T
Trevor
Member
Hi,
I have been practicing the CP2 past papers and have these questions always bugging me:
Most of these are relating to the 2016 September paper 2 exam:
General document layout:
1. Page count
There is always a suggestion on how many pages the summary needs to be, for example, 5 to 7 pages.
Is this a strict requirement? I find this more of a grey area. we can easily shrink the font size (perhaps 10), or simply stretch the page margins all the way to the edge of the paper to make sure it is within 7 pages. Is this allowed?
I've been doing silly things like fitting two charts side by side on the same row, for the sake of staying within 7 pages.
2. Page breaks
Page break is a very neat way of organising a document, by not mixing multiple sections of a document within one page.
However doing this wastes a lot of blank spaces, and could easily exceed 7 pages. I've been shrinking charts to fit the blank space at the bottom half of the page, but leaving the commentaries on the next page. This isn't a neat way to write a document, but I am doing it to fit within the page limit.
Is this really necessary? I might exceed the page limit, but in return for a very neat summary document.
3. MS Word features
Will we be assessed on how well we utilize the built-in features in MS Word? For example making use of the numbering/bullets.
At times I will do things manually such as using soft breaks to organise the spacing at specific parts of the document. There may be MS Word features available for this which I am not aware of, but will I be penalized for not using it?
4. English spellings
I have no issue writing up a document in English, but the grey area is the mix between American and British English. A few common examples are Color/Colour or Organize/Organise.
I assume it is British English is preferred. However my document is always in US spell check, it doesn't look good with all the false positive spelling errors flagged (flagging British spelling as a mistake). I am aware that we can change the settings, however it gets reverted to the US spelling every time.
Is it actually acceptable if there are some spelling slips or inconsistency mixing the American and British spelling?
5. Mathematical formulae
Occasionally in the summary, we will use some mathematical formula to simplify words.
Do we need to use the "Equation" feature in MS Word to produce this nicely, or it is sufficient to type them in pure text?
eg: write FV_(t-1) instead of FVt-1
It takes me some time to properly format the formulae.
For exam scoring, I have a few questions:
1. Under the "Objective" section of the summary or Audit trail, are we required to set a background on what is going on?
Some Examiner reports set the background before mentioning the purpose of the model. I learnt from that, however the recent papers I attempted didn't set it.
For example in the September 2016 paper 2, I wrote a few sentence saying what the company is planning to do, what are the concerns, before finally mentioning the purpose of the model.
2. Data or Non-Data checks
For paper 1 modelling, I understand it is extremely crucial, and marks are awarded for data and non-data (eyeball) checks.
However for paper 2 summary, is this actually required?
I actually spent time thinking very hard what are the possible checks I can show, and then explained it in the summary. However it turns out that no mark is awarded, neither the specimen solution mentioned any checks. Except saying "The result is expected because...."
It is obviously better to stay on the safe side to write down everything, but it is not easily done under time pressure.
3. Order of sections.
I understand the general rule is there should be a reasonable order of the document, such that it follows smoothly without jumping here and there.
However this brings me to a debate if there are any flexibility.
Taking the September 2016 Paper 2 as an example, we were asked to explain how we:
However though, the specimen solution clumps all the methodology together, and then all the results in another section.
I find it though as a reader, my approach may be more sensible. We look at the results immediately after doing it.
Is there actually a strict rule how we should lay it out?
I apologise for this really long thread, these are questions bottled for a long time.
Please give me some advice.
Thanks,
Trevor
I have been practicing the CP2 past papers and have these questions always bugging me:
Most of these are relating to the 2016 September paper 2 exam:
General document layout:
1. Page count
There is always a suggestion on how many pages the summary needs to be, for example, 5 to 7 pages.
Is this a strict requirement? I find this more of a grey area. we can easily shrink the font size (perhaps 10), or simply stretch the page margins all the way to the edge of the paper to make sure it is within 7 pages. Is this allowed?
I've been doing silly things like fitting two charts side by side on the same row, for the sake of staying within 7 pages.
2. Page breaks
Page break is a very neat way of organising a document, by not mixing multiple sections of a document within one page.
However doing this wastes a lot of blank spaces, and could easily exceed 7 pages. I've been shrinking charts to fit the blank space at the bottom half of the page, but leaving the commentaries on the next page. This isn't a neat way to write a document, but I am doing it to fit within the page limit.
Is this really necessary? I might exceed the page limit, but in return for a very neat summary document.
3. MS Word features
Will we be assessed on how well we utilize the built-in features in MS Word? For example making use of the numbering/bullets.
At times I will do things manually such as using soft breaks to organise the spacing at specific parts of the document. There may be MS Word features available for this which I am not aware of, but will I be penalized for not using it?
4. English spellings
I have no issue writing up a document in English, but the grey area is the mix between American and British English. A few common examples are Color/Colour or Organize/Organise.
I assume it is British English is preferred. However my document is always in US spell check, it doesn't look good with all the false positive spelling errors flagged (flagging British spelling as a mistake). I am aware that we can change the settings, however it gets reverted to the US spelling every time.
Is it actually acceptable if there are some spelling slips or inconsistency mixing the American and British spelling?
5. Mathematical formulae
Occasionally in the summary, we will use some mathematical formula to simplify words.
Do we need to use the "Equation" feature in MS Word to produce this nicely, or it is sufficient to type them in pure text?
eg: write FV_(t-1) instead of FVt-1
It takes me some time to properly format the formulae.
For exam scoring, I have a few questions:
1. Under the "Objective" section of the summary or Audit trail, are we required to set a background on what is going on?
Some Examiner reports set the background before mentioning the purpose of the model. I learnt from that, however the recent papers I attempted didn't set it.
For example in the September 2016 paper 2, I wrote a few sentence saying what the company is planning to do, what are the concerns, before finally mentioning the purpose of the model.
2. Data or Non-Data checks
For paper 1 modelling, I understand it is extremely crucial, and marks are awarded for data and non-data (eyeball) checks.
However for paper 2 summary, is this actually required?
I actually spent time thinking very hard what are the possible checks I can show, and then explained it in the summary. However it turns out that no mark is awarded, neither the specimen solution mentioned any checks. Except saying "The result is expected because...."
It is obviously better to stay on the safe side to write down everything, but it is not easily done under time pressure.
3. Order of sections.
I understand the general rule is there should be a reasonable order of the document, such that it follows smoothly without jumping here and there.
However this brings me to a debate if there are any flexibility.
Taking the September 2016 Paper 2 as an example, we were asked to explain how we:
- Calculate the mortgage payments, and create a chart for it
- Calculate the split between interest and capital repayment, show it in a chart
- Produce a loan schedule, and then show the progression in a chart
However though, the specimen solution clumps all the methodology together, and then all the results in another section.
I find it though as a reader, my approach may be more sensible. We look at the results immediately after doing it.
Is there actually a strict rule how we should lay it out?
I apologise for this really long thread, these are questions bottled for a long time.
Please give me some advice.
Thanks,
Trevor