Source: https://www.certified-financial-modeler.de/en/inhalte/exam/examination-regulations.html
Timestamp: 2019-02-22 03:49:22
Document Index: 22617352

Matched Legal Cases: ['§ 5', '§ 5', '§ 5', '§3', '§4', '§4', '§4', '§ 6']

Certified Financial Modeler: Examination regulations
As of August 2018 (in conjunction with the General Terms and Conditions)
(2) The prerequisite for holding this title is passing of all Certified Financial Modeler exams Module 1, Module 2, and Module 3.
(3) Persons who have passed all three exams are awarded the certificate Certified Financial Modeler. Following receipt of the certificate, they are entitled to hold the title Certified Financial Modeler.
(1) The exam is assessed by the examination board.
(2) The exam is marked as “pass” or “fail”.
(3) The exam is assessed as follows:
(a) Module 1: See § 5 (5) (a)
(b) Module 2: See § 5 (5) (b)
(c) Module 3: In Module 3, the Certified Financial Modeler candidate assembles his own financial model in Excel and if necessary in VBA and provides a professional documentation. The participant can propose his own topic from applied work or from his scientific activities. Participants who do not provide their own topic for a financial model are assigned a topic by the academic directors. The exam for Module 3 is passed if more than 40% of the maximum number of points are achieved. The exam is not passed if 40% or less of the maximum number of points are achieved.
(4) After having passed the Certified Financial Modeler exam, the examinee obtains the certificate for holding the title Certified Financial Modeler in German and English.
(5) A passed exam cannot be repeated.
(6) An exam is marked “insufficient” if the examinee does not attend an exam without valid reason or withdraws from the exam without valid reason once the exam has commenced. The same applies if a written exam is not taken within the given timeframe.
(7) If an examinee attempts to influence the outcome of the exam by deception of by using ineligible aids, the relevant exam is graded as failed.
(8) An examinee disturbing the smooth running of the exam can be excluded from continuing by the examiner or the supervisor. In this case, the relevant exam is graded failed.
(9) ECTS for study and continued education:
(9.1) If the participants have elected at the beginning of the certificate program Certified Financial Modeler to obtain a university certificate, the performance of the exam is assessed for every module element. After successful completion of all modules, the participants receive:
The certificates Certified Financial Modeler from the German Institute for Corporate Finance in German and English language
A university certificate of HfWU
A certificate supplement showing the performance and the ECTS earned
(9.2) Participants will receive a university certificate only after all three modules have been completed successfully.
(9.3) If a candidate selects individual modules, the candidate obtains a certificate of participation from the German Institute for Corporate Finance. In this case he does not receive a university certificate or a Certified Financial Modeler certificate or a certificate supplement. Thus no ECTS are earned and no performance is shown.
(9.4) The modules, respectively partial modules including the corresponding ECTS, which are earned in the context of the certificate program Certified Financial Modeler, can be presented for credit at bachelor and master programs.
(9.5) In the context of the university certificate of HfWU, the candidate can receive the following grades upon successful completion of all three modules:
1.0 A+ 95 – 100 %
1.3 A 89 – 94 %
1.7 A- 83 – 88 %
2.0 B+ 77 – 82 %
2.3 B 71 – 76 %
2.7 B- 65 – 70 %
3.0 C+ 59 – 64 %
3.3 C 53 – 58 %
3.7 C- 47 – 52 %
4.0 D+ 40 – 46 %
§ 5 Examination for Module 1 and Module 2
(1) An allowed aid is a calculator which the candidate can bring. An additional calculator is provided by Deutsche Börse. Additionally Deutsche Börse provides paper and pencils. These are collected at the end of the Certified Financial Modeler exam. The questions can either be multiple choice, text completion, calculations or single choice. Every type of question is worth following points: multiple choice: 4 points (this also holds true for calculations within the scope of multiple choice); text completion: 6 points; calculations: 6 points; single choice: 2 points. In order to get 4 points for a "multiple choice question", all sub-questions contained in this question must be answered correctly. In order to earn 2 points from a multiple choice question, three out of four subquestions need to be answered correctly. If two, one or none of the subquestions have been answered correctly, then the test-taker will earn zero points from this multiple choice question. For each question, the examinee receives either the highest possible score or zero points. Under no circumstance will minus points be given.
