Getting credit for AM section

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kschloss

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If the question asks, “justify your answer with one item” If you list 3 items, 2 are wrong and 1 is right - how do they score that (i.e. is there a penatly for guessing or would you get 100% credit and they would ignore the other stuff you wrote??)
 
My understanding is they grade the first answer and disregard the rest.
That’s the best case. Alternatively, they will give you zero if you put down any wrong answer, which is really how it should be IMO. It says ONE. Provide ONE. If you don’t know, why should they give you credit for just listing nonsense and getting lucky?
 
Ha ha - I see your point. I was just thinking back to essay tests in college and you could get partial credit (if you write a paragraph and half of the pargraph is correct, you would get 50% credit)…is there NO partial credit in the AM section?
 
There is (thankfully) partial credit in the AM. For example, if you’re working on a problem that involves calculations, and you have to show your work, you could get partial credit if you get it all right except you mislabel your currency or something like that.
 
what about in the example above for lists and justifications of answers, is only your first answer counted and the rest disgarded?
 
igor555 wrote:did you used to grade exams?
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Nope.
If you grade exams they forbid you from teaching CFA review courses for one year thereafter. I cannot afford the pay cut.
 
igor555 wrote:i see. whats the reasoning for that
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Got me.
I’ve never heard that they prevent candidates from teaching for a year, so it has to be something more than merely having seen the questions. And they publish the AM questions and answers in December.
I don’t know: it’s weird.
 
Most likely, they want to keep the grading methodology a secret. That is, CFAI doesn’t want people to know about the MPS calculation and other secret stuff that we don’t know about.
 
ohai wrote:Most likely, they want to keep the grading methodology a secret. That is, CFAI doesn’t want people to know about the MPS calculation and other secret stuff that we don’t know about.
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Inasmuch as graders grade a single problem (or a single part of a problem), and grade only the morning session, there’s no reason that they should know the MPS. I think it’s fairly well-known how points are allocated for answers. But there may be other secret stuff; I wouldn’t know (it’d be secret).
 
S2000magician wrote:
Yes: if you’re asked to give n reasons, the graders read the first n answers and ignore the rest.
This is why I stress that for the morning session you should think more (e.g., Which of these three reasons are the two best?) and write less.
This article I wrote may be of some help: http://financialexamhelp123.com/how-to-approach-the-level-iii-cfa-exam/.
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I found this guidance very helpful. Does anyone know if there are any services to help you grade the morning portion of mock exams? I want to make sure I am doing it right. I’d hate to study for 6 months only to find out I wasn’t approaching the written responses from the right angle.
Thanks
 
Another follow up-ish question:
I’m trying to figure out how much detail and all that we need to write on those AM questions. In the solutions to the EOC questions, it seems like CFAI gives pretty lengthy answers. Do we need to write THAT much in order to get full credit-assuming of course you answer the question correctly?
 
No . Write short reasons that convey the meaning of your answer exactly , if there is more than 1 reason , CFA will ask you to give exactly however many they need so you don’t have to wander around. If you’re not to the point and short you WILL lose time and possibly run out of time in the end
 
krazykanuck wrote:Another follow up-ish question:
I’m trying to figure out how much detail and all that we need to write on those AM questions. In the solutions to the EOC questions, it seems like CFAI gives pretty lengthy answers. Do we need to write THAT much in order to get full credit-assuming of course you answer the question correctly?
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Not remotely.
Here’s an example from my article (linked above):
If you are asked to give a reason that an asset allocation is inappropriate, and that allocation includes derivative securities which are prohibited by the investor’s IPS, then it’s sufficient to write:
  • The portfolio includes derivative securities which are prohibited by the IPS
In fact, you can probably get away with:
  • Portfolio includes derivative securities prohibited by IPS
or,
  • Portfolio includes derivatives prohibited by IPS
 
Are there any videos out there that show someone answering a full 3 hour morning session exam? I’d like to hear them discuss their methodology and see them write out the answer to get a better idea of how much work is needed to be shown. I’m a retaker and I’m still confused by how much/little to write.
 
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