How much is enough?

[toomuchtime]

How much of the solutions to Course 6 would we have had to had in our answers to pass? For the multiple choice, a conservative rule is 60% right and you will pass. What about essay exams?

First of all I have heard that about 70% of the published solution will get you full credit for a question. Then about 60% of all points and you will pass. So do you only need 70% * 60% = 42% of the published solutions to pass? Any thoughts?

[gloid]

I don't know how each question works, but I think if you get 70 pts (out of 100) all together, you should be able to pass. Not sure if that is too high, but that is a good number to shoot for

[zapped]

shoot for a 10, hope for a 6. last year i was hearing 100% on list questions b/c everyone pretty much knows them & you will be competing with people who write a book. so when they look at one person's list which is a bare outline (with a couple of points missing out of 10) versus someone else's list that has all 10 points with some sort of detail next to each point.....obviously the second one is better & that person passes the question. but the first person will be lumped in with a bunch of other people who did the same thing....it seems like the SoA just does some sort of random sample to pick the winner of that bunch.

[toomuchtime]

Anyone have any opinions now?
How many points do you think would pass? If I counted right, I should be in the 60-70 range. Is that close? Did I get a 3?

[smarty pants]

I took 6 a year ago and 5 last sitting and tried to self grade myself by guessing my low, med, & high point values. I was well below my low guess the first time and right on my low guess the second time. I'm not even going to bother this time. I felt I knew all of the lists and half the problems, the other half of the problems I at least had a modest effort on. I don't know if it was an easier exam or that I was more prepared. Doesn't matter until mid July.

The point is, unless you see the exact grading outline, which doesn't happen, you can't make a reasonable guess. They don't even really add up the points for each question. The points are there to show you the weighting of the question, and they grade each question 0-10, just like your overall score. Your final score is close to a weighted average of your scores for each question, but definitely not a strict weighted average. Just enjoy the next 10 weeks and don't worry about things out of your control.

[cartman]

sorry smarty pants, that is not how the questions are graded and totaled. The 0-10 that you get for a breakdown on a fail is just for the candidate's information only... Not for pass/fail...

[smarty pants]

You are incorrect sir. They don't go through and create that score just for people that fail. That is ridiculous!

[cartman]

For each question, a score is given based upon the points that question is worth, ranging from 0 to the total points on that question. If it is an 8 point question, then scores would range from 0 to 8.0. Each question is then added together to get the total score. That is the score that determines pass/fail.

Given the power of computers these days, it is not hard to give a breakdown out of 10 for each question for a failing candidate.

[Single Mom]

I agree with Smarty pants. At least in the past, the graders would give a range of 0 - 10 for each question, then send it to the SOA who would combine all the questions together. My old boss was a grader. He used to have me fill in the 0 - 10 dots on a scantron sheet next to each candidate number for the questions he graded.

[smarty pants]

The only points tallied are the ones on their grading outline, which are not tied to the number of pts a question is worth, just how many major & minor items there are on the outline. This has been explained to me by people who have graded papers and I think Carmody said this too. There is no explicit point counting of the problems.

I am very aware that modern computers have the technology to assign a score based on a number of points, there is just no reason why if they tallied points one way, why they'd give us a different measurement. Ridiculous! Maybe you should watch some more vulgar cartoons Cartman.