Abbreviations

[mario]

Sorry, the questions are getting more silly!

Are we allowed to use RI as an abbreviation for reinsurance, and RI'er for reinsurer?

Also, one of the examiner reports stresses that we shouldn't use our own abbreviations even if defined... Is this an annoyance of the examiners, or will you actually not score marks if you use them?

I'm finding SA3 incredibly time pressured so any advice on cutting down the amount to write is appreciated! (I know the basics of using bullet points, not needing perfectly grammatical sentences etc., but by the time I've figured out the main issues sometimes I'm left with very little time to actually write.)

 

[Coralie Clarke]

Hi,

Standard abbreviations like RI would be OK. But, as the examiners say, don't use your own abbreviations. The examiners won't have much time to spend on each script and the use of your own abbreviations may mean that your answers don't flow properly for the marker. In the worst case, this may mean that your points don't make complete sense when read quickly, and so may not score the mark. You need to show the examiner that you understand what you're saying and why, so your points do need to make sense. Or, as you say, you may annoy the marker if you do this continually, which you also don't want to do as they may feel less inclined to give you the benefit of any doubt. Either way, don't do it!

Regarding the time pressure, you need to be really strict with yourself about timings. You need to plan what you're going to write but do set aside a specific amount of time for planning and then for writing, and stick to this.
Make sure you work out which are the most important points so that you can write these down first (thereby maximising your score).
Watch out for repetition - the best way to waste time in an exam is to write the same thing down more than once! Effective planning should prevent this from happening.
Make sure that everything you're writing is still answering the question. It's easy to go off on a bit of a tangent and write loads of theoretically correct stuff but that doesn't answer the question asked. So keep checking back, throughout your planning and before you start writing. If you find that there is too much to say for the number of marks then this might well be what is happening.

Coralie

 

[mario]

Hi,

Standard abbreviations like RI would be OK. But, as the examiners say, don't use your own abbreviations. The examiners won't have much time to spend on each script and the use of your own abbreviations may mean that your answers don't flow properly for the marker. In the worst case, this may mean that your points don't make complete sense when read quickly, and so may not score the mark. You need to show the examiner that you understand what you're saying and why, so your points do need to make sense. Or, as you say, you may annoy the marker if you do this continually, which you also don't want to do as they may feel less inclined to give you the benefit of any doubt. Either way, don't do it!

Regarding the time pressure, you need to be really strict with yourself about timings. You need to plan what you're going to write but do set aside a specific amount of time for planning and then for writing, and stick to this.
Make sure you work out which are the most important points so that you can write these down first (thereby maximising your score).
Watch out for repetition - the best way to waste time in an exam is to write the same thing down more than once! Effective planning should prevent this from happening.
Make sure that everything you're writing is still answering the question. It's easy to go off on a bit of a tangent and write loads of theoretically correct stuff but that doesn't answer the question asked. So keep checking back, throughout your planning and before you start writing. If you find that there is too much to say for the number of marks then this might well be what is happening.

Coralie

Thanks for all your help this week. You'd think after all the other exams I'd understand exam technique but for some reason in practice I'm never fully comfortable. Oh well, a few more days to try to improve!

Thanks again.