I was wondering if the morning session (essay type Qs) of the level 3 exam are to written with a pen or a pencil?
Request moderator to delete this duplicate post. thanks.
I did it in pencil and I am glad I did. It makes erasing a whole lot easier. You could also try erasable ink pens.
i did half of the test with pen and half with pencil, i realized it in last fifteen min since i was in a state of panic after first 1.5 hours of the AM test prayed that graders would mark my paper since it was in half pen and half pencil thankfully passed
attached is the official instruction, on the CFAI web site and will be printed on the back of the exam booklet it says " use blue or black ink". i did not bring with me any pen to this year’s exam. so when i read this line just as the exam was about to begin, you can understand my state of panick at the time. I asked the proctor to clarify whether pencil is acceptable. the proctors at my test center told me they are forbiden by CFAI to comment on any policy, which i thought incredible. one of the proctor later brought me a pen, which i used to write the answers for my exam. after the exam, i found out from here that many people did use pencil to write their answers. and it seems their answers are accepted with no penalty. I have not seen any clarification from CFAI that answers written by pencil will not be scored. Still, the the official policy is “in blue or black ink”. perhaps CFAI is safguarding the possibility that somehow answers written in pencil may be erased or smugged. the official policy may be their way of saying they are not responsible for any accidnet that may happen to answers written in pencil. ---------------------------------------- Constructed-response essay answers for Level III (AM session) All essay answers must be recorded in English. Your book will contain essay questions followed by answer pages for each question. Use the following instructions when writing your answers (full instructions will be listed on the back of your exam book): Use blue or black ink on the designated pages Label each part of your answer clearly (A, B, C, D or i, ii, iii, etc.) Only answers written on the correct answer pages will be graded. Answers marked on question pages will not be graded. You may make marks and notes on the question pages If you use all of the designated pages, extra answer pages are provided at the back of the book. To use the extra answer pages: Place a checkmark in the box at the bottom of the last page designated for that answer Label extra pages with the appropriate question number
I did with pencil …much easier to erase… I just read the rules on writing instruments one day before the results were released. It is clear that we shd use either blue or back pen . I was scared of violation against the rule, but not at all. No penalty I passed.
I think that an erasable pen is the best way to go. Worked for me. Ponpon
CFAI prefer pen, however, I did mine with pencil, passed!!
I did 100% pencil and passed.
Every year, there are several posts about this, and every year, someone posts a response from CFAI saying it is OK to use pencil. Yes, you are risking something getting erased and that is a risk you take, but I bet my paper looked much neater than most who used pen. I edit my answers a lot so using a pen would have been disastrous.
Used pencil and was glad I did. Guy next to me used pen and with all the crossing out he did, his exam must have looked horrible.
I think the reason they recommend using the pen is that it is much faster to strike what you want to delete rather than erase it with an eraser, it takes that extra split second to do so. Readability of essays with lots of strikeouts; now that is a different story.
The instructions say to use pen, but in practice they have accepted pencil. I used a “liquid graphite” pencil, which was a lot like erasable ink but doesn’t smear as much. I am glad I used something eraseable, although I see the argument about how crossing out stuff is faster.
CFAAtlanta Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > I did 100% pencil and passed. Atlanta, congrats on passing. I remember when we were sweating on the results of L1. Then you seemed to disappear for a bit. Glad to see you back and that you passed!
i used Crayons and passed
at least your answers would be colorful 
I used pencil and passed. I strongly recommend practice writing using a pencil as 3 hours of continuous writing can get pretty tiring, especially when you don’t have any practice!
You should buy those special pens with erasers. I don’t know how the erasers work, but they do! I’ve got one and it totally looks like the ink from a normal pen.
Erasable pen sounds like the way to go - that way you followed their instructions with no residue worry, and still can erase away and have it look neat and clear. Unless next year they specify ‘no erasable ink or pens’, that’s what I’m planning to use.
wzupdok Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > Erasable pen sounds like the way to go - that way > you followed their instructions with no residue > worry, and still can erase away and have it look > neat and clear. Unless next year they specify ‘no > erasable ink or pens’, that’s what I’m planning to > use. Good Lord of Croydon erasable pens?! why don’t you focus on reading 31 instead, it might actually help you pass