50-70, still passed!

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crish_r2008

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I came to know that there are quite a few guys in L-2 who have cleared L-1 with a majority of the sections in the 50-70 range.

What does this mean? Anybody wants to 'analyze' and give their thoughts??!!

In other words, can I hope to clear despite giving perhaps the worst exams of my life?
 
You kind of have to ignore the interval score reporting method. You could score 69% in 9 sections and score 100% in 1 and pass the exam. I've seen plenty of scores that have 4 sections in the 50-70 range.
 
Chuckrox8, do we have some proof somewhere saying that a minimum of 70% score is required to pass or do we have something to say that majority of guys in the 50-70 range in every section have not passed?
 
There is no proof that the minimum score is 70%, just the consensus that the minimum score is not above 70%. Therefore, it is very likely that people score a 66% for example and still pass.
 
It is all a matter of your total score being over the minimum score. For example, a girl I know who passed her first try in June 08 only had 2 sections above 70%(FRA and Fixed income) and 2 below 50(portfolio management and derivatives I think) and the rest in the middle and still passed. Obviously you can see she got above 70 on two of the largest sections but likely didn't get much below 70 on the others knowing her.

Myself on the other hand took it in Dec 08, got an 8 and didnt pass and I had 3 sections over 70(ethics, econ, portfolio management) below 50 on 3(corporate finance, quant and alternative investments) rest were in between but prob closer to 60-62% ranges. So you can see the difference.
 
My Dec. score is below to give you an idea. Scored mostly in the 50-70 range and failed with a band 10. Two of the three sections I scored above 70 are the most important sections in the exam and that's probably why I got so close to passing.

Q# Topic Max Pts <=50% 51%-70% >70%
- Alternative Investments 8 - - *
- Corporate Finance 20 - * -
- Derivatives 12 - * -
- Economics 24 - * -
- Equity Investments 24 - * -
- Ethical & Professional Standards 36 - - *
- Financial Reporting & Analysis 48 - - *
- Fixed Income Investments 28 * - -
- Portfolio Management 12 - * -
- Quantitative Methods 28 - * -

Performance band of your overall score among all candidates who failed the exam: 10
 
I am curious spunboy, how did you feel walking out of the exam in December? Did you think you were border line or were you shocked to end up as Band 10.
 
the numbers represent the percentile you are in. a 10 signifies you were in the top percentile of people who did not pass, aka so close but not quite. 10 is supposedly top 10% if I recall correctly.
 
spunboy Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> My Dec. score is below to give you an idea.
> Scored mostly in the 50-70 range and failed with a
> band 10. Two of the three sections I scored above
> 70 are the most important sections in the exam and
> that's probably why I got so close to passing.
>
> Q# Topic Max Pts <=50% 51%-70% >70%
> - Alternative Investments 8 - - *
> - Corporate Finance 20 - * -
> - Derivatives 12 - * -
> - Economics 24 - * -
> - Equity Investments 24 - * -
> - Ethical & Professional Standards 36 - - *
> - Financial Reporting & Analysis 48 - - *
> - Fixed Income Investments 28 * - -
> - Portfolio Management 12 - * -
> - Quantitative Methods 28 - * -
>
> Performance band of your overall score among all
> candidates who failed the exam: 10


This is really shattering. Till yesterday, I was happy when I heard that 50-70 stands a reasonable chance, but after seeing this score, there is none!
 
crish_r2008 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
>
>
> This is really shattering. Till yesterday, I was
> happy when I heard that 50-70 stands a reasonable
> chance, but after seeing this score, there is
> none!


50-70 does stand a decent chance. It all depends on if you scored closer to 69% or 51% in those ranges, since spunboy didn't really give us an indication on how he thought he did on the in between sections we have no good gauge.

here was my Dec 08 score


Topic Max Pts <=50% 51%-70% >70%
- Alternative Investments 8 * - -
- Corporate Finance 20 * - -
- Derivatives 12 - * -
- Economics 24 - - *
- Equity Investments 24 - * -
- Ethical & Professional Standards 36 - - *
- Financial Reporting & Analysis 48 - * -
- Fixed Income Investments 28 - * -
- Portfolio Management 12 - - *
- Quantitative Methods 28 * - -

I was Band 8

He was Band 10 with only 2 sections above 70. here is my best estimate of how I actually did given how I felt and what the sheet said.

Dec 08 score estimate

Ethics-27-75%
Quant-14-50%
Econ-17-71%
FSA-27-56%
Corp Fin-10-50%
Equities-15-63%
Fixed Income-16-57%
Portfolio Management-9-75%
Derivatives-7-58%
Alternative Investments-3-38%

Total-145 = 60%

so you can see on my 50-70 I was in the middle to lower part of the ranges and failed 3 sections and got an 8.

