I know we can’t discuss anything now, but can we just never discuss questions with this format?
Do we even get the same exams within a sitting?
There’s one question that particularly pissed me off. I noted it in the survey but doubt it will matter. There was terminology used in an important way that was probably in the source material but absolutely isn’t the way a rational person would describe the concept.
In a word, that was absurd. I want to meet the human that finished that thing.
My biggest two complaints about this exam are:
1a) That if I need the answer from part a to answer part b then I needed to copy it to the scratch pad and then to the new question.
1b) If I realized that I made a mistake in part a then I had to remember to go back and copy the answer to part b
2) They weren’t consistent about splitting questions on different screens. Sometimes there were 2 parts on a screen and sometimes 1. I found myself answer a question on the wrong screen more than once.
I 100% agree with @joejam @troyandabed and @Rastiln comments.
I was one of the people that experienced system malfunction, but managed to finish the exam (it took 5.5 hours). It took 2-5 minutes to switch between questions, access to scratchpad was also affected, using previous answers was difficult. They had to restart my computer few times (10 mins for a reboot) when it was between questions from same problem - it was really putting me off my stride.
It’s just so frustrating!
I forgot to say above that I had issues with the scratch pad. I answered an a-c, d, e question all on the a-c screen, then tried to copy my work to the scratch pad and it wouldn’t paste. Later I was able to use the scratch pad, it’s not like I was failing to copy-paste.
I didn’t note it on the survey because I needed the bathroom badly and my brain was fried to where I didn’t feel like checking out just to check in to complain about the scratch pad.
I found it frustrating that questions were inconsistent too on how to answer them. Some of them had the yellow cell for your answer but then others didn’t! Small thing in the grand scheme of things but still pretty annoying.
Anyone planning to retake later this month? Sounds like it is going to be the exact same exam.
This would be a new twist on things…
It sounds like there might be some questions that are the same but for there will still be a bunch of new ones according to the CAS FAQ:
Q: To ensure the integrity of the exam process, can the CAS confirm that candidates who have seen all or part of the original exam will be offered a different exam with a new set of questions during their retake? A: The policy of the CAS is to not disclose information about the content of an exam nor provide other information regarding exam forms. However, items on the retake exam will be pulled from the same item bank as the May 1 exam. We realize there are multiple concerns to balance, however, we cannot otherwise offer the retakes in this short of a time period without this approach.
This makes me think that exams that have multiple exams per sitting (aka random pull from a question bank so candidates at the same sitting will see different exams) could see different exams during the retake vs upper levels where everyone takes the same exam still (I think?) will see the same questions as during the first sitting. I could be wrong, but that’s how I interpreted this.
People who took 7 twice, do you think you scored higher on the second attempt?
Absolutely
Yes I think I scored higher, but not because I was better prepared. I just didn’t have to waste time going back to see that answers were saved correctly. I had to re-do several problems on my first attempt since my computer crashed a bunch of times and answers didn’t get saved.
The CAS announced today that results will be released late July!!
Fuck it. I’m skipping Exam 8. Passing or failing 7 made the difference of my decision. I have vacations and other plans scheduled for the Fall study season, and losing another 4 weeks, just fuck it. I might even be done if I passed, but probably in that case I’ll eventually attempt 7-9-8.
I feel for you. These delays are really messing with people’s summers and life decisions.
It legitimately has factored into our decision to adopt, and that decision is part of why I’m skipping the Fall sitting. We had some serious discussion whether we should delay for another year because studying for 8 would be so compressed.
Not that we expect to have a child before the Fall sitting, but we plan to be deep into the process. Probably January is the very earliest, but I anticipate later due to other life things that are happening (Adulting Someone Else’s Kids!)
I highly recommend holding off on adopting until after the exam process. It will let you fully focus on enjoying enjoying time with your child
Obviously it’s doable to pass exams while raising kids (even multiple kids) but I think it’s way easier and enjoyable to finish one chapter of your life (exams) before moving onto the next (parenthood)
I understand rushing if you have a biological clock counting down. But adoption gives you a lot more flexibility in terms of timing
The adoption date is fairly well set. It’s possible we push it by 1 year, but it won’t be pushed until after I fully complete exams. We’ve made compromises, and my partner is willing to shoulder 75% of parenting while I’m in serious study mode, but it is what it is.
At some point, I want life to move on, and all these issues with CAS exams… It’s very tempting to just be done - I’m partially credentialed and now I’m waiting until August to decide what I’m doing about an October exam. It’s already exhausting when we don’t have these issues.
