LOS keywords: How important

For L1 & L2, I just read CFAI books. Took notes from that. Did few mocks. Never bothered till what depth LOS to be mastered. I just read entire book. Example, I was not confident of recalling Black-Scholes equation. So I thought, if I know the derivation for BSM, then I dont need to memorize. And I actually put some effort in deriving the BSM equation. Later when I learnt that LOS just requires you to know the assumptions of BSM model and no need to use the formula, I felt plain stupid. Till L2, apart from learning more than required, no harm was done for not knowing exactly where to stop. Questions were simply asked and answer choices were given. With L3 situation changes. What about essay questions in L3? How important is the LOS keywords such as"describe, list out, explain, distinguish, demonstrate, recommend, interpret, evaluate, prepare, analyse, contrast, compare"? Does knowing the keywords in LOS helped you in keeping your answers short & crispy for essay Qs? PS: I’m sure somebody must’ve asked this, but search function in this forum is ineffective.

Search for “command” words vs. key words. I know they are important but I never paid attention to them in any of the levels. I just made sure I could do the problems!

At L3 I thought they were important. I would make sure and pay attention. It will not hurt you that is for sure.

arunprasath Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > How important is the LOS keywords > such as"describe, list out, explain, distinguish, > demonstrate, recommend, interpret, evaluate, > prepare, analyse, contrast, compare"? The command words give you direction on which portions of the readings your actually need to know in order to prepare for exam, and which portions are just background information. One of the reasons that candidates used third party notes (Stalla, Schweser, etc) is that these companies are supposed to do this analysis for you… ie. comparing the command words to the reading, and then picking out the parts that are important.

ATH Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > Search for “command” words vs. key words. This worked. Thanks!!

CFA Jay Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > It will not hurt you that is for sure. Right. After digging previous discussions on the subject, I get the same feeling. However, it seems they sometime go beyond the command words. See below http://www.analystforum.com/phorums/read.php?13,1139140,1139528#msg-1139528

With the first two levels, I never was that focused on the LOS, either – I just focused on understanding the reading assignments, the illustrations within the readings, and especially, the EOC questions. One of the reasons for not focusing on LOS’s was my inability to truly understand the command words. I mean, what is the difference between: explain, discuss, critique, analyze and illustrate? Similarly, how do words such as: contrast, differentiate, compare differ?