WTF? Proctor asks me to lend my spare calculator to another candidate...

[vjrao]

As I checked into the L1 exam in San Francisco, the proctor inspected my 2 HP-12C calculators (as expected) and I went and sat down in my assigned seat. About 5 minutes later (before the test started), the proctor came back to me and told me that another candidate did not bring an approved calculator and asked if he could borrow one of mine, since I had two?

Ummm, no, he can't borrow one of mine.... I brought two calculators for ME not for him... I brought to calculators for unforseen circumstances. If one of my calculators breaks, doesn't work, runs out of batteries or has another mishap, I want to have a backup. I don't like the idea of 6 months of studying relying on a single $58 calculator that I bought 8 years ago. I also explained that, if another candidate cannot follow the simple instructions on the GARP site that everyone else seems able to follow, that is certainly his problem and definitely not mine. I found it quite unprofessional that a proctor would even dare to ask me this.

After I refused, the proctor then let the candidate in the room so the candidate could approach me and argue with me about why I couldn't lend him my spare calculator. I explained the situation and my reasoning to him again, and after 5 minutes of arguing with me about why I need 2 calculators, if the batteries in my calculators were new, and if he could use my calculator and pass it back to me during the exam if my calculator breaks (a clear GARP violation), he swore at me and left the room to try and hustle another candidate for a calculator (which I believe he was able to do eventually). This whole episode left me quite angry and unfocused during the entire exam. I am extremely disappointed to the proctor's handling of this situation. I should not be asked by GARP staff or other candidates (encouraged by GARP proctors) to lend out any of my personal test taking materials and I should not have to defend my reasoning of why I need multiple calculators and don't want to lend them to other candidates. As for the candidate, my feeling is that everyone is solely responsible for their own exam preparation, and that if you are incapable of following basic instructions, do not expect or ask the exam proctors or other candidates to make up for your own incompetence.

 

[mongooseny23]

Wow. You were right in your handling of the situation. That is quite unfortunate and i hope that it did not affect your results. I would send a letter to GARP about this.

 

[-MaNi-]

It wouldn't have killed you to lend him your calculator now would it? A bit excessive in my opinion. I bet you didn't even need to use the second one. If your calculator was unusable then he could have passed it back to you. Totally reasonable imo.

I get that it can be considered a GARP violation but if the proctor was ok with it, then it wouldn't be a problem (as long as you got this confirmed with them). What if due to unforseen circumstances the roles were reversed and no one was willing to lend you their spare calculator. That's 6 months of hard work and lost time down the drain. I would have helped him out in a heartbeat... We should all be helpful to each other in these situations.

I wouldn't send a letter to GARP as I doubt they can or will do anything about this.

 

[Hend Abuenein]

I wouldn't have given it a second thought...I would've given him the spare calculator.
I would keep the one with the new batteries to myself though

 

[cwlc77]

I agree with vj, he has every right NOT to lend his calculator and the proctor should have stepped in. If you look around the room, almost everyone brought 2 calculators, just in case one breaks down. It's 100% the guys fault if he didn't bring his own calculator, and it's probably not hard finding someone who's brave enough to lend one. There's absolutely no need for the guy to be pushy about it.

 

[djh2121]

VJ, I highly encourage you to contact GARP to report this incident. What the proctor did by personally approaching you, and then allowing the other candidate to approach you, was highly inappropriate. This individual should not be invited back to proctor another exam, and can most likely be identified by GARP. There have been several issues with proctors reported on this forum, and it is imperative that the issues get reported so that GARP understands it needs to prepare its proctors better.

As a further point, if the proctor had wanted to help the other candidate find a spare calculator, then the correct thing to do would have been to make a general announcement to everyone in the exam room five minutes before the doors were closed. Any individual could then have volunteered his or her calculator without feeling that they were intimidated into doing so. The onus is on each individual to prepare themselves properly, as we are all given an equal opportunity to do so. If you did not want to lend out your spare calculator, which I would not have either, then no one has the right to try to convince, cajole, or coerce you into doing otherwise.

 

[MSWILKISON]

.

 

[Bryon]

Yeah, please report.

I'll do the same. First they stopped me by saying you can't bring in a second calculator. Only after I confronted them that they changed their mind.
Second, the guy at the checking desk have no ideas about calculators, keep looking at a printed photo page for clues. I brought a HP12C vintage in and it took him a while to clear. One candidate brought in a desk clock ( not a wristwatch) without any question from the proctors.
Lastly, the same proctor changed his mind on the pencil sharpener policy, came to our table to collect back all of them after letting us checking in.
I pointed him to the policy printed on the back of the exam booklet which says pencil sharpeners are allowed in a transparent plastic bag under the table. He just said he knows but never mind he will take back all pencil sharpeners any how. Luckily, I had quite a lot of pencils with me at that time.
I can't see how one can manage with 2 or 3 pencils.

