Hi guys Is there any guidelines from CFAI related to the language that we can use in essay writing for the AM session? Particularly I wonder if we can use such symbols as ↑ to imply “increase” → implying “therefore”, “as a result”, “consequently” < implying “smaller” <=> implying “equivalent to” I think time is of the essence for the morning session and this can help us save time especially for those English is a foreign language. Does CFAI accept such writing? What are you doing with this, guys?
Dont do it. Write in proper language without using any symbols. Symbols in your country may not match the symbols in their country.
They will *probably* understand it, but I wouldn’t take the risk. Writing full words instead of symbols will probably only take you a few extra minutes.
I’d be shocked if the graders deducted points because they couldn’t understand that "
I find in CFA guidelines for essay section the following related to this issue: • Answers are graded only on content. They are not graded for language and style. • Use short phrases and bullet points to save time, but be sure your meaning is clear. they also sites some common reasons that graders give for poor candidate performance on the essay portion but I find nothing related to handwriting I am an CFAI grader I find it much easier to follows the logic with common symbols rather than read a whole block words.
I see they outsourced the grading process then to Vietnam. Guess style won’t matter; leave your semi-colons at home kiddies.
you are a CFAI grader and you want to know if you can use symbols when taking the test? something sounds off here… I would definitely write it out. “increase” only take a second. and i have never even seen some of your symbols before. remember that the guidelines say to “but be sure your meaning is clear”
↑ to imply “increase” → implying “therefore”, “as a result”, “consequently” If I was a grader and I saw the above notation I’d give you a “W” for “WTF”. How are you even saving time by writing ↑ instead of increase? Has anyone else seen this notation?
How about arrows to indicate increase or decrease? I am afraid I will do it automatically if in a rush…
AF doesn’t accept those special symbols…perhaps we should only use the characters which can be displayed in AF.
If you got time, check out this site to see what ↑ looks like. http://htmlhelp.com/reference/html40/entities/symbols.html
I’ve heard that they are given a sheet of common abbreviations so they know what they mean. I wouldn’t stress out about it. If you accidentally use an abbreviation but its obvious, I’m sure you’ll get credit. More than one person grades each of the problems.
I’m not sure what you mean by this phrase.
In any case, I just received confirmation from CFA Institute that the graders will interpret common symbols and shorthand within the context of the question; i.e., they know what “↑” and “→” and “FI” and “HF” and so on mean and they’ll interpret them correctly.
That said, I advise against relying on symbols and abbreviations. If you’re so pressed for time that saving half a second by writing “↑” instead of “increase” is the difference between you passing and failing, you have bigger problems than whether those symbols and shorthand will be interpreted correctly.
Thanks for sharing!