Results Main Exam EQE 2015 are available!

The results from the EQE Main Exam 2015 are available on the EQE webpages (pdf).

Compared to 2014, the pass rates for all papers improved.

Our analysis indicates:

paper A (e/m and ch)
#fail A 254 29,26%
#passes A 534 61,52%
#passes+comp fail A 614 70,74%
compfail A 80 9,22%
#sitting A (non-zero) 868
#no-show (zero marks)7

paper B (e/m and ch)
#fail B 199 24,24%
#passes B 568 69,18%
#passes+comp fail B 622 75,76%
compfail B 54 6,58%
#sitting B (non-zero) 821
#no-show (zero marks)8

paper C
#fail C 535 50,61%
#passes C 425 40,21%
#passes+comp fail C 522 49,39%
compfail C 97 9,18%
#sitting C (non-zero) 1057
#no-show (zero marks)27

paper D
#fail D 318 32,28%
#passes D  554 56,24%
#passes+comp fail D  667 67,72%
compfail D 113 11,47%
#sitting D (non-zero) 985
#no-show (zero marks)44

(in 2014, 38,84% failed Am 35,93% failed B, 54,85% failed C and 52,62% failed D)

The score distributions are:

As always, any comments are welcome and appreciated. Please post using your real name or a nick name as that makes responding easier.

Roel

2 juli 2015

Addition 6 juli:

interesting to see how many candidates sat one of the pre-exams and now sat one or more main exam papers:

total candidates Main 2015

1685 
      
# pre-exam
      # pre-sitters
  sitters, now 
   1 or more main 

      in pre-exam 
      year 
  
   exam paper   
PE2012 passers 50 or more
108
385
PE2012 passers 70 or more
84
353
PE2013 passers 50 or more
421
641
PE2013 passers 70 or more
360
569
PE2014 passers 70 or more
515
555
PE2014 passers 68 or 69 
13
21
never pre-exam
641


Comments

  1. I did not get any notification from the the EPO that the results would become available today. Did anyone else get?

    I passed all four!!!

    AHappyCandidate

    ReplyDelete
  2. I am a little bit wondering, because I have exact the same number of points for part B as last year at EQE 2014 and my feeling this year was definitely better. Best regards, Mario

    ReplyDelete
  3. Dear Roel, is it supposed to be written "2015" on those distribution charts :-)

    And I am wondering how many persent of people who sit all four papers this year passed all four...

    Cheers, accomnh

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Oeps, corrected, the charts show the 2014 numbers... (copied new data in old Excel... forgot to update the captions). Thx for your comment.

      Delete
  4. I only had to do papers B and C. I passed paper B but not paper C. I assume those charts are for the 2015 results. A quick statistical analysis of those results indicates a bi-modal distribution which is centred on the pass mark (50). Does this say something about the paper ? I think it does but not sure what.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I noticed the same. I am no expert on statistics. But I imagine the reason might be: if the sitter made certain attacks right, which corresponds to the higher mark peak (around 55), then the distribution is over how good or bad he elaborates. And if the sitter made certain attacks wrong, which corresponds to the lower mark peak (around 35), then the distribution is again over how good or bad he elaborates...Hope it makes sense. If that is really the reason for the bimodal distribution, it seems if one makes wrong decisions on attacks, the highest mark he may get is about compensable fail. Cheers, accomnh

      Delete
    2. @ Anonymous3 July 2015 at 09:56

      Your analysis doesn't take into account that paper C was very long this year and most people ran out of time. I had no time to write any attacks against the last 2 claims and got 57.

      Delete
    3. Well, if most people had the problem of not having enough time for C, then that factor is cancelled out.

      Delete
    4. Actually, I see 3 peaks for C: 1 around 35, 1 around 55 and 1 around 70.
      Maybe the left peak is for candidates that fail to do the problem-solution in the right manner (typically, those counting features in common, which the Exam Committee indicates every year is wrong), the middle know how to do it but are not fast enough to do all of them or lost time by using wrong attacks, and the right peak is for candidates that know how to do problem-solution the right way?

      Delete
  5. Took A and B and passed A and B. Thanks DeltaPatents for your revision guides.

    ReplyDelete
  6. A quick calculation: about 51% of the all four papers sitters passed

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. A 'slow' calculation gives (taking also the 0's into account (so people subscribed all 4, but did not show up for all of them) :
      36 PASS (all 4)
      11 COMPENSABLE
      53 FAIL

      Delete
    2. I wonder how many all 4 sitters passed sitting eqe for 1st time...