Obviously to me, they are not well-trained for the job. And this doesn't reflect well on the part of GARP.

 

[toofreak]

I think that you missed an opportunity to help someone in need, for zero cost on your side.

I agree with the above comment that "then lend him the older one and keep the new to yourself".

I think we have a different view of the world, things that for you are considered "unprofessional" for me are considered "being a good person and considerate" and what for you is being "professional" for me is being "selfish", what for you was a "burden" for me was "asking for a favor".

In your world, doing a favor might have zero value, I just hope you never need one, but your odds are few.

I recommend live the anger behind, forget about the incident, and look forward into productive and positive matters.

 

[vjrao]

Hi all,
Thanks for the comments. Just to be clear, if I had a third calculator, I would've happily lent it out in this situation. If I do need to retake the exam (hopefully I don't), I will happily spend another $58 to purchase a third calculator to prevent this type of situation (which I had not anticipated happening) and keep me from losing my focus on exam day.

However, I do believe that I personally did NEED two calculators for this exam. One calculator to do the computations, and one for a backup. I don't think going to the exam without a backup calculator is wise for the reasons stated above, and I don't think lending out my backup calculator to someone else during the exam is wise. Some people are willing to take the exam without a backup -- that's fine. I'm not. I spend extra money and time preparing and double and triple checking that nothing can go wrong on exam day. Everyone has their way of preparing for the test and taking the test. Having two calculators is part of my preparation.

What I am more disappointed with is the way that the GARP proctor dealt with this issue. Whether you think I should've lent out the calculator or not, I think we can all agree that 1) Everyone certainly has the right not to lend their calculator out and 2) that the proctor should not have specifically asked me to lend my calculator -- and definitely should not have let the candidate approach me and argue with me. Instead, the proctor should've made a general announcement to the entire room to see if there were volunteers, as DJH2121 mentioned above. The candidate would've likely found a willing volunteer and candidates that were not willing to lend their calculator wouldn't have had to argue about it.

In any case, as I said above, I am going to buy a third calculator just for lending out to prevent this issue from recurring. It's disappointing that even GARP candidates can't take responsibility for themselves in this day and age...

 

[caramel]

Well I too found the proctors inefficient. One they did not check my calculator. another thing they did not read out the exam instructions completely third whatever they read out was in the Native regional language and not in English. last I had to fill my name on my sactron after the 4 hours had started. Clearly unprofessional compared to CFA

 

[sleepybird]

I also think the proctor is not right. It is up to the person if he’s willing to lend or not. There’s no need to pressure. They can ask but if the person says no, then you can’t force and let other candidate challenge him. It is not professional. It is the other candidate’s issue for not preparing and taking the exam seriously (I mean how you can forget to bring a calculator to an exam like this?) After all, this is a competition and everything counts from A-Z. This is a perfect chance to eliminate those candidates that don’t take the exam seriously. Also, why should we spent money on 2 calculators for the benefits of other people?

This is not the only example that shows the unprofessionalism of the proctors. As I reported in my other thread (http://forum.bionicturtle.com/threads/no-watch-allowed-during-the-exam.6531/#post-21389), they allowed other candidates to keep their watches on their desks while asking me to put away my watch (I couldn’t have been nasty and told the proctor to tell other people to take away their watch too). It makes me feel it’s personal against me (just because he/she doesn’t like you). And they should not have told me during my P1 exam in May 2012 that it’s okay to have my watch on the desk. This shows they don’t know the rules and it is up to each proctor’s preference. If it’s a rule, then be fair and strictly enforce it.

 

[pd_sn]

Hi vjrao :
I fully appreciate your concern and sympathize with you. You should really report this matter to GARP. I myself carried 2 calculators (TI BA 2 plus) without any problems at Waltham,Massachusetts center. I have done this for CFA exam as well with no issues. IMO, proctor should have made general announcement for spare calculator to all candidates instead of specifically asking you. This is definitely wrong.
I sincerely hope, it didn't affect your exam.

But I think, you should just have ended matter rather quickly, even if it means being polite in explaining your reasons. Because,at the end of day, its not worth getting disturbed, losing focus or peace of mind on something trivial which can/may cost us few months efforts and hard work for such a stupid thing. This incident is unfortunate, but as you confessed that whole stuff got you angry and unfocussed.

This is the last thing, any candidate would want after so much hard work and painstaking preparation. We can't get back those 4 hours of exam. I still feel, its just not worth getting into arguments with anyone for exams like CFA,GARP because you just lose focus and peace of mind,which is so crucial for cracking the exam.

