Written answer question

CFA Level III
#1

Can someone please confirm the answer that is being sought for this type of question:

“Identitify the bias being shown by the investor” My answer: Endowment CFAI answer: Endowment

“Justify the bias with one example from the information provided” My answer: Ashland demonstrates endowment bias by considering his shares in his father’s company “a source of family pride and worth every cent” and refusing to consider selling or diversifying.

CFAI answer: Endowment is a bias in which people value an asset more when they hold rights to it than when they do not. Ashland demonstrates endowment bias by considering his shares in his father’s company “a source of family pride and worth every cent” and refusing to consider selling or diversifying.

Basically I’m wondering if they’re really looking for that endowment definition at the front of the answer.

The answers in the CFAI answer key are all “textbook perfect” answers and include information that wasn’t specifically asked for and therefore they’re not realistic, right? Is there a resource somewhere that shows example answers which are realistic in order to score 100%?

There was another question on this same exam that asked for a target duration to keep a bond portfolio at the same sensitivity to UK rate changes and I solved it in a 2 line algebra equation with no further statement, just a circled answer, but the answer key had a half page write-up that did the exact same thing in several steps.

#2

The guideline answers provide way more than is required to answer a question and get full marks. The answers are written that way to also provide further learning and context for the answer. Ultimately though, none of us know how the graders are instructed to award points. The most important thing is that you answer the question that is asked, and do it as concisely as possible.

#3

Understood, it just seems odd that there would be no direct guidance on the proper way to answer these questions or any examples of realistic answers.

Schweser’s answer keys gave me a good idea, and I suspect they might create those answer keys and marking schemes with guidance from actual/past CFAI markers but who knows.

#4

You don’t need to define the term.