I am living proof of the ETHICS ADJUSTMENT

CFA Level II
#1

Hello all,

To those who passed Level II, my sincerest congratulations. To those who failed, do not give up for Level 2 is definetly not insurmountable.

I would like to share my results for the 2014 Level II exam. I strongly believe because I scored well in Ethics that they pushed me into the pass range. Take a careful look… I only scored 70%+ in 3 topics (Equity/Ethics/CF) and failed Quant/Alternatives.

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 Reporting & Analysis 72 - * - - Fixed Income Investments 18 - * - - Portfolio Management 36 - * - - Quantitative Methods 18 * - -

#2

del

#3

We have almost the same score matrix, except I got <=50% in Fixed Income and >70% in FRA.

#4

The Ethics adjustment is stated on the CFAI website, why would we need proof that it exists? The adjustment probably only applies to those who are in Band 10 that are very close to passing. So if Ethics was worth 10% on the exam I’d probably give it a weighting of like 11-12%, not significant enough to make a big difference.

Congrats on passing though.

#5

The ethics adjustment also applies to those that are on the passing side of the border, but fail ethics. In this scenario, they adjust you downward and you miserably fail the exam.

Providence, what happened to derivatives? I thought you were hoping derivatives made up 15% because they were “so easy”…

#6

^ lol I remember him saying that.

#7

How many hours did you end up putting in? I remember you saying you had like 700 hours in after a year of study but wasn’t sure if you were just trolling me.

#8

I remember I said the same thing and I ended up in the middle range as well. I guess I should have practiced more of that section towards the end

#9

I was band 10 and scored >70% in ethics. I emailed the CFA institute with a direct question about the “Ethics Adjustment”. Here is the response.

"I am sorry to hear that you did not pass the Level II exam. Unfortunately, we do not have an “ethics adjustment” for candidates with a score band 10. We do, however, have a retabulation process. We take pride in our grading systems and have significant quality assurance processes. We would not publish results in which we are not confident. However, you do have the option to submit a retabulation form. To access complete information about the retabulation process, please visit

http://www.cfainstitute.org/programs/cfaprogram/candidate/Pages/understanding_cfa_exam_results.aspx.

We strongly encourage you to reregister while awaiting the result of your retabulation to ensure that you do not miss any deadlines.

I do commend you for your commitment to the CFA Program. I wish you the best of luck in the future."