CFA exams cancelled in 37 places, moderators hard to find

The update has landed: December's CFA® exams are indeed being cancelled in some places, including parts of the U.S., and most of India.

CFA Institute has published a list of 37 venues where December's exams won't actually be happening. 

They are:  

Buenos Aires 

Melbourne 

Calgary 

Edmonton 

Toronto 

Vancouver 

Santiago 

Ahmedabad

 Bangalore 

Bhopal 

Chennai 

Hyderabad 

Jaipur 

Kolkata

Lucknow 

Mumbai 

New Delhi  

Pune 

Dublin

Mexico City 

Lima

Manila

Singapore

Johannesburg 

Boston 

Charlotte 

Chicago 

Los Angeles 

Madison

New York City 

Phoenix 

Sacramento 

San Diego

San Francisco 

San Jose 

Seattle 

Washington, DC

In some cases, the cancellations are unsurprising: 'pandemic restrictions' in the likes of Melbourne and Vancouver made cancelling an inevitability. In many locations, however, the CFA says the exams aren't on because of a lack of "available/willing testing personnel," implying that no one wants to moderate thousands of twenty year-olds in an exam hall, or that CFA Institute needs to invest in some serious PPE or pay some danger money. The Institute also says it's had problems renting venues. 

While some putative December exam takers expressed disappointment about the cancellations, others welcomed the certainty. "Glad to have that cleared up... No more second guessing, finally. Will just continue reviewing at a much slower pace so I don't forget everything," said one Asian exam taker on Reddit.

This is the second time some people have had their CFA exams canceled this year. June's cancellations prompted complaints that candidates had delayed having children for the exams and that CFA Institute wasn't refunding candidates' fees of up to $1k. Now that December's exams have been cancelled too, some candidates are saying they want their money back. The Institute is opening a 'refund request window' for candidates whose exams now been cancelled twice between December 7 and 21. 

For the moment, exams are still going ahead at locations not on the list (eg. London and most of Europe), but this may yet change: the Institute says, "additional postponements may be announced." It's too late for candidates to switch testing venues. "You're looking at 2021 now," says one.

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