Pre-Exam 2017: results

Earlier today, the Examiner's Report was published, and now also the results are out and available on the EQE website here.

884 candidates enrolled for the Pre-Exam 2017, out of which 860 also sat the paper (97%).
672 candidates passed, corresponding to 76% of all enrolled candidates and 78% of all candidates that sat the exam. Congratulations!
188 candidates failed, corresponding to 21% resp. 22%.
The pass rates are thus similar as in 2016 and 2015.


The pass rate is considerably lower for resitters:

  • 105 Pre-Exam 2016 candidates were resitting: 53 passed, 52 failed again
  • 54 Pre-Exam 2015 candidates were resitting: 21 passed, 33 failed again
  • 17 Pre-Exam 2014 candidates were resitting: 7 passed, 10 failed again
  • 36 candidates that sat Pre-Exam 2015 and 2016 were resitting: 17 passed, 19 failed again
  • 9 candidates that sat Pre-Exam 2014, 2015 and 2016 were resitting: 6 passed, 3 failed again
  • 5 candidates that sat Pre-Exam 2014 and 2015 but not 2016 were resitting: 1 passed, 4 failed again


Comments

  1. I must say I expected a slight decrease on the rate of success, maybe 70 or 72. Perhaps candidates are more well prepared, compared to previous years? Anyway, congratulations to all who have passed! And to Delta Patents for scoring 100% to their answers!

    Tati

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  2. Thanks to Delta Patents, this blog and the discussion was very useful! And the comments were surprisingly civil given that it is all pretty important to the candidates involved. I only saw a few "off" comments (and those some appeared to have come from tutors who were neither Delta Patents nor candidates), so that's remarkable for the internet and makes it possible to actually discuss things.

    P.S. I would give DP 98% as they changed one answer. We'd all get 100% if we could change our answers later! Haha.

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  3. And I was hoping Delta would have 4 mistakes ;)

    At least the results are now no longer pending.

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  4. Thanks to the very contestable decision to consider a loudspeaker a vibrator device, especially in the German wording, I scored 69 instead of 71..I'm very happy...

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    Replies
    1. If you are considering to appeal question 18.4 please write an email: eqeappeal2017@gmail.com

      It may be useful to exchange thoughts.

      Delete
    2. Referring to an email: this is not meant to be limited to 18.4, of course.

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    3. Thank you WW, I will contact you for sure.

      Thanks

      Delete
  5. I must say "a big round of applause" to Delta Patents, in particular in the Pre-exam forum to Roel, the approach and replies to the several remarks, opinions and points of view, are nothing short of astonishing and unique. A big thank you.

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  6. I actually expected the pass rate to be somewhat higher this year as the questions were less ambiguous and better formulated.

    Congrats and big THANK YOU to Delta Patents, great job! I hope to see you Stockholm this autumn:-).

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  7. Dear Roel and DP, I have passed the pre-exam thanks to you ! A wholehearted "THANK YOU" and a big big round of applause indeed ! Without your claims analysis course I wouldn't have made it.

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  8. I can only encourage students of future exams to rely on themselves and invest maybe four weeks' afternoons/evenings and weekends to be more than well prepared (me: 88 pts). There is absolutely no need for spending time and money on professinal courses. Don't believe the hype, cheers!

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    Replies
    1. Congratulations on your result, but please appreciate that everyone learns differently. Who knows, maybe a course would have helped you with those extra 12 marks.

      Delete
  9. To Anonymous 4 April 2017 at 16:01: Bravo! You appear to be very intelligent, but please do not wrongly assume that we are all as smart as you are. I needed quite some preparation in order to pass the exam. Obviously, we are in the two extremes of the spectrum. Everyone should now for themselves, but for people of average intelligence, I can highly recommend a course on claims analysis. The legal part you can do on your own. Also, "four weeks' afternoons/evenings and weekends" is absolutely unrealistic, again in my humble view.

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  10. Has anybody received the letter confirming the results yet?

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    Replies
    1. Broken toothbrush5 April 2017 at 15:32

      Yup, mine arrived through registered mail yesterday. It's nice that you get a copy of the answer sheet.

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    2. Thanks, are you in UK?

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    3. Broken toothbrush6 April 2017 at 09:51

      No, I'm not. And not in Germany, either. Sorry, prefer not to be more specific than that.

      Delete
    4. Does anyone know if it even happened that the official letter gave a different result than the results list?

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  11. The Pre-Exam appeal D 1/17 has also been decided and was put on the EPO Recent Decisions pages yesterday. The candidate's appeal was succesful with respect to 18.4, and he got a PASS at 71 from an initial FAIL at 69 marks. From the decision, it appears that he took the exam in English, but that he also used the texts in German and French.

    See http://www.epo.org/law-practice/case-law-appeals/pdf/d170001eu1.pdf

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    Replies
    1. Interesting is that D 1/17 seems to totally contradict the reasoning of the prior D 2/17.

      D 2/17 seems quite comprehensible: it was found that the German version is incorrect, while the English and French versions unambiguously disclose that the loudspeaker generates vibrations (Par 2.2: "Während aus der englischen und französischen Fassung unzweideutig hervorgeht, dass der Lautsprecher Vibrationen erzeugt...").

      D 1/17 now is based on the possibility that the English and French versions (!) might be ambiguous, and that this issue is resolved by the Candidate by using the German version (Par 4). Seems very constructed to me, to accept the appeal to avoid opposing decisions... :-)

      Delete
    2. English paper:

      "As long as electric energy is supplied to the music
      module, it plays a melody over its loudspeaker, the vibrations of which are converted into vibrations of the air."

      It is not clear if the "which" refers to the melody or to the loudspeaker.

      In order to be clear the sentence should be reformulated as follow:

      "As long as electric energy is supplied to the music
      module, it plays a melody over its loudspeaker. The vibrations of the loudspeaker being converted into vibrations of the air"

      Same applies to the french paper.

      The german is the only one that unambiguosly states that the vibrations are of the melody.

      Therefore, the candidate is wrongly led to consider the ambiguous "which" as referring to the melody and not the loudspeaker, and it is led to give the wrong answer to answer 18.4

      Delete
    3. See D 1/17 and D 2/17

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