Is it possible to pass the CFA1 if I had failed miserably in all the small areas?

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warp9

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Because I had run out of study time, I adopted the strategy of abandoning my study on the small and ambiguous study sessions, such as AI, derivatives and ethics. My question is whether I can still pass the entire exam if I had done excellent on all the other sessions and failed the three sessions I just mentioned? Thanks!
 
The three areas account for 23 percent of the exam, so in the worst case scenario, let’s say you got no question right in any of the three areas, you will have 77 percent of the exam to grapple with.
With this in mind and to be in line with the 70 percent assumed passing mark, you will need to be sure that you haven’t missed at least 17 questions from all other areas combined.
 
bloodine did the math, and the simple answer is yes. And remember L1 is multiple choice with only 3 choices, so statistically you should get ~8% of that 23% from random guessing.
since you’re writing off ~15% of the exam, you’re starting at 85% which isn’t too bad.
 
Thank you guys.
Actually, most of the CFA MC questions contain one far-fetched option that you can eliminate away, so you should expect to get 1/2 of your guesses right. Then again, there’s always this small chance you could get all your guesses wrong.
 
I think that if your Ethics section was rather poor, this would also lower the overall chances, but that’s just a guess. You shouldn’t leave out Ethics, even if it’s one of those ambiguous sections.
 
I am afraid you’ve to wait till the result. Ultimately its the MPS which will be the benchmark of passing or not. Derivatives & AI are small areas but Ethics is considered to be a major part.
 
How’s Ethics “small?” Its weighting is second only to FSA.
 
ethics is 100 percent the most important section of each level… if you fail ethics I have heard you can fail the exam
 
you shouldn’t have left out ethics. it’s 15% of the exam. plus if your score is borderline mps, ethics could be the deciding factor.
 
Thought I’d post this regarding ethics :
From : http://www.cfainstitute.org/utility/faq/Pages/index.aspx
What is the “ethics adjustment”?
The Board of Governors instituted a policy to place particular emphasis on ethics. Starting with the 1996 exams, the performance on the ethics section became a factor in the pass/fail decision for candidates whose total scores bordered the minimum passing score. The ethics adjustment can have a positive or negative impact on these candidates’ final results.
CFA Institute has a policy of not releasing either the minimum passing score or individual candidate scores. Consequently, CFA Institute does not release specific information about the ethics adjustment or the candidates who were affected. The adjustment has had a net positive effect on candidate scores (and thus pass rates) in most exam sessions. The published pass rates always take into account the ethics adjustment for borderline candidates.
 
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