UPDATE: FAQs on copying and pasting from Excel

L

Lucy England

Member
It looks like the IFoA has now removed the following wording from the FAQs section about using Excel:

Calculations that are copied and pasted from Excel (or any other application) into your Word answer script will receive zero marks.

This section now reads:

Most of the examination subjects require the answers to be provided in Microsoft Word. The exceptions to this are CP2, CM1 Paper B and CM2 Paper B which require the use of excel. When sitting other subjects, you may wish to use Excel to aid with calculations. It should be noted however that any calculations have to be typed in full into your Word answer script to ensure you receive the appropriate marks.

For the CS and CM exam papers, the level of detail that is required for your workings in calculation questions is similar to the model solutions in previous sittings. If you miss out any of the calculation steps then full marks may not be awarded.

It looks like the ban on copying and pasting from Excel has been removed and they're just saying that you need to make sure you're showing workings. So make sure you make it clear in your Word document how you've worked things out, but it now sounds like it's OK to copy and paste results from Excel into Word.
 
Thanks Lucy, Would not have picked up on this tweak to the wording if you hadn't pointed it out (I am sitting CM2)
Getting a bit exhausted from all the chopping and changing to be honest.

Laura
 
Thanks Lucy!
So does this mean, we can copy something from say OneNote/other Word doc to the Word document in which we are writing the paper?
 
Nandan said:
Thanks Lucy!
So does this mean, we can copy something from say OneNote/other Word doc to the Word document in which we are writing the paper?
Click to expand...

Be careful about this. Copying and pasting from any reference material you're using, including your own notes and pre-prepared calculations/notation is strictly banned (it falls under the plagiarism rules). Do make sure you've read the full FAQs and Assessment Regs before the exam!
 
Lucy England said:
Be careful about this. Copying and pasting from any reference material you're using, including your own notes and pre-prepared calculations/notation is strictly banned (it falls under the plagiarism rules). Do make sure you've read the full FAQs and Assessment Regs before the exam!
Click to expand...
Thanks! Knew this, just wanted to make sure I understood what the change was :)
 
It's great to have it clear now. Thanks for highlighting the change.
 
Does this now mean for unit-linked questions, for example, we can do the calculations in excel then copy and paste the table into word as values? Then underneath we can add a general formula used to calculate each value similar to how it's presented in the past paper solutions:

cost of allocation(t) = premium allocation(t)*(1-bid-offer spread)
Unit fund at BoY(t) =Fund at EoY(t-1)+cost of allocation
Unit fund at Eoy(t) =Unit Fund at Boy(t)*unit fund growth rate
Management charge=1.5%*unit fund EoY
 
Karnan Narendrakumar said:
Does this now mean for unit-linked questions, for example, we can do the calculations in excel then copy and paste the table into word as values? Then underneath we can add a general formula used to calculate each value similar to how it's presented in the past paper solutions:

cost of allocation(t) = premium allocation(t)*(1-bid-offer spread)
Unit fund at BoY(t) =Fund at EoY(t-1)+cost of allocation
Unit fund at Eoy(t) =Unit Fund at Boy(t)*unit fund growth rate
Management charge=1.5%*unit fund EoY
Click to expand...

Remember the FAQs also say that the level of workings required is similar to previous sittings and if you miss out steps, then you may miss out on marks. Showing working means the examiners can give method marks in the event you make an error somewhere along the line and get the final answer(s) wrong.

Now the guidance has been updated, I would imagine it's OK to paste in workings from Excel. It's up to you how much working you show alongside that and you'll need to balance this with the time pressure! If it was me, I would try to show some of the actual numbers I'm using, particularly for the more complicated calculations like expected death benefits where you might get partial marks for showing you've used the correct mortality probability, for example.

Now I don't know what they're going to test in Paper A, but I would be surprised if they gave you a long profit testing question on that paper. It seems much more suited to Paper B!
 
Hello Lucy,
Do you know where we might find a document or template showing us how to layout our answers in Word? I know we need to have our ARN, Subject and exam session in the footer but do we need to have each question answer on a different page. I can't find any further information apart from the following:

From the Handbook and Guidline booklet
"Uploaded files must include ARN, Subject and exam session e.g. 1234567_CS1A_September 2020. Each file must also contain the ARN as a header or footer. Once the file is saved in this format, the exam submission must be uploaded onto the online platform. Once the submission has been uploaded, no further amendments can be made and the uploaded script will be submitted for marking."
 
