2015 L1 - Center City Philadelphia, cluster F with parking, traffic, added to the anxiety. Hotel room + parking $400. Pain in the ass to get to.
2016 L2 - Oaks Convention center, hotel $150, free parking, laid back and run very well, did not have to deal with traffic etc.
2017 L3 - Back in Center City for some reason? Sharing the hall with Comic-con and a few other conventions. Alot of noise, at one point in the PM it sounded like a herd of elephants ran through the hallway outside our testing room. Paid $400 for a hotel and parking. Not sure how they choose what center to use and why they switched back, but the Oaks center was 10x better last year
One other thing about the PHL testing center - the amount of homeless sleeping around the convention center was crazy. I had to step over no less than 8 homeless guys to get the 2 blocks from the hotel to the entrance, and the entire area around this beautiful convention center smelled like stale urine. Why would we want to be in the middle of center city to test when there was a perfectly good alternative last year?
I see your point of view and would agree that it sucks that you need to shell out as much as you do but understand that for others (such as myself), the Center City location is better.
I live in Southern NJ and it took me about 40 mins from the time I pulled out of my driveway till I was standing in front of the doors to the exam hall. All I had to pay was the $5 bridge toll and $26 for parking. While I consider the parking fee almost extortion, it wasn’t hard to find and traffic wasn’t bad in either direction, for me at least.
Conversely, when they had it at Oaks last year that is a good hour away from where I live so I had to spring for a hotel nearby which I would rather not have had to do. Getting there and back was a pain as there was a ton of traffic each way. As far as the exam itself, the one thing I did not like at Oaks was that if you recall, the bathroom situation was rather out of hand. I even wrote a complaint letter to CFAI after the exam about that.
I do agree though that this year the noise from outside the hall was a bit much. Especially at the end of each half was bad, especially the PM session. Sounded like they were setting off fireworks or something. Thankfully I was done but I feel bad those that weren’t and were trying to concentrate with that going on.
You bastard! Lol I get it, no matter where it is goven, it’s going to be inconvenient for someone. I wonder if they have always done 1 year CC then 1 year at Oaks?
Haha, if it makes you feel any better I did write a complaint after the 2015 exam. If you recall, back then they originally had the tables where we were supposed to put our stuff on in that narrow part of the hallway with the turn in it. Really created a log jam. This year, they had the tables lined up along the wide area of the hall. Still a log jam but better than 2015…
Not sure if move it around each year, guess I’ll find out next year…
So, I an taking the lvl1 next June and I live 3 hours away in central PA so I’m trying to decide where to reserve a hotel room. I may reserve 2 and then cancel one once I get the final location of my exam. Where was the exam in June 2018?
Was at the Convention Center in PHL there the years that I took it.
Makes sense to have it in center city from a central point of view - more convenient to more people.
And yes, the final 2 years I took it the damn comic-con had a convention the same day. You saw all these complete weirdos walking around in goofy outfits. Every now and then one would come down the CFA hallway and look totally confused as to where he was.