Need assistance with Pencils and Calculators Information

CFA General
#1

Hello,

I am planning to take cfa exam in june 2015. I have few questions regarding using pencils and calculators. I wanted to collect these informations early, so that I don’t have to worry about these things later.

  1. Do I need to take 2 calculators for the exam? If yes, Can use BA II Pro and BA II plus as back up (different models)?

  2. Which is best - mechanical pencil or regular?

  3. There are different points in #2 pencils (e.g., 0.5mm, 0.7mm, 0.9mm - thin, medium, thick). Which point is recommended?

Thanks for your time on this.

#2

  1. No

  2. mechanical

  3. 0.7mm, medium

Lol if this is a serious post.

#3

  1. No, but you can if you want.

  2. Whatever your preference is. If you like taking pencil sharpeners and wasting time trying to sharpen pencils, then, by all means, take a regular pencil.

  3. Whatever your preference is. Personally, I liked the .05, but it breaks a little easier.

Agreed–LOL if this is serious.

#4

1.) Get a HP 12c so you can at least look the part of a professional. If you don’t want a 12c, don’t bother with the TI Professional. Just get the standard TI BAII.

2.) Mechanical

3.) I think .7mm lead is the perfect balance between the thickness needed to fill in the bubbles quickly while still being able to write legibly. Make sure you are using HB lead.

#5

Thank you so much for your reply.

#6

I used the BA II Plus Professional.

#7

I would take 2 calculators. The odds of having one of them fail is very low but the cost to cover that black swan event is $40 and carrying an extra pound.

#8

Its probably not a black swan even to have a calculator break. I broke one of the buttons on my 12c during level II. I was glad I had two.

#9

I started a thread on this after my L3 exam.

I tell all the L1 candidates to just get the BA 2 “regular”, not the Pro. But in practice, over half of the L3 candidates had Pros. There were very few 12-C’s or “regular” BA-II’s represented at L3.