AM exam grading what's the standard

[archived_user]

can someone share his/her insights on AM grading standards regarding handwriting & wording?
1) my writing can be very unpleasant to read when under time constraints 2) we all know that CFAI basically took FI 101, 201, 301 … classes and restated the materials in its own way. so as someone working in the industry, i always find it more challenging to adapt to CFAI wording than to learn the actual “knowledge”. When it comes to AM exam, do the graders actually read the answers line by line and try to resonate with your logic, or they merely scan thru and look for the key terminologies that are in the guideline answers?
Thank you

 

[archived_user]

They’re not grading your handwriting but that said, they need to be able to read/understand what you are writing and if they can’t make it out, then you can’t expect them to give you points for gibberish.
If you haven’t already, I recommend that you practice your handwriting under timed conditions to try to improve it as best you can. I believe this is one of the recommendations CFAI makes in their level 3 tips somewhere.
I have a similar problem and one of the ways I try to solve for it is to print everything versus writing in script. I find I’m neater and therefore more legible when doing so. Also you may want to try to write in a very fine point pen. I think the thinner line makes it neater but that could just be me.
The graders do read all of what you write but they are generally looking for key words/phrases that make up the guideline answer they’re given as the answer key.
This goes for numbers answers as they say “show your calculations” for a reason. Even if you put down the right numerical answer, if you don’t show how you got there, they probably won’t give you full credit.

 

[archived_user]

Related issue:
when explaining (justifying) sth with showing the relevant formula, do we have to explain the formula?
Treynor = (RA - RF) / beta
or
Treynor measure is the portfolio return over risk free rate divided by the systematic risk

 

[archived_user]

THE_REAL_Black_Knight wrote: This goes for numbers answers as they say “show your calculations” for a reason. Even if you put down the right numerical answer, if you don’t show how you got there, they probably won’t give you full credit.

According to the e-mail I received from CFA Institute, they probably will, in fact.

 

[archived_user]

THE_REAL_Black_Knight wrote:
They’re not grading your handwriting but that said, they need to be able to read/understand what you are writing and if they can’t make it out, then you can’t expect them to give you points for gibberish.

What I heard from my seniors that, graders really try hard to understand the candidate’s handwriting. If not first grader, another grader gives try to understand it. I don’t know the process if even second grader doesn’t understand handwriting. So its a good practice to write something that is at least readable.