now we know the cfa institute is just a business that sells charterholders.
I enterely disagree with your comment. When we talk about entire populations, you personal concerns or inconvenient problems fade away in the importance of the situation.
I agree with CFAI to move exams to december if necessary.
PD: you may better start learning the curriculum rather than memorizing it. It will work, I promise.
On the one hand, i agree that everyoneâs safety should be the top priority at the moment. The exams should be postponed until it is safe for exam takers and proctors. On the other hand, CFAI chose not to allow candidates to get a refund on their $1,000+ examination fees, which as i mentioned previously, unlike some other institutions who also offer exams via Prometric and are offering full refunds. Essentially, the CFAI took everyoneâs examination fees and ran with it. There is no reason they could not offer the exam in, say, October, if it was safe to do so. There is absolutely no reason for them not to offer refund on the examination fees other than pure greed.
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Well, no reason except the whacking big logistical one: getting venues and proctors and so on.
iâm confident an institution as large as the CFAI can handle those hurdles.
The question would be one of timeliness. It may prove to be safe to have the exams in October, but when will we know that? In Los Angeles County they hold the exams at the Pomona Fairgrounds. On the day that we learn that 3 October is safe, will they still have enough space available on 3 October? How about the bazillions of other locations (bearing in mind that it would have to be 3 October everywhere)?
I suspect that youâre underestimating the obstacles.
@ Harrogath: What are you talking about? The virus started in the middle of the winter. Yes because December will be the magic month when all will be well in this fairy tale. What is so sacred about DECEMBER specifically. It seems a move of convenience and kicking the can down the road. And how is this MY personal concern? I started this thread over two weeks ago understanding the repercussions and magnitude of this contagion. Have you read the previous messages from people? Makes me wonder why you are such a staunch defender. And if I have to wait until December I would like my money back and have PLENTY of time to re register when we have more âclarityâ from CFAI. How about that!
- Why would you offer exams in october when december is the next official date for CFA exams?
- CFAI hasnât ran with money of candidates, they are rescheduling the exams. Your comment is innacurate and raged simply because the change is inconvenient for your personal plans.
- Absolutly no reason to give refund? Logistical expenses already paid, contracts signed (future payments to be paid), materials bought for the exam, salaries or fees paid so far. Yeah, there is no reason to refund scared candidates.
Most business and project contracts include a âForce majeureâ clause. Consider this the case (COVID-19) as a force majeurce event and CFAI has excuted this clause.
Nonetheless, we profoundly appreciate your sincere comments 
- December is not a magic month, it is just the next official date for CFA Exams. Ironically, October would be a magic month.
- Iâm not a defender, just a reasonable client. Macro problems that affect particular individuals is inevitable. You are demanding a date that most fit to your personal plans, but you say it is not about yourself. Contradictory.
- You want your money back now to pay it again in some months. OkâŚpretty interesting, are you planning to invest it on stocks right now, I mean to get some profitsâŚright? Assuming you are a serious candidate and you have already decided to assist to the exam, it does not matter if you get or not your money back for some weeks or months. You will assist to the next date available.
Again, demanding things based on your personal situation is shaming IMHO.
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Strongly agree. I am a proctor and exam logistic organizer for another professional institution in Canada. We had to reschedule our exam due to the pandemic. It is absolutely more challenging than the candidate think to rearrange everything. We had to pay for a lot of sunk cost and reconsider the logistic of rescheduling. Not to say that CFAI is rescheduling the exam for the entire globe. Candidates are just too focus on their own curriculum (which they should be), but forget the real world obstacles (so please give some empathy to organizer)
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@Harrogath judging by your writing you are not American born. More likely than not you come from a country with a relatively authoritarian government which explains why you seem to accept this arbitrary Dec date. Yes, essentially we are all loaning interest free to the Institute. I understand these are stressful times and we are all pulling together. However, it has to work both ways and I think all of us would appreciate some flexibility and transparency. I will gladly take the test in December if it means this is behind us. But thatâs not how âforce majeureâ works now is it!
I do appreciate your input on this thread.
- I realize you are grammar nazi. Never be a grammar nazi, itâs stupid.
- December is an arbitrary date but october not? If you start using the reason and not just your feelings, you will realize your opinion is mistaken and false-based. Your brain is tricking you badly.
