Your two cents are worthless, because I wrote in only one place. The wrong place. It is fairly easy to tell what intent is, especially if you call the day afterwards. It requires very little subjective judgment to realize what intent was. As for all you saying stupid mistakes, fine, you are entitled to your opinion. I have a pretty strong feeling your mouthy comments would be tapered down considerably if you were not behind your computer screens.
This thread needs to be deleted, because it is disgraceful to look at. Mark CFAIL, you continue to rehash the same sh!t. Let it go and dominate the test next year for christ sakes. If anything, its a learning experience and you are only sacrificing one more year to the test so I dont get the frenetics involved here, particularly the calling out of the CFA president and the lambasting of the institute.
markCFAIL Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > Your two cents are worthless, because I wrote in > only one place. The wrong place. It is fairly > easy to tell what intent is, especially if you > call the day afterwards. It requires very little > subjective judgment to realize what intent was. > > As for all you saying stupid mistakes, fine, you > are entitled to your opinion. I have a pretty > strong feeling your mouthy comments would be > tapered down considerably if you were not behind > your computer screens. I don’t understand what your problem is. Just own YOUR mistake. You are the one that failed to read the directions. You are the one that failed to follow the very clear directions. It isn’t like the directions were hidden. They were out in the open, all you had to do was pay attention. Heck, you could have just been barely paying attention and you would have figured it out. Instead you had ZERO respect for the rules of the test because you didn’t even bother to find out what the rules were. What good is studying a billion hours if you don’t even bother to read the directions of the exam? And I’d have no problem telling this to your face. You didn’t follow the directions. That is the fact. The quicker you own it, the quicker you stop blaming everyone but yourself, and the quicker you l earn from YOUR mistake the better you’d be. Instead of focusing on the handful of other people that made the same mistake as yourself, why not focus on the thousands that actually read the directions? They were clear, open, and obvious enough for 99% of the people to figure out. My feeling is the 1% that screwed it up just didn’t bother to read/pay attention (or perhaps a huge English barrier).
also next year, change your name to markCFApass.
markCFAIL, it’s different becuase the question pages are the only place for calculations/scrap work which the candidate doesn’t want graded. CFAI doesn’t give you scrap paper. I wrote all over the question pages: notes to myself, draft answers, calculations, etc. How could the graders be asked to sort out what’s scrap work and what’s an answer the candidate wants graded? As for writing answers on the lined page instead of the template, no similar problem arises in that case. THAT is the difference you asked to be explained. Are you thrilled? J markCFAIL Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > I started lightly in September. > > I am still waiting for one of you staunch rule > defenders to explain how it’s fair to grade the > template directed questions that are not written > in the template, if that is also in direct > contravention to the written instructions. The > way you are arguing about applying the rules, I > would be THRILLED to see how you make this > “different”.
I clearly made a mistake, I am tired of arguing about it. It is obvious we all have different mixed feelings about the outcome, lets just leave it at that as this thread is no longer productive and is turning into a pissing contest, no thanks to me. Anyhow, for those of you who fell into the same dummy trap that I did: solaxun@hotmail.com, please email and we can discuss options (or lack thereof) for proceeding with a more formal inquiry. Do not respond just to tell me I’m wasting my time, we already know that’s what the majority think and it adds no value. Next year this test is getting dusted by me. Damnit.
I got a question: How did you guys managed to write your answers just below the questions when there are clearly insufficient spaces? When I started doing my mocks for practice, I made the same mistake in writing answers just below the questions but it didn’t take me long to discover that the space provided was ridiculously insufficient. That would have sounded a red flag that something isn’t right.
I also wrote some of my answers on the question pages, because it was what I was used to doing from all the Mocks. Then as I turned the pages, I would see the empty template or lined pages and had to go back, cross out what I had just written and rewrite in the right place. I was really bummed by the time I wasted doing this. While trying to quickly read all the info/facts and think about my responses, I clearly missed the words directing me to a later template/lined page. An easy fix would be for CFA to put in large text in the spaces after the questions, “Do Not Write Here…Use Lined Paper/Template that Follows.” I found it confusing that the lined paper/templates were sometimes several pages after the question. I think that might be why some of us got tripped up. I don’t know what the exam was like in 2010, but it doesn’t seem like this was a problem then. Did they change the format?
My AM marks were as follows, I thought I answered all the questions in the right places, but my marks are much worse than I had anticipated (PM section was broadly in line with what I had anticipated). Does this look as if perhaps some of my answers have not been counted or if that were the case would I be looking at all <= 50%? Any advice appreciated… Essay Q# Topic Max Pts <=50% 51%-70% >70% 1 Portfolio Management - Individual 15 * - - 2 Portfolio Management - Individual 23 - * - 3 Portfolio Management - Institutional 26 - - * 4 Economics 23 - * - 5 Portfolio Management - Asset Allocation 20 * - - 6 Fixed Income Investments 19 * - - 7 Equity Investments 22 * - - 8 Portfolio Management - Risk Management 16 * - - 9 Portfolio Management – Performance Eval. 16 - *
> An easy fix would be for CFA to put in large text > in the spaces after the questions, “Do Not Write > Here…Use Lined Paper/Template that Follows.” I > found it confusing that the lined paper/templates > were sometimes several pages after the question. I > think that might be why some of us got tripped > up. One the *last* page of each question set, there was text that stated that “ANY MARKS MADE ON THIS PAGE WILL NOT BE GRADED” in large, bolded print. Even the past examples showed this: http://www.cfainstitute.org/cfaprogram/courseofstudy/Documents/level_III_essay_questions_2010.pdf But *only* on the last page. It does also state to use a template within the item sets but is silent on using lined paper for non-template answers within the exam itself (vs. the initial directions).
