The results for the EQE pre-exam were released yesterday (Friday 20 March) and IPcopy would like to extend its congratulations to those of you that passed. We would also like to sound a slight note of caution. The Delta Patents blog post for the 2015 results has highlighted that the marks that were available online may have been adjusted down by 1 or 2 marks at some point during the day yesterday. If you were a borderline pass it could be worth rechecking your results.

The potential mark adjustment issue seems to have arisen from the exceptional case that one of the questions (20.2) was deemed to have been constructed in a sufficiently complex fashion that it was decided to award marks for the answer being “True” as well as “False” – see the bottom of page 9 of the Examiner’s report.

Delta Patents analysis suggests that almost half of the candidates sitting the paper will have experienced a downward mark adjustment (of 1 or 2 marks) and 16 people may have migrated south across the Pass-Fail border.

However, subsequent comments on the Delta Patents blog indicate that some candidates have seen a “bounce” in their marks in which they initially dropped marks and then gained marks back later in the day.

The online results page of course carries a disclaimer that only the results in your letter are binding. However, it is pretty troubling in IPcopy’s opinion that the online results were allowed to be released without being verified and properly checked.