- CFAI does not have the intention to zero-rate loan on you, it is not its bussines. They have already spent your bucks renting the chair your butt will sit, but you still want a full refund. I would respect you more if you at least asked for a partial refund.
- You seem falsely worried about the COVID conjuncture. Your behavior is child like.
- CFAI is being flexible indeed, they are moving june exams to december exams. If they were not flexible, they would not move their policies and kick june 2020 exams to june 2021 exams.
- COVID pandemic is indeed a force majeure event. Why would you negate this? Negation, the most predictable of human reactions⌠of course not based on reason, but on feelings. Supports my point 2).
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So if Dec 2020 is the earliest theyâll give the exam, what are the chances L3 is included?
In talking logistics, keep in mind they need to hire a bunch of people to hand review/grade the written portion of L3.
Assuming they can maintain the standard timeline to return results, we wouldnât hear until end of Feb. That doesnât give time for people who failed much time to try to sit for it again that June.
Iâm wondering if they just do L1 and L2 since theyâre just scan-tron and make L3 wait till June of 2021. Wouldnât surprise me if thatâs what happenedâŚ
They have clearly mentioned all 3 three levels will be offered in Dec.
Good Point. Probably a good time for CFAI to reconsider the written portion in general. Itâs a legacy system, with likely not very diverse grader base and is very costly and time consuming. Since cost seems to be an issue for them at this point in time maybe make all three tests multiple choice going forward. That way some of us would have confidence the grading is not biased against our diversity of thought. Since this is a heavily mathematical test anyway I donât see why there should be a written portion to begin with. But knowing how rigid the enterprise is they will likely continue doing what they are doing inconveniencing tens of thousands of candidates just because they have always done it.
Yes I realize that but things can change. And how many times have people/companies said one thing and then done another (voluntarily or not)?
There are no guarantees that they can hold to what theyâre saying now, including holding a Dec exam in general frankly.
Logistically, L1 and L2 are easier to accommodate from a grading perspective. Itâs also where they have the bulk of the candidates (i.e. revenue).
So if something happens but they can still do an exam but they need to cut back, I could see L3 being the first to be cut.
But honestly anything is possible at this point, including not having it at all till June 2021âŚ
it may be difficult to process refund for traditional paper and pen examination. i still think it is unfair to candidates, but fine. it is worth noting, however, that CFAI is not issuing refunds to anyone, including those who were going to take the test via Prometric, which is a computer-based test handled by Prometric. other institutions who offer the exam via Prometric offered refunds, and were quite open about it.
i have my doubts that the computer-based exams from CFA is so radically different from the rest that would make it extraordinarily difficult to issue refunds. maybe im wrong, idk.
puts on a tinfoil hat
maybe the unwillingness to offer refunds (to those who were going to take a computer-based exam with Prometric) may at least in part be due to CFA holding a monopoly on the Financial Analyst certification. i mean, if you want to be certified as a financial analyst, you pretty much have no choice. interstingly enough, AICPA, who hold a de-facto monopoly on CPA certification, are also mum about any refunds, even if the conputer-based exam was scheduled to be taken via Prometric.
takes off tinfoil hat
There can be disagreement without disrespect. Please donât make it personal. Thank you.
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Yeah, everybody is seeming to get a little overly excited here, in my opinion.
We are at level 3, and I would imagine that very serious candidates plan to take the test in the future anyway⌠so while I can understand that everybodyâs circumstances are different and some ppl may appreciate a refund, I donât really see a big deal with no refunds being offered. By the way, youâve likely already been given printed text books, etc, already that didnât come for free.
For what itâs worth, a ârefundâ never even crossed my mind until I read it in this post.
Also, Iâve seen a post about how a Dec L3 and finding our results at the end of Feb doesnât leave enough time to sit again in June. Again, I donât really understand this. If you have everything you had for the December exam, why would you need more time than that to sit again in June? You hopefully would have been very close with a few loose ends to tie up at that point?
Finally, the comment about rethinking the essay portion⌠Having gone through just about the entire curriculum for this prior to postponement, I have to strongly disagree that this is a highly mathematical exam at L3. There is arguably more conceptual and subjective material at this level than there are mathematical considerations.
Bottom line, I would take all this ranting with a grain of salt. I think most of us serious candidates would have thoughts aligning more with Harrogathâs, but I agree it doesnât need to be personal - everyone is entitled to their opinionâŚ
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I wonder what the pass rate will be this year with everybody getting extra time