April 2012 MFE Progress Thread

[WhatsGolden]

Originally Posted by rich1586

Sorry if this has been covered on one of the preceding 86 pages... I'm curious if anyone has any inside info on what the pass mark will likely be for the April sitting. I saw that the last two released passing percentages were 71% and 72%, so I'm guessing that it'll be similar. But, I'm hoping it's closer to the 60% from November 2010. I'm taking the exam in a week... not sure I can swing a 22 by then :-/

The exam structure changed significantly once it went computer based, thus the change from around 60% to around 70%. Unless they decide to change the question bank significantly, I would expect around 70% again.

[JohnMD]

I thought the pass mark was different on every individual exam, depending on the mix of easy/hard questions you get. For example if you get a lot of easy questions, doesn't that make your pass mark higher?

[waterborne]

While the exams are not identical, their difficulty should be very close. I am going in assuming I have to get better than a 72% to pass. There seems to be a trend here and certainly with MLC with people talking themselves into thinking the pass mark will be lower than it was for the prior sitting - I don't understand the logic...

[Anthemyst]

Ugh, I am not feeling hot about my odds. Work was pretty heavy for the last few weeks and kept me from studying, getting back into it with the 25th looming so close is not at all fun.

[ImPrettyDumb]

Not looking good for me. I put studying off for a while and have just been studying hard for the last week and a half. Started ADAPT exams a week ago and on my 7th at level 1.63 I finally moved up and am at 2.77 right now.

Shouldn't have taken this exam lightly. Definitely more difficult than MLC and I'm paying for it now.

[WhatsGolden]

Originally Posted by JohnMD

I thought the pass mark was different on every individual exam, depending on the mix of easy/hard questions you get. For example if you get a lot of easy questions, doesn't that make your pass mark higher?

This is very true, however as waterborne said, they should have similar dificulties and result in pass marks that are close to one another. The average pass mark for the last sitting was 72%, meaning some were higher and some were lower depending on the exam. This means you should be expecting to need 72% right to pass (meaning 22/30).

[jalapeno29]

Originally Posted by Anthemyst

Ugh, I am not feeling hot about my odds. Work was pretty heavy for the last few weeks and kept me from studying, getting back into it with the 25th looming so close is not at all fun.

I am in the same boat. Next Tuesday will be pretty rough.

[appana]

Originally Posted by waterborne

While the exams are not identical, their difficulty should be very close. I am going in assuming I have to get better than a 72% to pass. There seems to be a trend here and certainly with MLC with people talking themselves into thinking the pass mark will be lower than it was for the prior sitting - I don't understand the logic...

Typically when the SOA does soemthing "new" to an exam -- like adding material or bringing it onto CBT, the pass marks have been lower. After they calibrate it to the changes in two to three sittings, the pass mark tends to shoot up.

Same thing happened when they moved MFE to CBT last year. But I do think it's silly to talk yourself to prepare less.

Regardless, with the trends from the past couple of sittings, I think one needs to get at least 22 questions correct (!)

[waterborne]

Originally Posted by appana

Typically when the SOA does soemthing "new" to an exam -- like adding material or bringing it onto CBT, the pass marks have been lower. After they calibrate it to the changes in two to three sittings, the pass mark tends to shoot up.

Same thing happened when they moved MFE to CBT last year. But I do think it's silly to talk yourself to prepare less.

Regardless, with the trends from the past couple of sittings, I think one needs to get at least 22 questions correct (!)

[psu602]

This means that it will be impossible to score a 10.

Not that I have any chance of scoring a 10, but it would have been cool to score every possible passing score (6, 7, 8, 9, and 10). I have 6 through 9 in my first 4 prelims; I just need a 10 on MFE!