Hey Guys… I have a question regarding the format. Were the pages following the questions actually lined that we had to write on or were they just blank pages… I do remember the extra pages in the back being lined but didn’t use them. I thought the pages in the back where only if you needed extra space and checked the box at the bottom of the page. Anyhow, I can tell from these posts that a few other peopel may be questioning this. Now, I didn’t write on the page with the actual question, just the pages following. I also fell into the trap of writing my answer and then having to copy into the template.
I did the same thing as several others here…put answers under the question, just as I did on my copies of previous years exams. It is silly that those electronic pieces of paper were eliminated in copies available to exam takers. Luckily I caught it. While I think Mark is pissing up a rope here, I have a very hard time blaming him for making what I feel is an easy mistake. It’s August 22, not June 5, and I’m a pass, not a level 3 candidate. The “fog of war” on test day is brutal. Put yourself back at 9am that day. I joked with my wife telling her I had to get over the “margin of eldeathmachine”. I managed to. It took concentration. The format should be reflected in the PDFs of previous exams. After this thread I would be my bonus it does in 2012. I don’t think the institute was looking to confuse anyone. I think someone decided to cut file sizes, some low level production person, without realizing how it would impact candidates. Having said all this, yeah, there have to be rules, and they have to be applied evenly.
ElDeathMachine Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > I did the same thing as several others > here…put answers under the question, just as I > did on my copies of previous years exams. It is > silly that those electronic pieces of paper were > eliminated in copies available to exam takers. > > Luckily I caught it. While I think Mark is pissing > up a rope here, I have a very hard time blaming > him for making what I feel is an easy mistake. > > It’s August 22, not June 5, and I’m a pass, not a > level 3 candidate. The “fog of war” on test day is > brutal. Put yourself back at 9am that day. > > I joked with my wife telling her I had to get over > the “margin of eldeathmachine”. I managed to. It > took concentration. > > The format should be reflected in the PDFs of > previous exams. After this thread I would be my > bonus it does in 2012. I don’t think the institute > was looking to confuse anyone. I think someone > decided to cut file sizes, some low level > production person, without realizing how it would > impact candidates. > > Having said all this, yeah, there have to be > rules, and they have to be applied evenly. this perfectly sums up my thinking on this issue, great post.
The CFA will use any device necessary to keep down the pass rates - the Level III represents the easiest material but the hardest test - and they use the morning session to unleash many of their favorite tricks (double jeapordy, ambiguiity, filling the forms out right, etc.). This exam is not about the substance of assuring a complete understanding of the curriculum but of maintaining the CFA aura and keeping the pass numbers down.
Neither one of you last (2) posters failed to recognize that the CFA’s supposed objective it to validate the candidates comprehension of the program curriculum - and they pull out all stops to keep the score low (favorite tricks being ambiguity, double jeopardy, filling out the form correctly, lack of transparency, etc.). There are no pretenders in Level III: they should be ashamed that there so called educational process yields such a low pass rate and work to better the materials and remove the mystery if educations is really their goal. You are of course entitled to you opinion but I am of the opinion their objective is more centrally focused on keeping the numbers down, maintaining the aura, and perhaps collecting some additional revenue in the process. They would never get away with the things they do if this were an official licensing process! Fortunately for them there is a sufficient supply of bright and ambitous folks that will run through these hoops anyway.
If “keeping the numbers down” is the goal there is a much more effective way of doing so than the subterfuge suggested: increase the difficulty at each level.
JohnyMac Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > Neither one of you last (2) posters failed to > recognize that the CFA’s supposed objective it to > validate the candidates comprehension of the > program curriculum - and they pull out all stops > to keep the score low (favorite tricks being > ambiguity, double jeopardy, filling out the form > correctly, lack of transparency, etc.). There are > no pretenders in Level III: they should be > ashamed that there so called educational process > yields such a low pass rate and work to better the > materials and remove the mystery if educations is > really their goal. You are of course entitled to > you opinion but I am of the opinion their > objective is more centrally focused on keeping the > numbers down, maintaining the aura, and perhaps > collecting some additional revenue in the process. > > > They would never get away with the things they do > if this were an official licensing process! > Fortunately for them there is a sufficient supply > of bright and ambitous folks that will run through > these hoops anyway. This is profoundly moronic.
JohnyMac , you may quite possibly be what is wrong with the world. Your initial response is to blame the process, blame society and anyone else who may have had anything to do with the exam. You didn’t read the directions that at least 51% of the people who passed managed to catch. They were very clear. I was born in a foreign country with English as a second language and managed to clearly understand what they were asking. Did you not think you may want to stop for a second when you see countless blank pages for answers? So how can you blame the exam? An exam which is to be for a Chartered Financial ANALYST. A job which might have you reading hundreds of pages of mundane footnotes will depend on you being able to pick up on small hidden details, is that a good fit if you can’t find instructions which are clearly spelled out in a paragraph typed in bold face font? I am not saying people don’t make mistakes. I didn’t pass the second exam on my first try either, but to me it was a sign that I needed to dig deeper, get more focused and study harder. Everyone on this forum will fail at something in the future, myself included but you can only be defined by the way you respond to the situation. If your first response to say “It’s not my fault,” you will never try to improve. I hope everyone passes the exam next year.
you guys are a bunch of idiots for not reading the directions. Thats all I need to say on this thread. Over and out.