Feel free to vent here on your exam. But no discussion on answers should be done until after 6am EST 1 JAN 2021. And no hint of information on what the questions are should be made.
From a technical standpoint, the Pearson center experience was as smooth as I could have hoped for. The only technical issues I had were:
- The mouse traveled a lot slower than I would have liked. There was no way to adjust it.
- Formatting was a little more awkward than Excel. No quick button for more/fewer decimal places.
- A couple copy/paste issues, was not able to copy the formula from a cell’s contents (meaning if D5 had =A1+B1, I couldn’t highlight =A1+B1 and paste =A1+B1 into D6).
- Highlighting is an extra step, which is annoying.
Examwise, it was pretty typical for me: I ran out of time, I could have answered more, but there were also some I left blank because I just didn’t have time to puzzle out what the question was asking, but a lot of them I knew exactly what to do (which was a relief because the last couple practice tests didn’t go too well).
Overall, I was very impressed with Pearson. They got me in early, were very efficient, my computer had no issues, and our testing center didn’t have many people there at once. I also thought the spreadsheet application worked very well (considering this is the first administration like this and it isn’t Excel). I do think doing a lot of the problems in a spreadsheet is much more efficient (and typing short answers is faster), so I’m very glad that the technology seems to be there.
I felt terrible leaving the exam, but felt a lot better after reflecting more on the questions and what I answered. There are a few places where I know I made mistakes that I shouldn’t have made. There were also a couple questions I know I didn’t get much credit for. But otherwise I thought the exam was fair. The exam did end on me as I was typing my last answer, so I could have used another 15 minutes. But that’s always how it goes.
I’m guessing I’ll be around the pass mark.
Pearson was pretty good. There were small differences between Excel and Pearson that slowed me down a bit. Mainly no cell locking via the function keys, and the fact that Pearson deletes your entire formula if you mess it up (Excel throws an error and lets you fix it).
Test wise, I feel decent about it. I should of done better but I think I may still be ok. There were about 4 or 5 question I know I didn’t get full credit on, but likely got most credit. Then of course I’m sure I lost a few points here and there throughout the exam. I estimated my points at the end to be around ~78-79% assuming I get decent partial credit, but that’s a very rough estimate. I would not be surprised with a pass or a fail.
Overall I felt the exam was mostly fair, but I could of used another 30 minutes. It felt much more of a rush compared to normal. Probably mostly due to losing the reading period and the adjustment to the Pearson environment.
Yes, I missed the reading period, too. I liked being able to read some of the questions very carefully instead of at 90 mph.
IFYP (Your last sentence invalidates the penultimate one - discussion of answers would by definition be hints of what the questions are)
The reading period would have been helpful… I had trouble copying and pasting sometimes in the environment.
I have no idea how I did. Wouldn’t be surprised with any grade…
Just took the exam today. I think it’s a fair exam. Able to attempt all questions but no time for review, also left a few points blank for things I naively thought not testable and skipped. Wish CAS could reconsider reading period (like SOA does).
This is my first upper exam, and I definitely didn’t spend enough hours studying. Feel like a 5 (if a numeric score were to be provided). Also wondering how score/fail report would look/help this time without the actual questions.
Just got out of the exam a bit ago. I’m almost positive I passed. It was definitely a bit easier than I was expecting. There were a couple small curveballs but overall it was a fair exam and I’m just so glad to be done now.
Congratulations on your double-header attempt. Sounds like it may have paid off!
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Yeah, my fingers are crossed. I think barring too many dumb mistakes on either exam I’m pretty confident I passed both, but I don’t want to get too cocky before results come out.
Missing the reading period and annoying that formulas disappear if there is a mistake. Definitely contributed to not finishing a couple of questions.
What are everyone’s thoughts on results? Do you think Q1 could be march?
I think Q1 is sufficiently vague. My guess would be mid February. My company told me to register for the exam in May just in case.
How motivated are you to study until results release? I feel i can’t afford not to just in case, but it’s getting so tough by now.
I have studied for over 2.5 years. I think I can afford a couple of months of not studying if I fail.
Good luck. This whole year is like groundhog day, studying for the same old exam.
So, update on how I felt after the exam… I felt it was long and I ran out of time to express the entirety of my knowledge.
There wasn’t a question on the exam that stumped me, but I could have used another 30-45 minutes to answer all questions to my satisfaction. In my post exam estimates, I believe I left about 10% of the points blanks.
In general, I am a very fast test taker, typically finishing with 30-60 minutes to spare on CAS upper levels. I had taken all prior exams from 2013 to today as practice exams and never had an issue with time. I hope there are others out there who were well prepared and also thought this sitting was unreasonably long; if not, I’ll be sitting again in the Spring.
I felt exactly the same. Every practice exam I did I always had at least 30 minutes left to review, but I struggled with time on this one.
Now that we are past 12/31 when the extended exam window was pushed out to, I am really hoping for an announcement from the CAS next week about a potential exam results release date. Even an idea of the percentage of test takers that had to sit between 12/10 and 12/31 could give us a better idea of when they might have results ready, considering that past sitting took 6-8 weeks to grade.
Unfortunately, that’s the trend. Less transparency in the exam proces, less opportunity to appeal, restricted access to study aids, results, etc. from an organization that promulgates transparency as a professional standard.