CFA December 2015 Level I - results survey

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xk

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So, today is the day everyone is waiting for - CFA Level I December 2015 will be mailed!
I keep my fingers crossed for everyone - 2013 and 2014 had strong pass rates of 43% and 44%, respectively. So hopefully, the trend is your friend.
Inspired by last year’s survey from CFA candidate chunawalla (using an open spreadsheet, which revealed a few shortcomings) I designed a little survey using Google docs, and I encourage you to enter your results (no “test runs”, please). It shall take less than a minute and - looking forward - will give us a better understanding of weak / strong areas and overall performance. I especially encourage candidates who failed to enter their results as well, as from a retroperspective their answers are valueable as well.
A short analysis will be published here in Analystforum within 24 hours.
Please, enter only your results - any “test run” will falsify the results.
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1s4BzvnEfJSD9n26YoKI3edui-wJE84O-Dc8Ek30w0yY/viewform?embedded=true
Thank you, and take care
good luck to all of us, xk
 
results are out:
(Bloomberg)
The pass rate for the Chartered Financial Analyst exam’s first step in December neared this decade’s highest level as more candidates from Asia piled in, pushing global turnout to a record.
Forty-three percent of participants cleared Level I of the semi-annual exam last month, the institute said in a statement Tuesday. The success rate rose from 42 percent in June, and was just below this decade’s high of 44 percent set in December of 2014. It held steady even as the number of candidates jumped 11 percent from a year earlier to more than 52,300.
 
as of now, there are 19 participants
 
interesting point:
“The certification is now especially sought after across Asia, where almost 18,200 people sat for the December test in mainland China, India, Hong Kong and Singapore. That’s up 13 percent from a year earlier and dwarfs the 11,676 who turned out this year in the U.S., where the exam started in 1963. More than 7,600 took the test in Canada and the U.K.”
(source: Bloomberg)
+10,9% YoY overall growth in candidates sitting for the exam
 
Let me give you a quick feedback:
population: CFA Level 1 test December 2015
candidates sitting for the test: 52,315
pass: 22,273 / fail: 30,042 / pass rate: 43%
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sample: results survey - CFA December 2015 Level I
sample size: 55
pass: 43 / fail: 12 / pass rate: 78%
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It is obvious that the sample size is rather small (0,1%). An academic paper requires a sample size of at least (!) 120-150, a sound analysis should have a sample size of 250+. Noteworthy, the sample is heavily biased towards “pass”, i. e. “fail” is underrepresented. Other biases most like apply, so the sample is not representative. Any conclusions drawn might not hold up.
So, feedback from the survey is mostely qualitative / descriptive. Helpful for any candidate (regardless of his or her final result) should be your exam results mail, mock exams, Schweser Q-Bank, etc. as these give you a good indication of your weak areas.
Please refer to: Understanding Your CFA Exam Result https://goo.gl/7s5eYX, CFA Exam Topic Area Weights https://goo.gl/tYI7NZ
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more will follow soon
 
yes, the survey will be open for some time, please feel free to take part
 
You might have heard of the popular (and controversial) 40/60/80 rule. It is a “quick&dirty” way to crunch the numbers, but I do not like it that much. Results are just a hint and give no clear indication of actual results which are - on average - likely to be higher. Please refer to http://goo.gl/PzTdfp
Anyway, applying the 40/60/80 idea to our survey,
  • candidates who failed got 54,15%, and
  • candidates who passed scored on average 69,74%
Let us have a look at the individual topics. Please refer to: https://goo.gl/sjcnG9. Columns for weight and topic are obvious, pass and fail display the average score based on 40/60/80 of 43 pass and 12 fail candidates. Deviation score is simply the difference between the two colums, and weighted deviation score takes into account each topic’s weight.
For example, candidates who passed scored on average 68.8% in Alternative Investments, and candidates who failed scored on average 51.7% only, roughly 17.2% less. However, taking into account the small weight of Alternative Investments (4% of the exam), weighted deviation score is less compared to other topics.
No surprise, it all comes down to the bigger topics, mainly Financial Reporting & Analysis and Economics. At first glance, these are “make or break” fields for any candidate.
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Any feedback so far?
I am off for today, take care
xk
 
I just closed the survey. Thanks to all for taking part, some more infos to follow soon
 
Final thoughts (n=85)
Not surprisingly, there is a clear indication that failing students suffer most in the fields of Financial Reporting & Analysis and Fixed Income. Passing students score on average 69,0% and 65,9%, whereas failing candidates score on average 51,4% and 44,3% only. Keep in mind that FRA has a weight of 20% and FI 10%, resp.
Also of interest: Blue Horeshoe loves Equity Investment and Corporate FInance: 84,5% resp. 78,9% of all passing candidates score above 70%! Well done!
that’s it, again thank you to all 85 participants.
Good luck and take care,
xk
 
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