Seeking advice for online exam

[yuli2513]

Hi,

I am preparing for CM1 exam this year and I noticed that the symbols for annuity factors are extremely difficult to type out in word compared to the other exams (eg. for CS1, we can type out xbar easily, but this doesn't work well with annuity factors). Also I notice there has been little guidance on this from the official online exam guide.

I am wondering how this was dealt in your exam, did you choose to use the "equations" in word in the end? I am a bit confused because the exam guide also stated that using "equation" function's not necessary. However, I noticed the examiner's report from last sitting is using the "equation" function anyway.

Thanks a lot for your inputs, it would be of great help to me!

 

[Joe Hook]

Hi,

You'd probably benefit from hearing from other students' experiences but for what it's worth my thoughts are:

The examiners are not seeking to test directly your ability to write out eg annuity functions in a word format. Word is more of a means to an end in the current environment. Therefore, they are likely to be quite flexible when they look at your script. What they will be looking for is some evidence of your working so that they can understand your thought process. If (hopefully not) your answer does not match up with the examiners then by providing some working you will allow them to give you some method marks. For this purpose they are unlikely to care whether you wrote abar:<20> or "continuously payable annuity for 20 years". So, in short, i'd suggest you find an approach to provide your working which works well for you (in terms of time and effort) and that couldn't be easily misinterpreted by the examiners.

The guidance on notation in the examinations handbook works pretty well in most cases. There are a significant number of functions required in CM1 and so we wouldn't expect to see them all in the guidance. Many can be adapted fairly easy to more complex problems. Again I would not be afraid to deviate from them if there's other notation which works well for you. In most questions the numbers do the talking.

Note that any equations in the examiners report will always be written using equation editor or mathtype for their readability. We do the same at ActEd in producing our ASET product, although we do then also provide examples for each question as to how they could be typed out into Word.

Hope this helps. If you have any further questions please let us know.
All the best.

Joe

 

[Noreen]

I didn't use the equation editor. The only advice I would give is to do all your practice on a computer, and the symbols will become so second nature, after a while you will hardly ever look at the notation sheet. There is a certain pattern to it which will allow you to make logical attempts for any that are missing from the sheet once you are familiar. I can't think of a trick to save time writing the notation other than loads of practice for speed.

Where you can save time in my opinion is by using Excel as your calculator and writing your workings in your word document in an Excel-friendly format. In a traditional paper exam, writing out your calculations on paper and inputting them into your calculator would be two separate steps. You can make this one step. I typed out my numerical workings as they would look in an Excel formula on the word document and then copied and pasted to Excel for the answer in a second.

For example, for the second line of a calculation, after the notation symblols, I might type something like

=(50000^2)*0.174110*(9287.2164/9801.3123)*0.14098

and then get the answer from Excel in a second.

 

[yuli2513]

I didn't use the equation editor. The only advice I would give is to do all your practice on a computer, and the symbols will become so second nature, after a while you will hardly ever look at the notation sheet. There is a certain pattern to it which will allow you to make logical attempts for any that are missing from the sheet once you are familiar. I can't think of a trick to save time writing the notation other than loads of practice for speed.

Where you can save time in my opinion is by using Excel as your calculator and writing your workings in your word document in an Excel-friendly format. In a traditional paper exam, writing out your calculations on paper and inputting them into your calculator would be two separate steps. You can make this one step. I typed out my numerical workings as they would look in an Excel formula on the word document and then copied and pasted to Excel for the answer in a second.

For example, for the second line of a calculation, after the notation symblols, I might type something like

=(50000^2)*0.174110*(9287.2164/9801.3123)*0.14098

and then get the answer from Excel in a second.

Thanks a lot for the very detailed answer, it helps me greatly!

 

[yuli2513]

Hi,

You'd probably benefit from hearing from other students' experiences but for what it's worth my thoughts are:

The examiners are not seeking to test directly your ability to write out eg annuity functions in a word format. Word is more of a means to an end in the current environment. Therefore, they are likely to be quite flexible when they look at your script. What they will be looking for is some evidence of your working so that they can understand your thought process. If (hopefully not) your answer does not match up with the examiners then by providing some working you will allow them to give you some method marks. For this purpose they are unlikely to care whether you wrote abar:<20> or "continuously payable annuity for 20 years". So, in short, i'd suggest you find an approach to provide your working which works well for you (in terms of time and effort) and that couldn't be easily misinterpreted by the examiners.

The guidance on notation in the examinations handbook works pretty well in most cases. There are a significant number of functions required in CM1 and so we wouldn't expect to see them all in the guidance. Many can be adapted fairly easy to more complex problems. Again I would not be afraid to deviate from them if there's other notation which works well for you. In most questions the numbers do the talking.

Note that any equations in the examiners report will always be written using equation editor or mathtype for their readability. We do the same at ActEd in producing our ASET product, although we do then also provide examples for each question as to how they could be typed out into Word.

Hope this helps. If you have any further questions please let us know.
All the best.

Joe

Thank you very much Joe for always being very helpful here!