The Sao Paulo (Brazil) test center was ridiculous. First it was cold like hell. Probably like 10C. I swear I had to keep my hands under my legs between answering questions. In the afternoon session, I had just started ethics and felt like I was rocking (thats a first). 10 minutes into the test, BOOM! Complete darkness. The head CFAI guy told us to close our books and wait till they sorted the problem out. About 40 minutes later some emergency lights came on and they asked for a show of hand if the lighting was enough to carry on the test. About 50 people (of about 800) said no and they started rearranging tables so those guys could be closer to emergency lights. 2 minutes after we were allowed to resume lights came back on. After that my MOJO was gone. CFAI should have automatically cancelled the afternoon session and passed all of us!
Sorry man. Sounds like the Brazilian pass rate is going to be on the low side this year.
When I did Level 1 back in 2006, there was a blackout in my test center in Montreal 1 hour into the AM session. It lasted 90 minutes. We then received instructions that the exam would continue the next day (Sunday). Before we left our seats, the head procter reminded us that it is against CFA Standards and Practice if we discussed the questions we saw so far or even attempted to open the books until the next day.
I was in the Sao Paulo exam, I had a smile on my face when I read the guy from Rio saying that it was cold, like 10 celsius…It was more like 21, pretty good, in Rio they feel like if it is under 30 celsius is cold… The blackout was really something else… I can’t believe Sheraton didn t have a backup generator and I can’t believe CFAI chooses a test centre without this backup generator… Anyways…I didn’t let it bother me too much
3rd world countries 
Crazy.
CFARio - man rio is cool
CFARio and brazilatz…get me at sethcfa at yahoo. Want to ask you about the SP location.