I am also confused by the graders! Q2 is almost exactly the same as one of 2005s and I am confident that I did it. But the score is below 50%! I dont have clues about Q10, but I got >70%. What a joke!!! Well, though it sounds like a loser, it would be better if CFA can help explain…
V&I – it is far more likely that you did poorly than that somebody forgot to add up half your test. Your PM scores were also not amazing, they seem pretty typical for borderline passers this year. I think retab would be a waste of your money. Keep your chin up and beat this thing next year!
V&I, have a look at past exams and learn how the answers should be structured. I dont think your English is the cause for the poor results. The CFA exams will lose their charm if the graders mark your paper based on your English skill. The difference between passers and failers in level III exam is not the knowledge but the skill to answer sharp and short. Use bullet points is a good strategy. You should study the past exams, move on and forget about retab - A waste of your money. Good luck.
I think the bigger problem for non-native English speaking test takers is not the writing of the answers, but the comprehension of the problems. The two IPS questions each told a story about a page in length; even a native speaker like myself needs to take some time to understand the problem and sort through the extraneous information before forming a response. And non-native speakers have to do that in the same amount of time as the natives. I don’t envy their challenge. BTW, I thought there was a lot of extraneous information in the institutional question (airline pension plan). Since I got 70+ on that, I suppose I was right.
One other thing: did you answer the question they asked? For example on the behavioral finance question, you circled which bias they exhibited, but the “explanation” box wasn’t asking you to explain why you circled that particular choice. It asked you a different question. I suspect many people didn’t notice that.
Knowing how to structure your answers in the AM session is the most important skill for L3. Two years ago, I thought I did very well in the exam and ended getting 7 out of 10 or 11 sections below 50% in the AM. I had discussed the test with a few other people and we all came up with the same answers so I felt confident after the exam. When the results came, I couldn’t believe it. I, too, thought something must have happened to my exam because there was no way I did that bad. I didn’t learn from my mistakes and did poorly again last year. This year, I really focused on “the CFA way” of answering the questions and did very well in the AM. That would be my advice to you. I highly doubt anything happened to your exam. Also, just because you got <50% on a section doesn’t mean you got zero points. You may have got 4 out of 9 or 17 out of 36. If your failure band was a 1 or 2, then I would question their grading procedures. If your band was an 8, 9, or 10, you got a lot of partial credit, but not enough.
Thank you guys for helping me explain my AM results to myself. Regarding BF question unfortunately i can remember anything about the explanation, but i remember very well that i had absolutely no doubt which option to circle. I read past exam papers, i went through all CR IPSs, and until tuersday i believed i know what CFAI asked for. Now i am far from that. Hezagenious, your comments about band is very useful. I am in the band 4, and my minimum PM score is 66%. (It is also fair to assume that i had 68%, but the 70% is also only 2 points far from the minimum score of 66%) So this is the calculation: Assuming: 1st band < 25% 10th band < 68% gives the bend width of: (68-25)/10 = 4,3 than the band 4 is in between 33,6 < band 4 < 37,9 Taking into account my PM result of 66%, and fairly assuming it is 33% of overall exam on AM i got 0,6% < AM result < 4,9% BINGO, This is next to impossible or even impossible! Either they made mistake or i have been heavily punished for something, i have no clue what for! Please, i would appreciate if you could check the logic and the calculation, it is hard to be calm and to do this math
I think you’re assuming a uniform distribution for all failed candidates, and that may not be the case. Say, hypothetically, the MPS is 68. Band 10 could be 67.2 - 67.9. Band 9 could be 65.2 to 67.2…etc. etc. I believe that the score range for each band is tighter as you go from 1 to 10, but the first band is probably significantly above the 25% that you mentioned. Channel the anger into energy, and use that energy to eviscerate this test next year. The folks at AF will be here to cheer you on.
V&I english is not my native language. before the result came out, i was contantly worriing about a nightmare scenario that my written answers got little or no scores. i think i would have the same reaction as you do if similar situation happen to me. i would do a retabulation, no doubt. the chance is remote, you have to recognize that. but i would not let go the slightest chance of finding out what happened. but at the same time, i would aslo assume that it would not change the result and would start preparing for next year’s exam. next year’s LOS’s are almost the same as this year’s. so you should pass it surely.
hezagenius, can you please explain the “CFA way” for the AM exam?
Study the “official answer” of the AM exam published by CFAI, you can downloan them from CFAI.
man I dont think english would be a serious issue. so many non-native english speakers take this exam… I cant imagine a grader deducting points bcoz of your english. although your english is broken a bit, a smart person, ie a CFA grader, would definately understand what you are trying to say. ans thats what really matters… however, there is a real problem… how the heck did you leave the AM session satisfied?
not sure, but as far as i know, almost all the ppl who passed have pretty strong afternoon results.
Of course, calculation in my previous post was only an approximation. I have to admit i didn’t know how bands were defined when I wrote that post, and that was only my best guess. When i saw my AM results i had no nerves to read any details about any bands. I also did not pay attention to that information because i don’t want to compare myself with others. My only goal is to do more than 70% of exam. Though, having the information that i am in the band 4 it is possible to raise the question Are my results possible at all? Now, let me try to do more accurate analysis. I am in the band 4 and since the pass rate is 53,3%, that means at the most 18.68% = 40%*(1-0,533) or at the least 14,47% = 31%(1-0.5333) people who sat for the exam have score that is less or equal to my score. For the further calculation I’ll assume my score is better than the score of 18% ppl My score on PM is at least 67% and is likely to be higher than the exam MPS but I am going to assume my PM score = MPS of exam. This assumption and the previous one are both conservative in the terms of the further analysis. I presume that my AM score is the lowest among all candidates, or that 0 people is behind me. In that case I scored on PM better than 36% ppl: (x+0)/2= 18% -> x=36%. That means that 100%-36% = 64% ppl have score >= MPS on PM. If 64% ppl scored more than MPS on PM than 42%= (53%*2 – 64%) ppl scored more than MPS on AM session. The difference 64-42=22 can only be marginally greater because greater difference would mean significant difference in the level of difficulty between two sessions. So it can be said that my presumption was correct and my AM score is only marginally better, if not equal, to the worst AM score. The question is: Is it possible that candidate who scored better than let say 35% ppl on PM, has nearly the worst score on AM? Or Is it possible that candidate who has MPS on PM, has negligible score on AM?