Bizarre results - please help

I vividly remember having the questions on the first few pages, then some blank pages, THEN the formatted answer templates (which were only for about half of the questions)… REALLY INCONVENIENT.
I ended up answering stuff in the blank pages… only to later see that I needed to put some of them in templated spots later… was REALLY annoying and completely counterintuitive (why not put the templates right after the questions and the scratch pages later???), but I had the time to rewrite my answers in the proper places, or so I recall…
Is there any way you could’ve been penalized for writing your answer in two different places? Also, whenever the answer was meant to be just on the blank pages, I did my best to indicate the number of the question and circled my final answer at the end… wouldnt be shocked if I got burned there as well.
More I think about this the more it makes me sick because it makes me realize that failing this test had probably very little to do with how prepared I was or what my knowledge of the cirriculum was and that’s genuinely misleading in my opinion.
But then again, 52% of the pool knew how to “properly” answer the questions… so hats off to them. I just really didn’t think I was gonna be part of the group who got burned so bad by this.
 
ccnomem21, I agree the templates were not intuitive. I was deriving answers for the problems and wanted to rewrite my answers in both the boxes and the lined pages (with circled numbers with respect to the question 1a, 1b, etc.). I realized this was taking entirely too much time so I scrapped providing the answer twice after 45 minutes. Upon departing the exam room, I thought I was close, pass/fail. Apparently, I may have chosen to answer in the wrong template and this is my undoing.
This is a heartbreaking reason to fail an exam when you know you have put forth a strong effort to create an opportunity to pass.
 
jteel1 wrote:
ccnomem21, I agree the templates were not intuitive. I was deriving answers for the problems and wanted to rewrite my answers in both the boxes and the lined pages (with circled numbers with respect to the question 1a, 1b, etc.). I realized this was taking entirely too much time so I scrapped providing the answer twice after 45 minutes. Upon departing the exam room, I thought I was close, pass/fail. Apparently, I may have chosen to answer in the wrong template and this is my undoing.
This is a heartbreaking reason to fail an exam when you know you have put forth a strong effort to create an opportunity to pass.
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I really feel for you jteel. Life isn’t about making mistakes, its about learning from them and making sure they aren’t repeated.
If it was just the answer sheet, at least you know how to fix it!
 
Thanks ZeroBonus. I will learn from this mistake but I am sure this will impact the way I read contracts, documents, etc. Fortunately, there will not be a 3-hour morning and afternoon session constraint.
 
Has anyone ever been able to find out for sure essentially what happened with their AM session in this sort of case? Or does CFAI basically refuse to let you know how exactly they took your essay answers to the woodshed?
At this point I don’t even care about specific questions… I’d just be relieved if I could find out from CFAI that in general either A) I seemed to have written the correct answer in the wrong place more often than not or B) I actually did not have correct answers more often than not.
I can’t stress enough how those are two COMPLETELY DIFFERENT ways to have gotten to the same awful score, and consequently it would mean a HUGE difference in how I approach next year.
So, has anyone been able to successfully get this kind of color out of CFAI?
 
i got 6 below 70 in the AM session too. I’m wondering what happened, i mean im sure i should have gotten better than the results I got. I wrote on the lined papers and in the boxes where they asked so.. bah
 
ccnomem21 wrote:
Has anyone ever been able to find out for sure essentially what happened with their AM session in this sort of case? Or does CFAI basically refuse to let you know how exactly they took your essay answers to the woodshed?
At this point I don’t even care about specific questions… I’d just be relieved if I could find out from CFAI that in general either A) I seemed to have written the correct answer in the wrong place more often than not or B) I actually did not have correct answers more often than not.
I can’t stress enough how those are two COMPLETELY DIFFERENT ways to have gotten to the same awful score, and consequently it would mean a HUGE difference in how I approach next year.
So, has anyone been able to successfully get this kind of color out of CFAI?
Click to expand...
They won’t tell you shit. I knew because people posted about what they did and I distinctly remember writing beneath the questions…. that and I bombed like every morning section with zero credit except for the first one which had templates (i used them when available), but killed the afternoon… so i knew.
And what are you talking about “boxes” over and over for? There are either templates, which are boxed, and only on SOME questions, or there is no boxes and you have to use the lined pages. The problem is when you write BENEATH the question on the question page and not lined pages
 
Not sure if >75% means you get more than half of the questions right - not if it is also based on the curve. If you only get half of the questions right but most of other guys get only less than half right, you may fall into this category then. But this is based on my speculation.
 
It doesn’t seem to be that hard to just redesign the exam - just make it like every other exam out there. I can only think that CFAI tries to complicate these things on purpose, like a weird test inside the test. Maybe the organization views itself as an old wise kung fu teacher or something…
- Hey, CFAI, Should I use pen or pencil?
- You shall look into your soul to find the answer.
- hmmmm, OK. I’ll use a pen to be safe. Since I can’t erase stuff, is it OK to eventually write half an inch outside a template?
- The question lies in your heart, not in your mind
I mean, CFAI does know many candidates fail because they’re writing on the wrong places. Even though attention to detail under time pressure may be an important quality, for some candidates the “Writing on the Right Place” subject becomes more important than Portfolio Management. That’s a little too much.
 
i am totally lost now….i thought i had prepped well enough….gave mocks, got decent scores…my exam wasnt great, but yeah we’re never really satisfied now are we…and then BAM! band 2….both morning and afternoon some 7 <50s ….no offense or haugtiness from me but wow i think i couldhave got this score without having touched any of the CFA books even once…..i might not be 200IQ but i did get thru L1 and L2 on my first attempt…..but a score like this despite preparation…man thats an insult….i wish there was a way to make CFAI prove that i bombed my papers so badly for such shitty scores considering how much we need to shell out to just write the exam….ah well…thats not going to happen…..its goodbye cfa for me….cant waste any more time on this exam….sour grapes et al…..Life, here i come!
 
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