"General Knowledge" Statements in Written Answers

CFA Level III
#1

Hopefully someone will be able to shed some light on this.

According to the CFA’s website on answering L3 written questions and I quote; " Points are awarded for direct answers. Points are not awarded for general knowledge that does not address the question."

However, reviewing the past L3 written questions and guideline answers, some level of general knowledge statements appear to be expected.

I don’t want to unintentionally violate CFA’s rules on disclosing questions, so I’ll just couch it in general terms here but if someone can confirm that we are allowed to openly discuss questions/answers posted on CFA’s website, I’ll put in more information.

So in general terms, say the question is: “State 2 benefits of X”.

I would expect the answer to be along the lines of: Benefit 1 is blah blah blah; Benefit 2 is blah blah blah.

However the guideline answer puts it as: "X is provides definition of X". Benefit 1 is blah blah blah; Benefit 2 is blah blah blah.

Personally I regard the definition of X to be general knowledge that does not answer the question as the question does not ask what X is. Is this a case of guideline answers giving more than is strictly required?

#2

Hi,

I’m interested in answers as well!

#3

I’ve wondered the exact same thing, and here is what I see from secret sauce:

Points are awarded for direct answers to a question.

Graders do not expect to see anything resembling the guideline answer, and you should not expect your answer to be as comprehensive

That leads me to believe those opening definitions in the guideline answer are not necessary, but others can chime in if they know different.

#4

any other thoughts on this?

#5

Keep it clear and concise.

If you can get the point across in a few words, you’ll get full credit.