PCP Investigation Question

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scorpiod

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I’m being accused of something that I didn’t do during the exam. Do you guys have any experience going through the PCP Investigation? Thanks!
 
I don’t have any personal experience myself, but from the many threads in here on the issue, it seems like:

The candidate is guilty until proven otherwise.

Denying will only prolong the investigation period which will prevent you from registering for the next exam for a longer time and you will end up with the same result, voiding your exam result.

Good luck
 
I dont think you should admit to something if you are “truly” innocent. Depending on what you’re accused of, simply the appearance of cheating is guilt from CFA perspective. If this is the case, I would NOT admit to cheating, restate the facts as you know them and communicate that you desire the quickest resolution possible but maintain your innocence.
 
Thanks for the responses. I plan on fighting it till the end. If they don’t overturn what they’re accusing me of, I don’t plan on taking the CFA exam again or be any part of the CFA program. I have worked too hard to come this far and for them to take it away in such an unfair manner is extremely disappointing.
 
Can you tell us any of the circumstances regarding the accusation, e.g., time, glancing, etc? My biggest fear is an overzealous procter making false judgments.
 
I have no problem of sharing my story. But would I be in violation of anything while the investigation is going on? Just wanted to make sure….
 
I also read another post that a candidate was able to beat his/her case. It seems to me that people are allowed to talk about their situation so here’s my story: I was accused of looking at my neighbor’s paper once for 15 seconds. After that, I made eye contact with the proctor and then looked back down immediately. First of all, 15 seconds is a long time…if I was trying to cheat, why would anyone be that obvious? That’s just ridiculous to me. Second of all, I don’t remember making any eye contact with a proctor. I mean if someone is walking back and forth in front of you, it’s pretty natural for me to look up. Third of all, I’m embarrassed about this. I didn’t shower that morning cause I woke up pretty early for the exam so I was wearing a baseball cap. How could anyone see what I was looking at if i kept my head down the whole time like they said? I don’t know if I have any chance of beating my case since I don’t have any medical issues. But this accusation just sounds crazy to me.
 
I don’t think looking at the proctor was an issue at all, seems like they mentioned that part as “you noticed the proctor looking at you so you stopped looking at your neighbour’s paper”.
Not glancing or giving the appearance of doing so is what seems to be violated here. I guess you can make the argument that you simply zoned off for a few seconds or your head was tilted one way and with the hat, it seemed like you were looking at your neighbours paper. Especially if it was noticed only for 15 seconds during the 6 hour exam, Was it one proctor or are there others supporting this accusation?

In my exam, i did all kind of stretches with my neck and back throughout the exam, also, there was this beautiful blonde proctor, HOT, early 20s and wearing a tight yoga pants and it was really distracting. Hopefully i’m passed the PCP notice point by now.
 
Best of luck OP.
Seems like an uphill battle from what I’ve seen on the forums, but if I was truly innocent, I would also fight it until the bitter end as well. Although I would still come back to write it again because I’m so close to being done.
In my experience, not all, but some of these proctors tend to be power tripping for some reason.
 
Trust me…I will fight this…I’m even thinking about going to the news media if I have to…maybe this is just crazy talk. But I have no problem going public on this because I’m completely innocent.
 
1.) How did they notify you?
2.) Did the proctor approach you during the exam?
3.) Do they state if multiple proctors saw the same thing? It would seem that they would require multiple eye-witnesses.
 
They notified me by email. The proctors didn’t approach me during the exam. There are 2 reports written by 2 different proctors. The first report says the first proctor, who was behind me to the right, noticed I was looking under the table but I didn’t look at my neighbor’s paper at 2:25. Then at 2:30, the second proctor said she was in front of me and saw my head turned to the right looking down and stated that I was looking at my neighbor’s paper for 15 seconds. After that, I made eye contact with her and avoiding making eye contact with her after that.
Like I said earlier, I didn’t shower that morning and I was wearing a baseball cap. Unless she has X-Ray vision I don’t know how she could see what I was looking at through my baseball cap if I was looking down. About avoiding eye contact with her, I was busy working on the exam and I didn’t notice making any eye contacts with anybody. I feel like they are making a lot of assumptions without any evidence.
But anyway, I didn’t look at anybody’s paper. This whole thing is so ridiculous to me.
 
Man I really feel for you guys who are getting investigated. I had to catch myself numerous times throughout the exam and remind myself to be extra careful. I could have been in your shoes had I been unlucky. Sometimes you just look around while you’re thinking and your eyes don’t really focus on what you’re looking at - I bet so many people have been wrongfully accused of cheating for that.
 
Anbu_ wrote: I don’t have any personal experience myself, but from the many threads in here on the issue, it seems like:

The candidate is presumed guilty until proven otherwise.
Click to expand...
There, that’s better.
 
That’s absolutely ridiculous that they’d note you for looking under the table. They should be able to clearly see if you have anything under the table, on your lap, or lying on the floor. The fact that they would note that would make me quite upset.
Tell them you felt like you peed in your pants, and were checking for a mess.
15 seconds ??? Seriously what cheater in an exam with so many proctors would stare at another paper for 15 seconds? That just sounds ridiculous. 15 seconds would be a fairly blatant attempt at cheating.
I would ask them for a comparison of your results to the candidate you’re accussed of cheating off of.
1.) Did you both pass?
2.) Did you both fail?
3.) It’s obviously the afternoon, so an analysis of the similar answers should be fairly easy for them to conduct.
If you passed and he failed, there is a chance that the answers for the two exams don’t have much overlap.
Lastly, I would argue that looking under the table is irrelevant. Secondly, I would argue that if you were staring at your neighbor for 15 seconds, a second proctor should have seen that. Right?
 
Yeah, I’m trying to figure out how I should respond. I’ve already told my coworkers and my boss and they’re totally being supportive. I mean what cheater would tell their coworkers about it immediately without thinking twice about it. They’re all willing to write a proof of character letter for me. However, they all mentioned that I shouldn’t bring up the fact that I was wearing a baseball cap since that would make me sound guilty. But I feel like it’s important to point out the proctor was totally making an assumption without seeing what I was looking at. Yes!!!! 15 seconds is not even believable!
 
I have nothing massively constructive to add, but just wanted to say… To get all the way to level three and have something like this happen.!! If you are innocent, I can’t even imagine the feelings you must be having right now. I truly feel for you, I really do. I hope you beat this thing if you have nothing to hide as you said.
 
Nothing to add as well, just to say that I hope everything works out for you. It is totally unfair to put in all this time and effort and then to have it taken away by some rent-a-proctor who has no idea what the CFA program is even about. Good luck and I hope your name is exhonerated
 
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