Anyone else feel that there is no real right or wrong answer to these morning session questions? You read the question and know that you know the answer, but you don’t know what the hell you’re supposed to write. I had an IPS question yesterday and I was saying “Low” for short-term return requirements because I didn’t know whether I was supposed to give a number or a sentence! The concept itself was a cinch. The answer was something like “90 day commercial paper returns”, which was explicitly stated in the passage. The answer was to regurgitate what it already said in the reading. How are you supposed to know that? Same goes for just about every other question. No idea whether one sentence or 5 will suffice. Also, wouldn’t it make sense that there would be more “incorrect” than “correct” because the incorrect ones require an explanation, whereas the correct ones just require you to circle it and move on? Also, CFAI never tells us how wordy we are supposed to be, etc. I’m shocked at the lack of discussion on the essay format on the board. That is what is scaring me out of my pants the most. I’m sure others feel the same.
I tried the 2005 morning test this past weekend, just to see what the essay questions are like. (I think you can get those and the guideline answers at CFA success.) What struck me is how short the answers can be, if the guideline answers were anything to go by. It’s very much more “short answer” than “essay.” I sort of had that idea before I started, so I kept my answers brief and I scored myself at about 61%. (I basically punted GIPS for now, which would have helped, and there was a question on the equity risk premium that seemed a little more involved than the 2007 curriculum.) I finished with about 20 minutes left. My plan on the IPS is to be as direct as possible in the opening sentence. “Yeo’s time horizon has two stages: the first…” or “Yeo has one immediate liquidity requirement…” Then give the supporting details as succinctly as possible. Bing bang boom.
I plan on leaving the Wealth management part to the end of the session. So far in all the tests I have taken ( 3) I was not able to calculate the return requirements (except for 2007 exam), which is really frustrating, that 13 points lost and just getting started ! I did well on the remaining subjects, I had the key-words in my answers so I am assuming that should do it.
Frisian: Short and succint seems the way to go. Looking at the Schweser morning session, I kind of found that the answers were too obvious. I would look at the correct answer and think, “oh, well of course, but I thought they wanted more.” I saw in another thread some people said that 1-2 sentences is all you need. There just doesn’t seem to be much guidance from Schweser or CFAI as to how to field these questions. If you’re basically taking the Schweser path to this one, you’ve got just 3 morning sessions to figure out the way you are supposed to respond. Schweser gives you several hundred pages of material but can’t give a single page on strategy? That’s more important than any of the material IMO. -Forum Lurker
I’m having the same problem, I read the question and I have no idea what type of answer they are looking for. I guess if you go by Schweser all their answers are short and they specifically tell you short answers will do. I haven’t done much CFAI past exams but the CFAI end of chapter questions are a crap shoot on how long, however most of them are real long. I’ll have to do some past exams. Does Stalla say anything about this?