      Delete
  7. Got D, so now I have a full house. Seems that the D results are remarkable better than the other years. Wonder if it is a result of introducing the pre-exam?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Maybe it is more linked with the fact that pre-exam has raised from 50% to 70%...

      Delete
    2. Although I did write D myself (but A-C) I heard that the 2015 D-exam was not the most difficult one. For A-C, I found them to be just as difficult as the previous exams... so I agree that the pre-exam might be one explanation for the better pass-rates. @Roel: Any comments on the effects of the preexam?

      Delete
    3. Last year at the meeting between the Exam Committees and the tutors, some of the Committees indicated they did not see an effect.

      First time sitters have always had a much better pass rate than resitters. And still almost half of the candidates did not sit any of the pre-exams

      Delete
  8. Passed all four as a first sitter. Quite a relief to be done with this stuff even though it was, in the end, far less troublesome than what people had been telling me.

    In my opinion, D2 has become really simple (you find the right 2 or 3 remedies for the situation => you pass) when compared to the previous format. And the clues are rather obvious.

    C has mostly to do with having the right methodology and applying it correctly. I find the C book method is completely inadapted to me, I just went with a classical feature matrix without writing anything on the side (just an X matrix, browsed the documents again when I had to write down the corresponding passage as browsing stuff seems to be something my brain is fast at) and managed to pull 65+ (actually was kinda disappointed with my grade, as I got all the correct attacks and had time to write it all).

    B is B, and A, well, A is a volatile exercice:encompassing all the embodiments, following the clues regarding novelty, and making sure that no unnecessary limitation is left in Claim 1. That seemed to work kinda ok for me (80+) even though I had absolutely no idea how my copy would be graded before getting the grade.

    Anyway, congrats on those who passed, sorry for those who didn't. Waiting a whole year before getting another shot is very frustrating.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I also passed D. I am not sure I agree in that D2 was necessarily really simple. The pass rate do tell that something may have been more straight forward, but if you do not have the basic knowledge (and in my view:solved an awful lot of D1 questions in advance) the hints of D2 would be hard to see, they demand the knowledge to see them. I would like to see a trend with the passes vs registration numbers as it immediately seems that there are more passes and high marks at the lower half of the list (i.e. As I assume that the higher registration numbers represents sitters that attended the pre-exam)

      Delete
    2. Hi,

      I agree with you, knowing all the EPC mechanisms is in fact mandatory to be able to zero in on the appropriate remedies in D2.

      I also get the feeling that this year, there were some marks which were quite difficult to obtain, as there is only a handful of 70+ in D

      Delete
    3. Hello Anon1, from my point of view, if you had enough time to actually write the C attacks then you were doing it wrong. I mean that this year, drafting all the attacks with sufficient lvl of detail was really awfully time consuming. I spent 4 hrs writing frantically, attacked all claims but the last two attacks came out a bit messy because I was running out of time. (Just for the record, got 86 for C).
      As for D2, agree completely. The paper's got a bit boring. It was already possible to draft a decent response for old (4hrs) papers in 3 hrs, so now it's just no challenge. :-)

      Delete
  9. Hi all,
    Have had the weekend to let the results sink in. Passed C and D with nothing to spare. Bombed in paper A and got 46% in B. Thus the question is whether to re-sit A and B or just sit A and hope to get 54% or more? Is anyone in a similar situation? I would hate to re-sit B and do worse but also would be frustrated to re-sit A and get 52%, thus having to re-sit B an additional year later. Does Delta Patent have any thoughts on such a situation? Many thanks and well done to all who passed.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I second Anon@10:03. Be optimistic and do only what is required. It is better to concentrate on one paper and I would really hate to be in this guy position http://www.eqe-online.org/forum/showthread.php?t=12329

      Delete
    2. Thanks for the comments. Somehow I feel sitting A and B gives me greater "control" of the outcome but I'm not sure. I have some time to make the decision. Will probably flip a coin.

      Delete
  10. Re-sit A. You only have to focus on one exam, you don't run the risk of running out of energy in the afternoon.

    ReplyDelete
  11. no comments but I am curious how big the difference for paper D would be between a delta style answer and a "standard" answer expected from the EPO examination committee?

    ReplyDelete
  12. Interesting stats about the year of pre-exam. I really wonder to what extent the EQE keeps candidate out of the profession, or whether people just resit and pass one or a few years later. Any information about the 641 "old" candidates?

    ReplyDelete
  13. A quick note to inform readers that the Examiners' Reports are now available.

    ReplyDelete
  14. Has anyone received the official results letter from the EPO yet? I'm still waiting

    ReplyDelete

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