User12345 said:
Hello Lucy,
Do you know where we might find a document or template showing us how to layout our answers in Word? I know we need to have our ARN, Subject and exam session in the footer but do we need to have each question answer on a different page. I can't find any further information apart from the following:

From the Handbook and Guidline booklet
"Uploaded files must include ARN, Subject and exam session e.g. 1234567_CS1A_September 2020. Each file must also contain the ARN as a header or footer. Once the file is saved in this format, the exam submission must be uploaded onto the online platform. Once the submission has been uploaded, no further amendments can be made and the uploaded script will be submitted for marking."
Click to expand...

That should all be covered in the instructions you receive from the IFoA. They should have emailed you about exam practicalities, so worth checking that if you haven't done already. There's also an essential documents page, which includes specimen questions and answers along with the handbook you mentioned.

I'd expect there to be some short instructions on the cover page of the exam paper on itself, so keep an eye out for those too.
 
2 comments on the topics in this discussion:

1) Lucy (accurately) noted that the FAQs have been changed:
Lucy England said:
It looks like the IFoA has now removed the following wording from the FAQs section about using Excel:

Calculations that are copied and pasted from Excel (or any other application) into your Word answer script will receive zero marks.

This section now reads:

Most of the examination subjects require the answers to be provided in Microsoft Word. The exceptions to this are CP2, CM1 Paper B and CM2 Paper B which require the use of excel. When sitting other subjects, you may wish to use Excel to aid with calculations. It should be noted however that any calculations have to be typed in full into your Word answer script to ensure you receive the appropriate marks.

For the CS and CM exam papers, the level of detail that is required for your workings in calculation questions is similar to the model solutions in previous sittings. If you miss out any of the calculation steps then full marks may not be awarded.

It looks like the ban on copying and pasting from Excel has been removed and they're just saying that you need to make sure you're showing workings. So make sure you make it clear in your Word document how you've worked things out, but it now sounds like it's OK to copy and paste results from Excel into Word.
Click to expand...

However, in the Exam Joining Instructions email, it still as this line as point number 5 of the "Assessment Instructions" paragraph:
5. Candidates MUST type all their workings and answers into the Word document. Calculations pasted in from another application (e.g. Excel or R) will receive ZERO MARKS.

2) On the question of using the Formula function in Word to do the calculations, I wrote to the IFoA to double check that this is allowed, but they have never come back to me. I have anyway found that it doesn't work if you have spaces between the figures entered, and since I include quite a lot of spaces to improve readability of my script, it's then fiddly to remove them in the formula box and so I've given up on it after all. So I'm back to trying to type everything and wasting lots of time doing so :( No where near finishing a paper in the 3 1/4 hours - so frustrating.
 
Hi Lucy, do you think this means that i can build a bionomial tree or a loss table (using chain ladder method etc) in excel and then copy and paste my values across into the exam word document? Obviously i will put one or two lines of example equations as to how i arrived at the values below the table e.g. s1 (1,0) = s0*u, s2 ( 2,0) = s0 * uu.
 
Helloall said:
Hi Lucy, do you think this means that i can build a bionomial tree or a loss table (using chain ladder method etc) in excel and then copy and paste my values across into the exam word document? Obviously i will put one or two lines of example equations as to how i arrived at the values below the table e.g. s1 (1,0) = s0*u, s2 ( 2,0) = s0 * uu.
Click to expand...

Using excel to calculate these values is a good idea but I think it'd be safest to type out your answers then into word. In a paper A exam you would expect it to be maybe a 3 or 4 period tree in which case it shouldn't take too much time and effort to type them out.
 
Eleanor Cawston said:
2 comments on the topics in this discussion:

1) Lucy (accurately) noted that the FAQs have been changed:


However, in the Exam Joining Instructions email, it still as this line as point number 5 of the "Assessment Instructions" paragraph:
5. Candidates MUST type all their workings and answers into the Word document. Calculations pasted in from another application (e.g. Excel or R) will receive ZERO MARKS.

2) On the question of using the Formula function in Word to do the calculations, I wrote to the IFoA to double check that this is allowed, but they have never come back to me. I have anyway found that it doesn't work if you have spaces between the figures entered, and since I include quite a lot of spaces to improve readability of my script, it's then fiddly to remove them in the formula box and so I've given up on it after all. So I'm back to trying to type everything and wasting lots of time doing so :( No where near finishing a paper in the 3 1/4 hours - so frustrating.
Click to expand...

can anyone elighten on the no.5 instructions - if we still can copy and paste from Excel?
 
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