AuthorTopic: My observations on CFA level I results
HarryFigov
@2003-07-25 12:41:09
I have the following observations regarding the Level I 2003 CFA June exam results:
Firstly, congratulations to those that passed.

1. The pass rate at 42% is the lowest that I have seen in the past ten years. It seems that AIMR may be trying to make it harder for students to pass.

2. The email with results shows that the exam was marked out of 240. This means that there were a number of questions that were discarded. Specifically 120 points out of 360 total points in the exam or 80 questions out of 240 total questions in the exam were ignored.

3. The point allocations was as follows by topic: Financial Statement Analysis 66 points, Alternative Assets 4 points, Derivatives (DA) 12 points, Economics 24 points, Equity Analysis 32 points, Ethics 36 points, Fixed Income 24 points, Portfolio Management 12 points, and Quantitative Methods 30 points. This gives a total of 240 points.

4. My opinion is that you probably needed just over 60% to pass, specifically in the range of 145 out of 240

Harry Figov
chirag
@2003-07-25 15:16:50
80 questions discarded....seems like alot. does 240 points not equate to 240 questions?
HarryFigov
@2003-07-25 17:01:04
Let me add some additional comments as follows:
1- With respect to discarding of questions, this is just my opinion based on the fact that the exam is normally out of 360 points (1.5 marks for each question is 360 total) and the total according to the email for the exam result was out of 240 points.

2 - Past posts have indicated that LI exam is marked out of 240 with some questions being discarded.

3 - I do know in the past that there were questions asked that had been in the prior year's exam. This was done to compare as a benchmark for year over year comparisons. These questions were ultimately discarded for the final result calculation.

4 - I know that in Toronto there were large number of cancellations due to SARS and they are expecting a fairly large number of people writing in December (1,500 to 2,000).

5 - I base my pass mark on what I believe it has approximated in the past. It may be higher or lower I do not know. However if it is higher that what I estimate then I really think they are putting high barriers up to passing the exam. A 42% pass rate without some explanation indicates to me that the exam was much too hard or the quality of candidates was low. My feeling is that for this pass rate it is the difficulty of the exam.

Harry Figov
remoh
@2003-07-27 09:19:33
I never hear that the exams are being marked out of 360 points. 240 questions..thats it. I think it would be silly for AIMR to set 240 questions and discard some of them. No? if they want to set a certain pass rate, wouldn't it be easier to adjust the passing rate?

CFA Discussion Topic: My observations on CFA level I results

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I am using your study notes and I know of at least 5 other friends of mine who used it and passed the exam last Dec. Keep up your great work!
Barnes

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