Or maybe I should say quest mostly complete.
I passed SDM finally. Now I just have to go to the FAC and get my FSA.
In thinking about it, the name of this blog isn't FSA quest, it's exam quest. I declare the quest complete!
Thanks to everyone who has made kind and supportive comments over the years, I do appreciate it. It is interesting to think that I wasn't even sure I could pass one exam 6 years ago, never mind pass all of them!
I still have that Fellowship exam advice post in draft form, I'll have to get that up soon, especially as exam season will be ramping up again.
Friday, July 15, 2016
Wednesday, May 25, 2016
Post Exam Update
I felt like I did pretty well. I would guess I confidently answered 80% of the points, and still provided decent answers for the rest. There were very few points I didn’t feel like I had a chance for at all. Of course I won’t get everything I confidently answered correct, but hopefully I’ll be able to get enough correct to pass.
Now on to the waiting… I always find it a little weird to decompress after an exam. Given the high level of productivity I am in the last 2 months before an exam, I am in the mode to want to be doing productive things constantly. I start some online classes, I start doing projects around my house, etc. It usually takes me until about now (2.5 weeks after the exam) to really start to relax. I’ll still keep doing the productive things, but I might occasionally watch a movie or read a book as well. You know - actual relaxing. I think I remember how to do that...
I have to say the last month of studying was pretty stressful. I’m not sure I’ve ever felt that stressed – certainly not in a long time. While the whole process of taking any exam is stressful, this being my third attempt on this exam made it my last eligible attempt in the student program here at work, and I think that added more stress. Never mind the pure fact of it being my third try on my last exam. For all of April I constantly felt stressed out – I really had to limit the amount of external stress I put upon myself. Even post-exam, it has taken a while for the stress to work itself out. I still have some of it, maybe that is just going to continue until results come out?? On the positive side, the stress has helped me improve my overall health. I’ve taken to running or walking pretty much every day now in order to help deal with it. It had been hard to keep up my exercise and eating discipline while studying, and I had gained a fair amount of weight over the last 6 years. I had planned to really work on that post-exam anyway, so I got a little bit of a head start!
After I took the exam I started a draft of a “How to study for FSA exams” type post. The one caveat being the different tracks might require different approaches. I’m going to circle back to it and hopefully post it pretty soon.
For everyone else out there who just took an exam, enjoy the break! Or enjoy the modules… or studying for the next exam already…
Now on to the waiting… I always find it a little weird to decompress after an exam. Given the high level of productivity I am in the last 2 months before an exam, I am in the mode to want to be doing productive things constantly. I start some online classes, I start doing projects around my house, etc. It usually takes me until about now (2.5 weeks after the exam) to really start to relax. I’ll still keep doing the productive things, but I might occasionally watch a movie or read a book as well. You know - actual relaxing. I think I remember how to do that...
I have to say the last month of studying was pretty stressful. I’m not sure I’ve ever felt that stressed – certainly not in a long time. While the whole process of taking any exam is stressful, this being my third attempt on this exam made it my last eligible attempt in the student program here at work, and I think that added more stress. Never mind the pure fact of it being my third try on my last exam. For all of April I constantly felt stressed out – I really had to limit the amount of external stress I put upon myself. Even post-exam, it has taken a while for the stress to work itself out. I still have some of it, maybe that is just going to continue until results come out?? On the positive side, the stress has helped me improve my overall health. I’ve taken to running or walking pretty much every day now in order to help deal with it. It had been hard to keep up my exercise and eating discipline while studying, and I had gained a fair amount of weight over the last 6 years. I had planned to really work on that post-exam anyway, so I got a little bit of a head start!
After I took the exam I started a draft of a “How to study for FSA exams” type post. The one caveat being the different tracks might require different approaches. I’m going to circle back to it and hopefully post it pretty soon.
For everyone else out there who just took an exam, enjoy the break! Or enjoy the modules… or studying for the next exam already…
Saturday, February 13, 2016
SDM Result - Try 2
January 2015:
I’m meeting with the head of my department in a scheduled 1 on 1, and I show him the histogram of my exam scores. I had just received a 6 in CFE, and was explaining to him how fortunate I was to receive so many 6s and 7s without ever receiving a 5. I had received three 4s as well. The point I was making was that whenever I was close to the line, I passed, and whenever I failed, I failed by enough that it didn’t feel tragic.
January 2016:
I get a 5 on my second try of SDM.
I really don’t know how I got a 5, except to say that I believe it was the lowest score I possibly could have gotten. I studied a ton for this exam, and as it was my second try on the same exact syllabus I felt really comfortable with the material. I remember thinking as it got close to exam day that the only thing “more” that I could do next time would be to make flashcards for the case study. I was being humorous obviously (maybe?), but the point being was I felt I had covered the material a ton, and knew it really well.
As I left the exam, I felt I had really good answers for all but one question. During the exam I changed a few answers I had already written after thinking I had discovered a trick in the question, only to realize after I left that the question was straightforward and the answer I threw away was actually the correct answer. That was about 4 or 5 points of answers, and I was hoping I had enough other points that it wouldn’t come into play. Also, the time I took to do that cost me in that I ran out of time at the very end, costing myself perhaps 1 point on a sub-question I knew but ran out of time on. Still, I was thinking I had plenty of other points elsewhere.
