This is good advice, thanks! I think when you are pressed for time, it is a tad bit more time consuming to think up ways to write out the notation. On pen and paper there is flow to the work.
Hi Lucy, I'm sitting CM1 this April and I have a question. Are we allowed to copy and paste lines of working we've done in the Word document for a particular question, ie going from one step to another and updating the previous line, or in a question where you do something similar twice can you copy your working from an earlier part and tweak it to that part? I've done this in all past papers I've done so far and I find it much quicker, I'm not sure if it counts as 'copying and pasting content from any source' even though it's working that I'll have just written in my paper! Apologies if it's a bit of a silly question but the last thing I want is to get caught up in any disciplinary process! Thank you
Hi Lauren, As far as I'm aware it's perfectly fine to copy and paste previous lines of your own workings that you've created earlier on in the same exam. In fact, I've been recommending this as a time saving tip! What's not OK is to copy and paste from your reference materials or to use any templates / pre-prepared calculations you created before the exam. As a general heads up (you may already be aware of this!) the IFoA has updated its exam guidance for the April 2021 sitting. There's an examinations handbook available now, which is designed to have lots of the guidance you'll need in once place (so replaces the FAQs from the September 2020 sitting). There's a link to the handbook here: https://www.actuaries.org.uk/studying/my-exams/ifoa-exams It's also worth subscribing to the Student Newsletter if you haven't done so already. You can do this by logging into your IFoA account and going to the 'Contact preferences' section. Hope that helps Lucy
This might be late notice, but there are several shortcuts that have been a game-changer for me in typing out legible-looking notation: "Ctrl" + "=" sub script "Ctrl" + "+" super script "Alt" + N + U gets up insert symbol (if last thing symbol you entered was รค then pressing return immediately after will do so again, useful as I think that's most common. You can also use arrow keys to select recent ones). Obviously this is for word, Windows users. Maybe everyone knows already, but sharing just in case.
