Thoughts on Passing the Exam

I took a review course with a prior CFAI grader and he said that they grade the exam by allocating the high scores as auto pass, the low scores as auto fail, and then they sort through the “in betweens” starting with scores in their most heavily weighted topics. He said that Ethics is always the top topic then decends through what the institute wants you to focus on for the year, mostly Eq and FRA, Corp finance, Deriv etc. So most likely you would have passed with higher Ethics and Eq scores compared to the other candidates with identical % test scores. So if you are thinking you will be in the in between category, slam Ethics, Eq and FRA.

great insight…

BizBanker Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > I took a review course with a prior CFAI grader > and he said that they grade the exam by allocating > the high scores as auto pass, the low scores as > auto fail, and then they sort through the “in > betweens” starting with scores in their most > heavily weighted topics. He said that Ethics is > always the top topic then decends through what the > institute wants you to focus on for the year, > mostly Eq and FRA, Corp finance, Deriv etc. So > most likely you would have passed with higher > Ethics and Eq scores compared to the other > candidates with identical % test scores. So if you > are thinking you will be in the in between > category, slam Ethics, Eq and FRA. I don’t think this is the case anymore. Maybe in the past they did things this way but look at my post above. This person got 50 - 70 (had to have been high 60’s) in Equities, Ethics, and FSA.

^^ Right but he would have been edged out by the guys who had the same % overall but did > 70% in the core areas. If you think about it, there have to be some qualitative factors involved because it cant be that hard to crunch numbers and come up with a gross score. My instructor was pretty confident in explaining the whole testing process to us and he is an instructor for 1,2 and 3.

IMO, it’s better to look at things holistically. I think that if you average over 70%, i.e. 84/120, you will pass regardless of which sections you got right or wrong, with the exception of ethics. The problem with looking at the ranges is that, when you score >70, you could have scored 71, or 100. Even for a topic with 10% weight. If you get 9/12 correct, as opposed to 12/12, this will make a 2.5% difference on your total score. That’s substantial. The difference is even greater when you’re looking at a <50%. The difference could be 6 questions. That’s 5% of your total grade, again, for a lightly weighted topic (10%)

BizBanker Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > I took a review course with a prior CFAI grader > and he said that they grade the exam by allocating > the high scores as auto pass, the low scores as > auto fail, and then they sort through the “in > betweens” starting with scores in their most > heavily weighted topics. He said that Ethics is > always the top topic then decends through what the > institute wants you to focus on for the year, > mostly Eq and FRA, Corp finance, Deriv etc. So > most likely you would have passed with higher > Ethics and Eq scores compared to the other > candidates with identical % test scores. So if you > are thinking you will be in the in between > category, slam Ethics, Eq and FRA. I took that same review course (twice) and couldn’t agree any more. Ethics is guaranteed to show up on two item sets.

Instructor Nathan Ronen?

BizBanker Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > Instructor Nathan Ronen? Yup. I didn’t follow his advice on taking practice exams. 2009: -Stalla Mock -Stalla Practice Book -CFAI Mock -CFAI Samples 2010: -Stalla Mock -Stalla Practice Book -CFAI Mock -CFAI Samples -Finquiz Mock -BSAS Mock -Schweser Mock -Schweser Books 1 and 2 That’s 13 full length exams compared to 5. Hopefully it will make the difference.

that’s pretty insane. they should give you an exemption from level 2 with all that work.

topher Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > I posted this last year. I believe this is an > example of a very very low passing score. He only > had 2 sections above 70 (one in a lowest-weighted > section, and the other in a lower-weighted > section). > > http://www.analystforum.com/phorums/read.php?12,10 > 10578 > > Re: RESULTS THREAD > Posted by: taz722 (IP Logged) > Date: August 19, 2008 06:10AM > > > Level 2: Pass > > The table below illustrates your subject matter > strengths and weaknesses. The three columns on the > right are marked with asterisks to indicate your > performance on each question or topic area. > > > > Item Set Q# Topic Max Pts <=50% 51%-70% >70% > - Alternative Investments 18 - * - > - Corporate Finance 36 - * - > - Derivatives 36 - - * > - Economics 18 * - - > - Equity Investments 72 - * - > - Ethical & Professional Standards 36 - * - > - Financial Statement Analysis 72 - * - > - Fixed Income Investments 36 - * - > - Portfolio Management 18 * - - > - Quantitative Methods 18 - - * This is a score from 2008. Looking at 09 scores for Band 10, I’m fairly sure this would’ve been a fail. Its kinda scary actually looking at last year’s Band 10 scores.