BUT, given my experience last time, I spent the time waiting for results not thinking about it as much as possible and certainly not thinking I had passed. I was prepared for anything.
So on results day, I open the passing exam candidate list and don’t see my number. After looking at it for maybe 30 seconds, I realize there are no other numbers near mine. I look at the file and realize I called up the passing numbers from the prior sitting. Ha! What a funny story that would be to tell people - I thought I had failed at first!
Then, I call up the current sitting results, and I’m not on there either. This story isn’t so funny anymore…
The SOA has released the question by question results (you get a score for each question if you fail and upper level exam), and there are two questions for sure that I can’t believe I got as low as I did. I’m not trying to sound like sour grapes here, but I did really well on certain questions I expected to, and middling to poor on my weaker questions, but there are two I thought I should have nailed and my scores were really low. Since I got a 5 my exam would have been graded twice, so I’m sure the scoring is correct. I have reviewed the answers the SOA has released and thought I would have gotten the bulk of the content of those answers, but apparently not.
So, I’m going to be studying one more time. About 25% of the syllabus has changed, and I’ve been trying to both get familiar with the new stuff as well as refresh on the old stuff.
When I first started this blog (or quest if you will), my oldest was aged 2 and the twins were 3 months old. Now that they are 8, 6, and 6, it is a lot harder to study. They require a lot more energy to parent during the week, and they stay up later so my windows of study time are both shorter and I have less energy to study when I can. That’s not an excuse by any means, just reality. I will have to figure out how to make it happen one more time.
I’m finding right now that while I am pushing through starting to study again, I definitely am not in the zone. I find with upper level exams I tend to peak in the last 6 weeks, so as long as I get my time in now building the fundamentals and try to get ready to maximize my time of peak studying focus, I should be ok. I remember when studying for the prelims I could stay in peak studying mode for 3 - 4 months, but I don’t know if the nature of upper level material lends itself to that.
Thanks to those who have posted comments of support. I am glad people are getting something out of reading these experiences, and is nice to know there are those who would like to see this quest completed! Hopefully we can finish this!
I’m meeting with the head of my department in a scheduled 1 on 1, and I show him the histogram of my exam scores. I had just received a 6 in CFE, and was explaining to him how fortunate I was to receive so many 6s and 7s without ever receiving a 5. I had received three 4s as well. The point I was making was that whenever I was close to the line, I passed, and whenever I failed, I failed by enough that it didn’t feel tragic.
January 2016:
I get a 5 on my second try of SDM.
I really don’t know how I got a 5, except to say that I believe it was the lowest score I possibly could have gotten. I studied a ton for this exam, and as it was my second try on the same exact syllabus I felt really comfortable with the material. I remember thinking as it got close to exam day that the only thing “more” that I could do next time would be to make flashcards for the case study. I was being humorous obviously (maybe?), but the point being was I felt I had covered the material a ton, and knew it really well.
As I left the exam, I felt I had really good answers for all but one question. During the exam I changed a few answers I had already written after thinking I had discovered a trick in the question, only to realize after I left that the question was straightforward and the answer I threw away was actually the correct answer. That was about 4 or 5 points of answers, and I was hoping I had enough other points that it wouldn’t come into play. Also, the time I took to do that cost me in that I ran out of time at the very end, costing myself perhaps 1 point on a sub-question I knew but ran out of time on. Still, I was thinking I had plenty of other points elsewhere.
BUT, given my experience last time, I spent the time waiting for results not thinking about it as much as possible and certainly not thinking I had passed. I was prepared for anything.
So on results day, I open the passing exam candidate list and don’t see my number. After looking at it for maybe 30 seconds, I realize there are no other numbers near mine. I look at the file and realize I called up the passing numbers from the prior sitting. Ha! What a funny story that would be to tell people - I thought I had failed at first!
Then, I call up the current sitting results, and I’m not on there either. This story isn’t so funny anymore…
The SOA has released the question by question results (you get a score for each question if you fail and upper level exam), and there are two questions for sure that I can’t believe I got as low as I did. I’m not trying to sound like sour grapes here, but I did really well on certain questions I expected to, and middling to poor on my weaker questions, but there are two I thought I should have nailed and my scores were really low. Since I got a 5 my exam would have been graded twice, so I’m sure the scoring is correct. I have reviewed the answers the SOA has released and thought I would have gotten the bulk of the content of those answers, but apparently not.
So, I’m going to be studying one more time. About 25% of the syllabus has changed, and I’ve been trying to both get familiar with the new stuff as well as refresh on the old stuff.
When I first started this blog (or quest if you will), my oldest was aged 2 and the twins were 3 months old. Now that they are 8, 6, and 6, it is a lot harder to study. They require a lot more energy to parent during the week, and they stay up later so my windows of study time are both shorter and I have less energy to study when I can. That’s not an excuse by any means, just reality. I will have to figure out how to make it happen one more time.
I’m finding right now that while I am pushing through starting to study again, I definitely am not in the zone. I find with upper level exams I tend to peak in the last 6 weeks, so as long as I get my time in now building the fundamentals and try to get ready to maximize my time of peak studying focus, I should be ok. I remember when studying for the prelims I could stay in peak studying mode for 3 - 4 months, but I don’t know if the nature of upper level material lends itself to that.
Thanks to those who have posted comments of support. I am glad people are getting something out of reading these experiences, and is nice to know there are those who would like to see this quest completed! Hopefully we can finish this!
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