If spunboy has an idea of how he thinks he did we could maybe formulate what the top 29% to the passing range is. I am willing to guess the passing level for Dec 08 was about 65% but spunboy's input would be helpfu.
 
Could somebody tell me whether the <50, 50-70, 70+ intervals are % or %iles.. Note that the CFAI website doesn't clearly mention this. Keeps it hazy.

On any section, even if the topper is has scored 95% marks, the top 30% people would have scored more than 80%..
 
It's really difficult to say what range you've got most could give a pass.
Somebody in this forum has said CFA scoring is a monster! I agree with it very much.
 
NetIncome99 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Could somebody tell me whether the <50, 50-70, 70+
> intervals are % or %iles.. Note that the CFAI
> website doesn't clearly mention this. Keeps it
> hazy.
>
> On any section, even if the topper is has scored
> 95% marks, the top 30% people would have scored
> more than 80%..


I was wondering this too, I partially feel like it is percents only because it lists the number of questions total possible so why would they list those then tell you a percentile instead of the percent you got right out of the possible, that would be very confusing but possibly what they want.

I was wondering if they curved the sections individually(similar to the percentiles) and told you your % right given the top 1% results on those sections. I doubt that because then people may show a much higher score but who knows. You never know with CFA haha.
 
I didn't feel very good about the exam. I scrambled to get the last 30 questions finished in both halves. If it had a calculation, I skipped it. I think I had less than a minute for each of those questions which explains why I scored so low in fixed income. Pretty sorry for someone who's in the sector. For anyone who's reading this and taking the exam in Dec, make sure to work on your timing. I let myself spend 7-8 minutes on one stupid quant problem and I'm sure I wasted time on some others too.

To answer the question of how I think I did by order of the sections on the actual exam.

Ethics 85%
Quant 60%
Econ 60%
FSA 75%
Corp Fin 60%
Equity Inv 60%
Derivatives 60%
Fixed Income 45%
Alt Inv 71%
Port Man 51%

Total score, 65%

Worked on my timing for the June exam but it seemed so much easier. I had over 20 minutes left in the AM and over 50 in the PM.
 
Man Spunboy, your results really make me curious on the cutoff. Assuming you were correct on your ethics score you should have gotten the "nod" if you were borderline which makes me wonder what borderline is. If you are 1% away do you get it, 2 questions away?

obviously band 10 means you could be all the way from in the top 9% to the top 1% but man you had to be close. Oh well I'm sure you passed this time, I fear I got a band 10. :-(

Netincome99,

I just read the PDF about the MPS or how they grade, and the results are the % of the total questions possible you got right, not percentiles.

www.tradeconfession.blogspot.com
 
legacy01 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Man Spunboy, your results really make me curious
> on the cutoff. Assuming you were correct on your
> ethics score you should have gotten the "nod" if
> you were borderline which makes me wonder what
> borderline is. If you are 1% away do you get it,
> 2 questions away?
>
> obviously band 10 means you could be all the way
> from in the top 9% to the top 1% but man you had
> to be close. Oh well I'm sure you passed this
> time, I fear I got a band 10. :-(
>
> Netincome99,
>
> I just read the PDF about the MPS or how they
> grade, and the results are the % of the total
> questions possible you got right, not percentiles.


You definitely have to wonder where they draw the line in the sand. I'm pretty sure about my ethics score and it's actually conservative. I scored in the mid 90's on the free CFAI sample, CFAI mock and the one full Schwesser mock I did.

I wouldn't sweat it legacy01, as long as you think you knew more this time around. Band 8 is pretty close too.
 
Hi guys ... i think i might score in the below format ... plz let me know what u think ... abt this score ....

Topic Max Pts <=50% 51%-70% >70%
- Alternative Investments 8 - - *
- Corporate Finance 20 - - *
- Derivatives 12 - - *
- Economics 24 - *-
- Equity Investments 24 - - *
- Ethical & Professional Standards 36 - - *
- Financial Reporting & Analysis 48 - - *
- Fixed Income Investments 28 - - *
- Portfolio Management 12 - - *
- Quantitative Methods 28 - * -

Eco and Quants can be around 60 % mark ...
Please let me know ur views on this ....
 
6,15,9,15,17,26,34,20,9,17

assuming you are right about the 60%'s and you scored as close to 70% on sections as possible I get 168 which is 70% overall. I'd say you will pass for sure if your score is accurate.
 
Consider all the variables here:

- Higher weighted sections
- Ethics adjustment
- Varying scores based on agnoff method
- Probability you did better then you thought
- 3 question guesstimate
- Thrown out questions
 
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