Sunday, June 5, 2011

Horray! Finished the exam, or got finished?

I am so glad it is over. It was a hell of a day today not because the exam itself was a killer but it was a freak weather this morning! When I got up early in the morning, the rain just became stronger and stronger. I was worried that there will be no cab to take to Expo Hall 5. When my friend and I who shared the cab arrived at the destination, the cab queue to enter the cab area was soooo looongggg. At the end, we decided to alight in middle of the road. I felt like as if the rain could just blow me away to the Neverland.

What I saw at the destination was quite chaotic. Due to the heavy rain, everybody was crowding anywhere there was a shelter. So it was very difficult to ascertain what was happening. After analyzing the situation, I figured the direction I should go. I took my writing tools and placed my bag at the assigned place. Than later on I saw someone slipped and felt due to the slippery floor. Opps, I guess that fall must had caused 10% marks from being deducted due to temporary volatility to the brain!
In the hall that I was seated, it consists of L1, L2 and L3 candidates. So they have to read two sets of instructions because L1 and L2 are multiple choices while L3 are written essay questions. So the overall length of time for instruction listening was multiplied by a factor of 2!

Unfortunately, many candidates were late probability because of the rain. They were not allowed into the hall at around 8:45am as the question papers were being distributed during that time. They were only allowed in after the exam started. So sad for them as they wasted at least 3-5 minutes trying to figure out what to do with the question paper and not to mention to panic and shock of being bar from entering into the hall for 15 minutes (8:45am to 9am). This means they lost 3-5 minutes worth of points!

Lunch time was equally chaotic. I had a hard time retrieving my personal belonging from the designated place because of the huge crowd of candidates trying to do the same thing.

I had to queue at the food court to buy my lunch. Moreover, the rain had not stopped. By the way, I saw a mother screaming at the crowd of CFA candidates because she was being overwhelmed by large crowd of candidates coming out of the exam hall for lunch break. She was with a baby on a stroller. Well, mother like her was there to visit Motherhood exhibition to buy cheap cheap stuff for baby et al.
I did not have time to drink water nor go to the wash room. So I reentered into the exam hall at around 1:20pm so that I can visit the wash room and drink water from the water disperser after I checked-in. For the afternoon session, I completed answering all questions half an hour earlier. I managed to check through half of the questions. This was in contrasts to the morning paper which I hardly managed to complete answering although I think I managed to answer all questions which I know but only leaving out questions I do not know.

When I left the exam hall after the completion of exam, I got struck again but this time right at the exit of the hall! The crowd appeared to refuse to move. I discovered that most candidates placed their personal belongings right in front of the exam hall’s entrance. Maybe they thought the crowd during lunch break that was trying to retrieve their personal belongings at the designated place was just too overwhelming. So now everybody placed their belongings at another place. Boy were they wrong! I guess they must had fell into the Gamber’s Fallancy or perhaps Recallability bias. It turns out that the designated place had hardly anybody! I walked freely to the designated place and took my belongings and went back home.
I think I should be able to pass the Level 3 exam despite continuous recollection of wrong answers I gave due to pressure! Oh yes, my right hand had a cram during the afternoon paper. Thank goodness it recovered quickly! I think I was too tense and it was also quite cold.

The following is a song of celebration:

4 comments:

Steven said...

Buddy

I gave me L3 too!! What a day -- like you, I have also made many sacrifices to prepare for this exam -- hope all goes well!

rishi k said...

Hope your passed, just a few days left till you get the full charter! I am sure you passed too, because of your marks on your L1 and L2, which were high.

Just one question for you. Do you incorporate a particular strategy in writing the exams? Such as look for the easy questions and answer them first, recheck if there is time etc?

An IFA said...

The L3 exam result will only be out on 16 August 2011.

The strategy is simple: Do questions that you know and abandon questions that of less confidence. Time management for the AM essay paper is the key.

rishi k said...

Thanks for the reply.