Anyone passed with using pencil in AM

which one is that erasable pen? Is any eraser also needed and which is that eraser?
 
Pilot FriXion Erasable Gel Ink Pen - 0.5 mm
It’s erased by friction.
Warning: the writing could disappear in microwave. There was a long discussion on this issue in May, but I still used it on the exam day since I’m so used to it.
 
Although I considered using pencil, I ended up using a pen. The main reason? It takes half a second to strike out a sentece, 1 second to strike out a paragraph, too much time to erase anything.
Needless to say, no points are awarded on neatness….
There will be plenty on space to strike out as much as you want on each questions…and you have some addtional blank pages at the end at no extra cost!!!!! :D
 
I used pen and crossed out and generally made a complete mess out of one question that I did well on. I just made sure that I put a big box around the correct analysis and double underlined the answer. Pen is just easier to work with,CFAI recommends it and you shouldn’t have any problems crossing out incorrect info.
 
I can understand people freaking out about pen vs pencil (I know I was) But it’s really nothign to worry about.
1. There are TONS of space to cross out, and re-write answers.
2. CFAI has virtually guaranteed that handwriting is NOT an issue saying it is very rare that they cannot read it.
3. Both pen and pencil accepted (confirmed true - year after year)
If it makes you feel better, write in pen (as the official instructions say). But as long as you label your answers, and remember to only write in the lined spaces (which are all clearly marked), you’ll be fine
 
I was 100% certain that I would use pencils on the exam until literally two weeks before the test. Why? While grading my own practice exams, I realized that pencil can be hard to read (especially against black lined paper) because the lead can create a glare. Also, I read somewhere that if your score is in the middle 50%, they regrade your entire essay, and go through every page to see if maybe you’ve written something they missed. Because I wanted to make sure the graders see my answers, I literally spent over an hour in a stationary store testing pens, and bought the brightest blue pen I can find.
In the end, I’m very happy with my decision. As previous stated, there really is plenty of room provided for you to cross out your answers, so that was not a problem. I also think it helped to have my answer clearly stand out on a page.
 
the problem with pen is that on the exam where you have only limited space to write an answer (such as a box in a template) and you write some answer that fills most of the box and then decide you don’t like it and cross it out, you’ve wasted most of your allotted space and you can’t get it back
also i wouldn’t read too much into iteracom using pencil and passing with flying colors…he’s prolly one of the one most well prepared users on this forum…in reality they outright tell you they prefer pen, prolly cuz it smudges less and easier to read
 
I used a pen and regretted it, especially when I was writing out equations. I know my paper was sloppy. I’m left-handed, most erasable pens smudge worse than a pencil. I will probably look at the Pilot pen, but in all likelihood I will use a pencil next year.
 
ImmunizeThis wrote:
the problem with pen is that on the exam where you have only limited space to write an answer (such as a box in a template) and you write some answer that fills most of the box and then decide you don’t like it and cross it out, you’ve wasted most of your allotted space and you can’t get it back
also i wouldn’t read too much into iteracom using pencil and passing with flying colors…he’s prolly one of the one most well prepared users on this forum…in reality they outright tell you they prefer pen, prolly cuz it smudges less and easier to read
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exactly. yes, they give you plenty of lined pages, but i remember erasing some of my answers in the template boxes. using pen would’ve been a disaster…
 
I used pencil and passed. I also have terrible handwriting. Apparently neither one was an issue. The ability to erase allowed me to be able to keep my paper neat and organized. I wrote in bullet points which helped on time management.
 
I used a pencil with a really bad hand writing and I still passed.. make sure to box the final answers and short hand comments on some of the steps you took. no need to answer in essay format at all.
 
I used pencil on the first question (because it was such a pain to set up the calcuations), and used pen for the other questions. I got over 70% on the first question, so doesn’t look like they penalize the use of pencil.
And with regards to the comment about pen in the template boxes, I believe you are allowed to write out a template answer on the lined pages if you clearly redirect there and label your answer there. That’s why there were lined pages for the question that was 100% template. Threw me off for a second when I was taking the test.
 
ftwcfa wrote:
And with regards to the comment about pen in the template boxes, I believe you are allowed to write out a template answer on the lined pages if you clearly redirect there and label your answer there.
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Yes, this is absolutely true. You don’t have to use the templates. You are allowed to answer the template questions on the lined pages as long as they are clearly labeled.
 
ftwcfa wrote:
And with regards to the comment about pen in the template boxes, I believe you are allowed to write out a template answer on the lined pages if you clearly redirect there and label your answer there. That’s why there were lined pages for the question that was 100% template. Threw me off for a second when I was taking the test.
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Haha jeez, I had no idea you could do that, would have helped a bit at the time instead of scrambling to squeeze stuff into those little boxes
 
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