Whomever visited the UAE knows the vast diversity mix of the population in here. The test center is in a huge hall in Dubai World Trade Center, maybe 5000 candidates from 3 levels; so:
An Arabian man (most likely Lebanese) in a suit with a very very short tie. WE HAVE OUR OWN SUIT GUY, HURRAY.
Several Europeans seemed coming directly from bed with whatever clothes they had in.
There was one extremely pregnant lady. She seemed overdue.
The weather now is hot, yet about a third came with jackets. Maybe they assumed the hall would be cold.
Approximately 30% from Indian subcontinent, 15% Asians, 15% Europeans, 10% locals (<= am there), 20% non local Arabs, 10% others.
It seems in France it’s ok for beautiful girls to pursue financial studies. French ladies were hands down the most beautiful bunch in the hall. Beside one Aussie girl (Aussiette?)
In the hallway there was a ticketing booth selling tickets to the upcoming Disney show, Princess on Ice. I kid you not, I bought tickets for me and my friends. I saw Anna and Elsa on the banner. Though it’s getting annoying, I really really felt wanna listen to “Let it Go” live. We’re going on Thursday.
the guy in front of me took the entire L3 exam without a calculator. the proctor was checking everyones calculators at checkin and legit said to him - you dont have a calculator??? and he said nope. he sat the whole morning without a calculator.
i thought for sure he would run home during the break or go and buy a calculator for the afternoon.
alas - he showed up for the afternoon without a calculator. he sat for the whole afternoon without a calculator.
whoever you are “no calculator” guy - i give you mad respect if you pass. if not, thank you for completing the entire exam and helping the rest of us.
There was a suit guy at level 3 in Hartford - but in his defense he was going to wedding right after. Still though, wearing that tie throughout the exam? C’mon
Also - smokehow level 3 candidate 2 rows ahead of me - I was the guy crackng jokes about drunk guys and bacon. HMU if you live near Stamford
Morning session I was sitting the level 3 in Dubai and right before the 15 min to the exam start time there was suddenly a big freaking queue to the toilet like a trail of 45 to 55 folks waiting in a line to “redeem” themselves before the start…
looking at them made me wanna go as well but the proctor said I need to wait till the exam starts so I asked can she then explain to me what is that behind her back … Anyhow can’t argue with the Arab lady in condors (the local national dress) so I waited and right after I signed the pledge I happily raised my hand and went to have my relief…
Whomever visited the UAE knows the vast diversity mix of the population in here. The test center is in a huge hall in Dubai World Trade Center, maybe 5000 candidates from 3 levels; so:
An Arabian man (most likely Lebanese) in a suit with a very very short tie. WE HAVE OUR OWN SUIT GUY, HURRAY.
Several Europeans seemed coming directly from bed with whatever clothes they had in.
There was one extremely pregnant lady. She seemed overdue.
The weather now is hot, yet about a third came with jackets. Maybe they assumed the hall would be cold.
Approximately 30% from Indian subcontinent, 15% Asians, 15% Europeans, 10% locals (<= am there), 20% non local Arabs, 10% others.
It seems in France it’s ok for beautiful girls to pursue financial studies. French ladies were hands down the most beautiful bunch in the hall. Beside one Aussie girl (Aussiette?)
In the hallway there was a ticketing booth selling tickets to the upcoming Disney show, Princess on Ice. I kid you not, I bought tickets for me and my friends. I saw Anna and Elsa on the banner. Though it’s getting annoying, I really really felt wanna listen to “Let it Go” live. We’re going on Thursday.
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just to clarify the population :Indians 70 percent , Asians 5, local Arabs 5, other Arabs 10, other nationalities 10 that s more like it
In Chicago there was one set of bathrooms in the common area, the line for dudes was like 30 deep, the womens rest room was no waiting… I guess the M/F ratio must have been very high…
This was 10 minutes before they opened the exam room, no way I was going to stand in that line. I saw some guy talking to a proctor at a side entrance to the exam room the proctors were using, and I see him go through a side door, I followed him and it led to an empty bathroom that was clean. Felt like I was in a 5 star resort compared to the bathroom I would have used! Weird how very few people actually figured that out…
^Lol… While I’m sure St Louis had a suit guy, I didn’t see him. However, I did see a guy wearing light blue dress shorts (if there is such a thing that exists), a button down shirt, and a sweater/cardigan, and a bow tie. I couldn’t help but laugh.
Couple things in the Northern New Jersey test center, although I wouldn’t classify it as funny…
So the exam was in the Meadlowlands Exposition Center in a huge room with several hundred candidates from all three levels, separated by section. This was the type of hall with very high ceilings with the vents and the beams and all that. Level 3 was the section on the left, and I was in the row closest to the wall on the end. So during the AM session, a really loud, weird, and extremely annoying bird or animal sound start coming from somewhere… either up in the vents, or right on the other side of the wall… and I was in the section closest to where it was coming from. Everyone around me was looking around and had a “WTF” look on their face. It was very distractiing. Forunately, I had earplugs and was so in the zone I was able to tune it out, but most people around me didn’t have earplugs and it must have been hard for them to concentrate. Now when I say there was a weird animal noise, I don’t mean a little noise every once in a while… I mean it was loud, incessant, and almost completely non-stop for both sessions. I wanted to spend my break looking for this animal so I could kill it and eat it for lunch, but I decided to use the time to brush on up my GIPS instead.
Oh, and our Suit Guy had a boutonnière on. I hope he failed.
last year the guy next to me was talking smack about L3 and how he was going to dominate like he did L2 the prior year, I just smiled and said good luck. He never finished the AM session and was in tears during the break, walked out 30 minutes into the PM session. I think he needed to be knocked down a peg or 3 anyway.
In the hilton in midtown NYC, a candidate reported to our room…but wasn’t in the proctor’s list of people for that room.
His ticket listed that test center, that hotel, that room. Correct test level, date, CFA ID, everything. He just wasn’t in the proctors’ list of people.
Since there was only about ten minutes until the doors would lock, one of the proctors bolted and apparently called CFA Institute with the guy’s ticket in hand. He had to just stand in front of the whole room of ~70 people just twiddling his thumbs.
When the proctor came back, she confirmed to him that he could sit in a vacant seat (probably his anyway) in the back of the room. There was a huge sigh of relief from all the other candidates. We collectively felt so bad for him.