How do you folks plan to complete the answer key when taking the exam? Will you complete the key as you go, in intervals, or at the end? How will you track which questions you skipped, or are unsure of your answers? How do you track your progress against the clock – do you plan to keep a separate tally of the questions completed?
answer as you go… please do not go any other way. if you have a doubt or guessed … mark an asterisk or something on the Question paper on the left of the question - to say you have to review. Do not try to keep the marking to the end of time… or the last 15 mins - leads to mistakes, overshooting time, and losing the exam completely + being barred for violating cfai rules for 3 years or more… also be sure to drop the pencil the minute they call time, however big the urge to do some marking for the last couple of ticks or so. As regards skipping questions - please do not. guess, mark the question as a doubtful one, move on. People have been known to miss a whole series of questions because of the 1 question they left – like leave q20 e.g. mark the answer for 21 on 20’s spot and so on, till they discover it… and by then it might be too late. Time is available a plenty – do not get overly bogged down on a few questions. Also they keep announcing time every so often on big pads in the exam hall… so keep track of that and where you should have been at that point in time. e.g. 120 question = 3 hours. So 1/2 hour should have left me at q20 or there abouts.
So, you just go in numerical order? You don’t start with the sections that are your strengths? And do you recommend circling your answer in the exam booklet, or bypassing that step?
circle the answer in the qbook if you want to, but also mark the corresponding spot in your scantron at the same time. if you are not going in numerical order but starting out with a strong section – make sure the q number you are answering matches the q number you are marking on the scantron… and pay special heed to that.
anyone has an idea about these 2 concerns: 1. If we fill the circle and some small spots are left in the circle - is it consider invalid 2. What if the shading goes out of circle? any idea if the scanning software would consider these errors
Scantrons go back to the 1960s. I’m pretty sure they’ve worked these bugs out.