Well, you must report this matter to GARP so this spare calculators incident doesn't happen again. In fact,we all should inform GARP that it should take utmost care in preventing this kind of episodes.

Its worthwhile to seek David's opinion in this matter and hope he responds to this matter.

 

[David Harper CFA FRM]

Hi vjrao,

We are going to send this thread to our GARP contact (cc: Suzanne Evans), and hopefully, we can report something (at least) back. In the ideal, GARP will maybe give us something to share back. But I hesitate to comment further until we get a reply.

I will just add my mere personal opinion to the mix: I think the proctor's behavior is totally inappropriate. No candidate should be pressured to relinquish their own valid test resources/items, including a second calculator. I think the manner of the request (friendly etc) is irrelevant. The technical problem here, in my opinion, is that one individual has an additional stress introduced into their exam environment, a stress which is not part of the common test environment. That some people can handle such a stress better than others is also irrelevant. I completely agree with djh2121 that the minimum acceptable behavior would have been for the proctor to ask the entire room for a volunteer (why? because it preserves a common test environment), then those people who are generous can make a voluntary decision to share (it's fine to be generous, that's great, but it's not a candidate's obligation to abridge their own valid resources). But, candidly, I think even this is debatable. I am not 100% sure I would support even this policy; the problem even with a public request is that you are introducing into a test environment an inconvenience to well-prepared candidates.

 

[vjrao]

Thanks you all for your comments on this issue. I especially thank you David for contacting GARP, and forwarding this issue to them. I also want to thank David and Suzanne for the excellent Bionic Turtle program in general. I prepared for FRM L1 and L2 exclusively with Bionic Turtle and loved the program. If I do not pass, I will be using BT to prepare again.

 

[Aleksander Hansen]

That is completely unacceptable behavior on the part of both the proctor and the candidate, and I would urge you to report this to GARP immediately.

A proctor should not under any circumstance create unnecessary strain, tensions or stress for a candidate.

While I understand the other candidates desire to borrow a calculator, and he has a strong incentive to argue with you if that means getting a calculator, I nevertheless thing that the candidate displayed an utter lack of decorum.

At the end of the day, you are responsible for making sure that you have all equipment, IDs and papers necessary to sit the exam. Not bringing a calculator is stupid to say the least. Given the fact that you are spoon-fed information about this, and reminded time and again by GARP to have all of this for the exam day there is no excuse for not bringing it.

You should certainly not in the least feel bad about not wanting to lend out your calculator to some random person. Bringing two calculators is a fail-safe, and fail-safe mechanisms have a powerful psychological effect. Personally, I did not bring two calculators when I sat the exam last may, but I did bring two extra batteries and 5 pencils and a pencil sharpener. If I had another calculator I would have brought it with me and refused to lend it out to anyone.

As an adult you have to learn to take responsibility for your own actions; sometimes you learn it the hard way. I bet you this person will double check all his "gear" for the rest of his life before important events. IMO you did him a favor.

 

[Aleksander Hansen]

I think that you missed an opportunity to help someone in need, for zero cost on your side.
In your world, doing a favor might have zero value[...]

I recommend you delete your post.

Here is a logical proof of the fallacy in your thought process.

1. False premise: On what basis do you base your claim that that "In your world, doing a favor might have zero value?"
2. Counterargument and proof by contradiction: The fact that the person chose to bring two calculators in the first place, disproves your hypothesis of helping someone has zero cost to both sides. After all, why would the person bring two calculators if there was no concern?

• Your statement is logically incoherent and proved false reductio ad absurdum.

Q.E.D​

Do you know this person?
I would say that this person, by the mere act of posting this in the manner done, displays insight into both his own, the other candidate's and the proctor's motives and thought process, and relay empathy for an otherwise rude candidate.

 

[Suzanne Evans]

vjrao,

First, thank you for bringing this to our attention so we could forward to our contact at GARP. I did hear back from our contact at GARP whom expressed that they will address the situation. My contact also offered to speak with you directly if you feel the need to do that but reassured us that either way, this will be addressed.

I am sorry that you had to experience this during an already stressful event. Your focus should not of had to been diverted from the exam on this situation.

Thanks,
Suzanne

 

[vjrao]

Suzanne,
Thank you for contacting GARP and alerting them to this situation. Please feel free to forward my contact details along to them (I assume you have access to them through my BT account -- if you don't please message me). I'd be happy to provide them with more details. I will let everyone know when they respond. Thanks again!!!

 

[sleepybird]

LOL...a desk clock?!? This is way over. Someone can have a desk clock while I can't even have a watch. That's a preferential treatment.

...One candidate brought in a desk clock ( not a wristwatch) without any question from the proctors.