out of my ten categories were in the <50% range, and the remaining 3 were in the 50-70%. I felt confident after leaving the exam, put in a TON of studying beforehand (and passed all three of my practice exams), and was completely shocked that I not only failed, but failed so miserably (with none in >70% which I simply cannot believe). Heck, I studied at least 50% more for this exam than I did for level 1, and I dominated level 1 in December. I put in for a retab immediately after seeing my results, and unfortunately, I got the automated message a couple days letter saying there were no errors made. I know how people will claim that there are many tricks to the exam and so forth (which I’m well aware of), but even after getting the retab back, I still can’t believe I failed as badly as I did. Call it denial, but I’m the kind of person who always downplays how they actually did on an exam, and for me to feel this way is unheard of. After reading elsewhere that the CFA has never changed a score from a pass to a fail, and how they would rather fail a student than to admit a mistake (and deal with all the pandemonium that would inevitably arise once others hear of their mistake), it really makes me question why they would actually have a retabulation option (aside from stealing $100). Good luck on your retab though.
Sounds like we are in the exact same boat! I’m sure my Retab is going to come back saying there were no errors. How long did it take for your retab? This is my 2nd time around on level 2…just not sure I’m going to keep going after this. It’s so disouraging after feeling really good about it, then getting such a horrible grade. I know a guy that took level 2 for the first time that felt so much worse than I did leaving the exam… he actually even admitted to not studying enough for it… but he did so much better than me. I just don’t understand. Are you going to take it again brubaker? Where are you located, I’m in Charlotte… that would be very ironic if you were in Charlotte too.
Yeah, I’ll take it again. I’ll probably just use my 2011 materials for the 2012 test, and note which 5 sections were deleted, and read up on the one new section on hedge funds in the CFA books (no point in purchasing all new Schweser books). I’ll probably just purchase additional practice exams, and go over as many questions as possible. I’m in Atlanta.
Yeah I’m thinking the same thing. Is it documented on the CFA website what readings were removed from or added to the curriculum? I’ll let you know how my retab turns out.
Waiting for it is about to drive me crazy haha! It’s been almost 3 full days (I submitted it late Friday).
Yeah, there are some posts that describe which readings were taken away, and which one was added. I’m sure that once the Schweser Notes for 2012 become available, some people will be able to add more detail as to which specific pages/sections were taken away. Sorry, forgot to mention that it took 3 days for my results to come in, but I was probably one of the earlier people to send in a retab.
Oh ok, hopefully I’ll be getting mine soon. Thanks for your help!