I thought for sure that writing the essay part of the exam with a pencil was the way to go since (1) it’s allowed by CFAI and (2) I can erase. However, writing with a pencil requires more stamina than writing with a pen and you cannot write as fast after a while… even with a fancy mechanical pencil. Towards the end of the 3 hours my hand was completely frozen and I had trouble moving/writing. Ball point pens are lubricated & slippery so they require less effort. You can write faster and you don’t get tired. Consider that when choosing your writing utensil. Good luck.
Just bring pencil lube.
virginCFAhooker Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > I thought for sure that writing the essay part of > the exam with a pencil was the way to go since (1) > it’s allowed by CFAI and (2) I can erase. > However, writing with a pencil requires more > stamina than writing with a pen and you cannot > write as fast after a while… even with a fancy > mechanical pencil. Towards the end of the 3 hours > my hand was completely frozen and I had trouble > moving/writing. Ball point pens are lubricated & > slippery so they require less effort. You can > write faster and you don’t get tired. Consider > that when choosing your writing utensil. Good > luck. is it okay if we write some parts with pencil and some parts with pen on the AM? the reason I ask is I am comfortable using a pen but I’d probably overlook something in a question and would want to erase (pencil would be neater)
maybe the young ones don’t need lube