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They said for candidates that didn’t pass a more comprehensive grade report will be available in mid-February. Wouldn’t that mean results have to be out before then?
You weren’t. All you could do is figure out what’s different from Excel and then practice in Excel but following the ‘Pearson rules’ of the spreadsheet. I created an Excel file for each of the last 10 years of exams and practiced all the historical problems like usual, but in Excel instead.
I would never ever project that I passed an exam. I’ve done the best I can and that’s all I can do. The rest is up to the CAS to decide how many people they are willing to let pass and how high they can set the pass mark to achieve the desired results without being obvious about it. As I’ve said for years, getting 90% of the questions correct does NOT guarantee that you pass. It just increases your chances.
I don’t think the peculiarities of the Pearson spreadsheet can be an argument for not doing well. The CAS gave us access to the Pearson software at least two months ahead of time. I spent the last two months doing practice problems in Excel but forcing myself to not use the shortcut F keys, especially F2 and F4, which I use all the time. So much so that I stopped using them when I was at work on Excel. I viewed the delay in testing from what was originally May to November/December as an opportunity to prepare myself for the testing environment because I had already been prepared with the material back in April. The syllabus material piece of the exam just became a maintenance process and my focus was to make the spreadsheet piece become habit so I didn’t have to consciously think about it during the actual exam time.
