I genuinely do not know if I passed or failed. By my own estimate I think I scored between around 60% (or on average about 3.6 per item set) which was very difficult for me. If the exam was 8 hours long maybe I could have gotten some extra points but the current time limit should be a significant constraint for most people. I feel like 4/6 on an item set is an accomplishment. Its surprising to me that the passing rate has averaged near 45% with an estimated MPS around 65%… It seems like every item set has 1 or 2 hard questions and 2 or 3 that come down to a 50/50 guess. A 80% score on the exam must be the exception. The test is not impossible but it impresses me by how many people actually pass it even in foreign countries where English is not the primary language. There are people on this forum that were posting practice and mock scores of over 75% but I also feel that must be the exception worldwide… Most people do not take 8 full mocks…
The exam is very fair. People can’t pass easily for variious reasons, like the sheer volume is too much to remember what he had studied, or he cannot finish the test within two 3 hour sessions or make mistake in rushing the exams. The speculated MPS is also fair to me. Too low MPS will make the exam and charter less valuable and questionable on its quality.
If I am in the CFAI commettee I would recommed to change the exam format. It will have 4 choices. A, B, C still remain the same as in the exam but choice D allows you to eliminate a wrong answer. If you get the right answer by responding to A, B or C you get 3 points; if you can correctly eliminate a wrong answer you get 1 point; If you got the wrong answer or you incorrectly eliminate the correct answeryou will be penalized for 2 points. Why this? because this is for investment and it would cost money on wrong conclusion and decisions. Sorry guys, I just want to stress that the exam is very fair even I failed it before and have a bad feeling on this year’s exam.
^^thats an insane suggestion
Getting 36 questions wrong is a huge margin.
You’re not going 6/6 on a set unless you have mastered the topic or get incredibly lucky… There is a hard question every time
Getting 36 questions wrong implies that you got 4/6 most of the time, only obtaining enough higher marks to average you at 4.2 correct per 6 questions-- you don’t need 6/6 (consistently, if at all). It’s not very different than getting 4/6, which is missing 40 questions instead of 36 per 120.
You need some luck besides mastering that topic area to get 6/6 right. I did get some 6/6 right in CFAI mocks and practice. But I thought I did badly in the same areas in real exam.
Point is this… The hurdle from 60% to 70% is HUGE on the exam/practice/mocks…
I hardly think that answering CFA questions correctly indicates a mastery of the topic (even if you’re getting 6/6). I think passing the exam indicates a baseline level of knowledge and skills. Mastery is a completely different ballgame.
I agree on this. For mastering it needs 100 correct answers and for pasting it’s about 80-84 correct answers. It’s like inprove information ration from 0.5 to 0.75.
I mean mastery of the exam… Not indicating your an *expert in valuation/ accounting
I’ll clarify a little further on my opinion: I don’t believe any score indicates mastery of the material (even a perfect 120/120)-- you’ve only learned it well enough in the CFA Institute’s context, which is different than a level of mastery. I think it can show you learned the curriculum well, but the curriculum doesn’t go deep into many topics (believe it or not).
I think it is very difficult to truly master any topic-- only the top percentiles have mastered things (not to say anyone of us can’t be in there). Mastery involves great depth of knowledge coupled with an intuition and intimate understanding of the topic-- not the same as being able to calculate a quantity or answer a conceptual question on a multiple-choice exam.
Per CFAI document, the real exams were taken by chart holders after candidates took them. I wonder how those chart holders perform given that they passed it before and they are also working in that field daily.
Actually, I still disagree (but that’s a personal opinion). I think it would just show you knew it well enough, but not master (using the term mastery more frequently dilutes the value of the word, for me anyway).
Man, that’s hard, very hard. It’s like one near fully understood and learnt from Benjamine Gaham and his Security Analysis…
Is it really, though? I would say the better test then would be that you made investments using his methodologies and you had stable, solid risk-adjusted returns over the long haul.
I hardly would say that answering questions on a multiple choice test (with three answers, mind you) demonstrates mastery of these topics. The questions are superficial, if you think about it. They’re meant to see if you truly have a basic grasp of these ideas. The test can’t assess if you’ve mastered a topic in such a small window (few questions, limited topics). I think mastery would indicate you know and understand the math (if there is any) in addition to most of the “soft” aspects to an idea.
I would say that someone scoring very highly in a consistent manner on a test (for knowledge/technique-based exams) indicates they know the scope of that material well, but the conclusion of mastery is much harder to draw. I also don’t intend to come off bashing the program (I’m not). I think it’s pretty challenging in it’s breadth and the way it does test if you understand what you should have learned. I wouldn’t be doing it if I didn’t feel it added value (I enjoy what I’m learning).
I realize this could be all my opinion, but mastery indicates the top echelon-- not surpassed by anyone.
You may be hyping up the word mastery. Everyone can master a certain element, it is not relative. Mastery means unconscious competence in my dictionary.
What country you from bro?
All of your posts are strange and confusing. That’s why I like you.