Possible cheating action. morning, repeated, anything, attention, afternoon

ba736

On the exam day I found out that there were few candidates who asked to get out of the room during the morning section. Those who did ask to go out that morning repeated asking to go out again during afternoon section. I was very shocked since the proctor did not pay any attention to that pattern and of course did do anything to prevent those actions.

Let’s think about the exam from a candidate’s perspective. As a candidate who are well-prepared for the exam he/she know that she/he is supposed to go to restroom (or to solve their personal problem whatever it is) before entering the room. She/he knows that the most effective way is to not let anything distract them during the exam. Therefore, most candidates do private things before exam. But some candidates do the opposite way. They did not ask to go out before the exam started but asked to go out once or twice in just 3 hours during the exam time and that demand does not make sense to me at all. I would not say that all of those who asked to go out were cheating because I did not eyewitness that action but it was high probability of chance that they did commit cheating on those situations. (Believe me or not it is not hard at all when you concentrate your 110 percentage of your ability to do the exam, there is nothing else that can bother you but the exam)

I also found out that “cheating actions outside the exam room” are not mentioned on the list of the back of exam book. CFA program stated that cheating is very serious offense by listing them in five bullets:
- Do not look or glance on other candidate’s sheet
- Do not talk or discuss exam with other candidates
- Do not take exam materials out of the exam room
- Stop writing immediately when instructed to do so
- ….

What if a candidate asks to go out and take 3-4 minutes to look at the formulas he hides in his pocket or somewhere in the restroom. Everybody can do that simple action since there are no rules/proctor/camera assigned to control that situation.

I was very disappointed by the way CFA program put the effort on preventing cheating on the CFA exam. I would recommend that CFA program not allow any candidate to go out of exam room during 3 hours exam time except emergency situation. If candidate is in emergency situation, one proctor should be assigned to closely monitor candidate’s action. I hope that CFA Program will work on this critical issue to make sure no candidate has more advantage than others.

neil1234

I agree with the idea that CFA should provide a formula sheet (that's how the engineering FE test works). Sure it won't completely alleviate the cheating issue, but I figure it would definitely help cut down on the number of cheat sheets smuggled in. I think it also makes more sense from a knowledge perspective as well (there is little reason why I should have to memorize how to calculate the t-statistic of the correlation coefficient).

ninja1024

^ Yea the FINRA exam questions come from a bank of questions the computer picks. So the person next to you can get different questions

I don't know why they make such an effort for those dumb series exams.

I agree the CFA exams should be much more strict, but 150k people taking these exams every year.. really tough to arrange it

bdavi77962

I absolutely hate online exams.

I can't read computer screen text for very long before my eyes start hurting.

And aren't the exams on Sunday different?

They have multiple versions of the exam, as I recall, so you can't just phone people the questions asked and the answers.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at Thursday, June 9, 2011 at 01:24PM by 99 cannon sloop.

mengxu

Yeah for the CAIA there is 0 chance you can cheat on it. I know a lot of tests are moving towards more computerized version. GRE, MCAT, CPA, all moved while CFA/ SAT/ ACT are few of the remaining ones left on paper. I'd be shocked if it didn't change in the future.

thecfawannabe

iteracom Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> 31ejm Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
...
> If the CFA exams became like the FINRA exams, be
> prepared for the exam registration costs to easily
> triple.
>
> The FINRA exams are finger printed, computer
> exams, recorded for video and audio for each
> candidate.

The CAIA exam is already like this. It was quite a serious check-in process (multiple IDs, electronic fingerprint) and cameras were everywhere, including straight down on your keyboard and seat. It was a little unnerving.

MiniMe7

31ejm Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> For all of the FINRA licensing exams, you are
> required to turn all of your pockets inside out
> (on camera) each time you enter the testing room.
> This would certainly add some time to get settled,
> but would alleviate most on-site concerns. Not
> sure how you address the regional issues without
> giving different exams, which I'm pretty sure
> would cause a riot among the candidates.


If the CFA exams became like the FINRA exams, be prepared for the exam registration costs to easily triple.

The FINRA exams are finger printed, computer exams, recorded for video and audio for each candidate.

5566

Maybe the CFAI should provide a formula sheet with the exam. This would neutralize the advantage of smuggling a formula sheet into the bathroom.

llxx

IMO, the exam should be computerized. it should be a set of 360 questions and you randomly get 120 of the total 360.

then eventually w/ a computer based testthey can add an exercise with financial modeling in excel, which would be nice addition to the curriculum.

yospaghetti

For all of the FINRA licensing exams, you are required to turn all of your pockets inside out (on camera) each time you enter the testing room. This would certainly add some time to get settled, but would alleviate most on-site concerns. Not sure how you address the regional issues without giving different exams, which I'm pretty sure would cause a riot among the candidates.