(2) Deutsche Börse AG or the GICF designates a person to act as a supervisor during the exam. At the beginning of the exam, the participants must identify themselves to the supervisor by presenting their identity card or passport and must obey the supervisor’s instructions. The supervisor will inform the participants before the exam about the procedure, the available time limit and the admitted aids and tools.
(3) The exam requires personal presence. Deutsche Börse AG or the GICF can allow the participant to take the exam at another location upon written request.
(4) The exam takes place in German or English. The candidate can select the language prior to the beginning of the exam.
(5) During the exam, 220 exam questions (Module 1) and 120 exam questions (Module 2) based on computer software must be answered. There is no oral exam.
(a) Module 1 Exam: The Module 1 Exam includes 4 submodules, of which all should be answered. It is not possible to pick and choose which submodules are to be answered. Each submodule has 55 questions including 24 multiple choice questions, 24 single choice questions and 7 fill in the blank questions with a maximum of 186 total possible points to earn per submodule. A total of 744 points can be earned in the Module 1 Exam.
The exam is considered passed when at least 74 points have been earned in each submodule (40% of total possible points per submodule).
(b) Module 2 Exam: The Module 2 Exam includes 4 submodules, whereas only three out of four submodules should be answered. The test taker can choose not to answer one of the submodules. When registering for the exam according to §3 1) (c), the test taker must point out which 3 submodules he or she would like to answer and which submodule he or she will not answer. Should a test taker decide to answer the submodule that he or she has declared not to answer, any points earned from this submodule cannot count toward the minimum amount of points needed to pass and this submodule will be scored with zero points. Each submodule has 40 questions including 12 multiple choice questions, 0 single choice questions, 1 fill in the blank questions and 27 math problems with a total of 216 possible points to earn per submodule. A total of 648 points can be earned in the Module 2 exam.
The exam for module 2 is considered passed when at least 86 points per submodule (40% of total possible points) have been earned.
(6) All exam questions are saved in a database. In order to guarantee the comparability of the exams, the exam questions are selected at random from the database according to question type and difficulty level.
(7) The time to complete the exam is 3 hours for both Module 1 and Module 2.
(8) Per module each exam can be repeated twice. If the candidate has failed a module, the candidate will receive information from the examination board about his performance in the module and his performance in all sub-modules. A module examination is passed when all sub-modules have been passed. If a participant has achieved less than 40% of the maximum achievable points in one or more sub-module exams but has passed other sub-module exams of the same module, he only has to repeat the failed sub-module exam(s). For repeat exams of Module 1, §4 Sec. 3a), for Module 2 §4 Sec. 3b) and for Module 3, §4 Sec. 3c) hold accordingly.
§ 6 Exam for Module 3
(1) In Module 3, the candidate for the Certified Financial Modeler is required to develop his own financial model in Excel. The candidate can either suggest an applied topic from his applied work or a scientific topic from his own research. Participants who do not provide their own topic for a financial model are assigned a topic by the academic program directors.
(2) The maximum time to work on the topic – once the topic has been assigned – is 12 months.
(3) The topic can be requested at the earliest once Modules 1 and 2 have been passed.
(4) The complete model must be sent to the following address: info‎@dicf‎.‎de
(5) The model must cover the following topics:
a) Management Summary: minimum of 2 pages and maximum of 5 pages in Word
c) The model spans all 4 process steps “Problem definition”, “Model structure and model planning”, “Model setup” and “Quality assurance”. The fifth process step “Model presentation” is not required.
e) The recommendations for action provided as specifications of the milestones can, but must not be used in the Module 3 exam (if, for example it is recommended that all input cells should be orange, the financial modeler is of course free to select a different color).
f) The model along with the corresponding explanations contains a specific signed declaration.