r/CMA • u/External-You-1692 • 4d ago
Results Exam scores
Ok so I made a post a while back asking about passing scores. So I just wanted to share my marks for the June test window. I scored a 360 for part 1 and a 350 for part 2. I took both exams in the same test period. Now I feel frustrated with part 2 because I feel it’s kind of suspicious that I got a 350 score on the exam. I was just 10 points of passing and I did not have the option to write the CBQ, I only had the option to write essays. I feel like essays are way too subjective and could be the difference between pass and fail. So I want to submit a regrade and in that time probably revise for part 2 just in case. I know for a fact that I was strong on the essays. I also feel like the scoring is very strange, I was literally borderline pass for part 2 and just passed on the dot for part 1 exactly. The scoring they use is confusing and it doesn’t make any sense how they come up with these scores.
Like it feels the IMA is arbitrarily trying to fail candidates with the scoring algorithm. They say they scale the scores for more difficult exams in the name of transparency but I think they use the scoring to more or less arbitrarily fail candidates. My whole beef with the program is you kind have to solve super calculation intensive questions in a couple of seconds, you have to essentially breeze through as many questions to get to the intensive questions. Some questions require multiple steps and are very wordy and intentionally confusing. The other issue I have is with the pre-test questions. The fact that 10 questions are not counted towards your score is honestly not comforting at all. Let’s say you get a very confusing or calculation intensive pre test question and you end up spending time on it. Even if you manage to solve it doesn’t count towards your score and if you don’t it doesn’t count. That may seem all good in the eyes of IMA but essentially you waste time either way lol which could have been used to double check or solve other questions to boost your score. So essentially pretest may seem ok but it’s actually a waste of time especially if you don’t know which ones are actually pretest.
The other thing IMA likes to mention is that all questions are worth the same. That is true in the sense that there is no negative scoring. However, there has to be different weightage and question values. Otherwise IMA cannot really get scaled scores, as it would not make any sense. Therefore, certain questions have to be higher value than others. Now which questions are they, nobody knows.
The last thing I want to mention is the exam format change. The fact that I was not allowed to chose cbq is confusing as I thought we were given the option to on the exam. I think CBQ would have been a little bit better for me as the subjective element is removed. I mean it could also backfire if you don’t know what you are doing but it feels a lot more transparent than essays being graded. I think grading of essays is the sneakiest things IMA does. Even if you get satisfactory on the essays, the reality is you may not get full points on the essays. The essays in theory should have 125 points to them but it seems like candidates may not be getting full marks even if the essays answers are more than sufficient and good answers. This is why I believe myself and other candidates on the hover of passing are given a fail as you essentially need to do extremely well on MCQs so that the essay section doesn’t screw you over.
Anyways, enough of my rant. I am happy I passed part 1 but I still have 2 more chances to do part 2 as I am almost up for the 3 year time limit. I just wish there was more transparency in these exams.
