Make sure to write... question, because, entire, provided, particular

Carson

...on the template designated for a particular question.

This is a no-brainer, but when you're freaking out with 10 min left in the AM, such things can slip your mind. I'm pretty sure I missed an entire essay on last year's exam because I wrote on the lined paper rather than the template they provided.

Dumb, I know... just don't let it happen to you.

IAmNeil

I totally kicked myself.... they had a lot of "template" type questions in the middle of the morning session that were not answered in templates and it got me zoning in on just answering on the lined pages.... between that and being short on time, I completely missed that the very last part on the test was a "template" answer and just wrote in in the lines. Noticed right after time was called when i quickly flipped through the remaining pages to make sure I didn't miss any questions. I also didn't give a 2nd answer for 9-A-ii.

Pretty sure they are not going to grade my 9-C answer because it's not in the template.

All told that is 2-3% I probably just gave away. Ouch.

bodhisattva

I agree...sticking the templates between sets of lined pages made it tricky to even find then. I think they should cojnsider going all-template for the answer space.

Makes me wish they would have had separate question and answer books so you aren't constantly flipping back-and-forth. Kind of like a "Blue Book" test from the good old college days (they still do those...don't they?)

Unforseen

Despite being well aware of all this, I still managed to answer one of the templated questions on the lined paper only to find a template when I was flipping to the next question. Thankfully it was only a 60 second fix, but it could have been a lot worse. I also caught myself numbering the questions wrongly on more than one occasion, particularly when they ask you in, say, part '3 A i' to list two reason, and then give you another task in part '3 A ii'. I kept labeling my first reason as 3 A i and my second as 3 A ii, only to find that I'd done it wrong when coming to the 'real' 3 A ii. As mentioned above, the flipping backwards and forwards through the book gets annoying, especially if you are writing on the opposite side of the same sheet as which you are trying to read.

Agree that a separate answer book with designated areas for each question would be a big improvement.

Darien

agree w/bp. Qs say to use template. I caught myself a couple of times because layout was weird but templates have been used in past exams, so not like it was a suprise.

Analti_Calte

I agree. As much as I hope that the CFAI uses those answers of those candidates wrote directly underneath the question, the testtakers who read the directions carefully wasted precious time going back and forth between the pages to fill in the template correctly.

That precious time is very valuable on test day. They should reward that (rather than punish the former). To really fix the issue, they need to standardize the process, and that's been mentioned before.

justin88

tiddly Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Agree, too, about having a separate book. (As a
> repeater) I asked the CFAI last year to consider
> it, as I found it disorientating to be flipping
> backwards and forwards. Their response was to send
> me information on how to apply for a
> medical/mental concession of sorts.


That's just cruel.

Valores

even if you write on lined paper rather than the template they provided, they still grade it , it is on Q&A , and CFA states that by using template would be more effective as it saves time .