The start of my CFA exam was exciting, in a nightmarish kinda way.
I got there at 745am, waiting outside with tons of people. By 8am, they opened the door. Turned out my section was on the 5th floor and there was a loooong line to take one elevator. Fuck that, I thought. I have mild claustrophobia when it comes to elevators, having been stuck in 2 elevators in 2 years. So I started walking up the stairs wondering why anyone hadn’t done that. Some people followed me. When we got in between the 2nd and 3rd floor though, there was a gate and it was locked. WTF? We all thought. Isn’t that a fire hazard? But whatever. Everyone was too concerned about the exam. So we walked back down and the group of us that had chosen the stairs went into the elevator. There was a sign that said “20 people maximum” but the security guy said “you can fit 25 in there” cos the line was so long. So people packed in; it was a pretty big elevator. It was about 820am when we got in. I was way in the back and just couldn’t wait to get out. The elevator moved. Then STOPPED. No one reacted, until someone said “errr…I think we aren’t moving”. WTF???? About a minute later, it started getting stuffy. We rang the alarm. No reply. WTF??????? Then it started getting REALLY hot and stuffy. We could hear the ventilation still on, but it seemed to be blowing warm air.
About 5 minutes later, it started getting unbearable and no one was helping us after repeated rings. 2 dudes pried open the door and we realized that we were almost to the 3rd level and we could pry open the outer door by half an inch; enough to get a little bit of air in and see the people with freedom outside. HELP! HELP! We called. Finally the security guys came and said they were calling for maintenance. One guy took his ball of socks (”In case my feet got cold in the exam hall”) and stuffed By this time, I was ready to freak out because of the claustrophobia. Talk about a nightmare. Everyone was pretty cool though, albeit flustered of course…everyone started saying how we should pass this exam by default. The exam was supposed to begin at 9am…by 840am, still NO HELP! We weren’t supposed to bring our cellphones in anyway, but some guy did and he called for the fire department. He clarified that it actually wasn’t an emergency cos we were all okay, but we were all getting pretty stuffy in the elevator and no one outside seemed to be helping us. It was horrid. We were all just standing there sweating balls in the crowded elevator and no one seemed to be helping us. Wasn’t there a movie about this or something? someone asked. Black Hawk Down? (huh? I thought. Black Hawk Down? No lah! It was Speed!)
At about 850am, people outside were telling us that the fire department was on the way. Someone else told us that we needed to shut the doors so that they could re-set the elevators. Gingerly, we closed it. It was scary cos it was already so hot and stuffy inside, that half-inch crack was keeping us from feeling suffocated. Finally, they re-set the elevators and it moved jerkily up and down for a while, before opening at the 3rd floor. PHEW!
By that time, the exam didn’t quite seem as important as FRESH AIR! We all got in right on time for the exam. One of the invigilators told the people signing us in to “put an ‘E’ next to the names of the elevator people”. Maybe we are gonna get bonus hardship points!
Upon hindsight, I knew that we shouldn’t have tried to force the elevator doors open cos elevators usually have some safety function to bring you to the next closest level and opening then stalling (or so I hope!). But I wondered why it took bloody half an hour (eternity if you are stuck in an elevator with 25 people) for the maintenance guy to tell us that and re-set the elevator. Also, I should have told them to open up the gate that needed to be opened anyway. At the end, they shut the elevators and made everyone use the stairs only. Fine by me!
Another’s point of view here.
On the exam itself, I thought the morning paper was easy. I finished it in half the time allocated and spent the rest 1.5hrs checking and re-checking. The afternoon paper was crap for me, but somehow I expected that cos the exact same thing happened to me last year (morning easy, afternoon crap). So I’m still thinking that luck will have a big part to do with this exam and I hope that lady luck will be with me again. Taking the exam felt better somehow cos in Level II you are given 3hrs to finish 6- questions vs. 120 questions in Level I; I didn’t feel like I was breathless by the end of the exam racing against time. When it was over, I seriously had to choke back tears…I was that happy.
Then I came out to meet my parents! Yay!!
Twice in a day, I breathed the air of freedom. This feeling is BLISS!
