CP3 - April 2018 paper

tbf the chart is not time consuming, you have the material before the exam and so you should be able to produce a graph within 2/3 minutes, I reckon that you could have 80% of the question they asked answered with any sort of pre exam work.

have you maybe tried to figure out why you lose the other 40 marks than be worrying about losing 5 for the visual aid. Perhaps applying for counselling and seeing what they said would be better.

 

Thanks Ace123, I have done counselling for CA3 and did not find it very useful. Thanks for your advice.

I think SAR is going to reveal where I've lost the marks.

I have studied the marking scheme more closely so next time, I'll make sure to include at least one visual aid for CP3.

 

The marking scheme is a better guide....

 

Thank's, I've done all CTs, STs and SAs...I'm just having a hell of a time with CP3.

 

Question 1 states: "draft a paper to the investment committee of 600 to 750 words".

 

That's not relevant, nor does losing marks in other categories somehow justify a candidate missing out on 5 crucial marks in the chart category they didn't know existed.

 

You really need to stop nit picking everything, it's in the syllabus that visual aids should be used. It's in the marking scheme.
If you did past papers, you would see the same language used

 

so should we avoid using any punctuation too?
Personally I think they should drop the word count - doesn't happen much in the real world.

 

I think the entire exam should be dropped. People are denied Fellowship for ridiculous reasons like not supplying IFoA a chart they didn't ask for. Or using a term they deem to be 'jargon' that non-actuaries understand perfectly well etc.

 

There is only one past paper for CP3, Sept 2017. Look at Q2 for that:

That's a huge hint to include some in Q1. For this April 2018 paper there was nothing like that. No wonder candidates were caught out.

 

What's really confusing is that we are asked to draft "a paper" which in my mind is a report like document. I would call it a paper or a report in my communication.
The examiners have produced a formal letter and in the introduction it states "This memo will provide.....".
I would have never thought that I could get away with producing a formal letter and on top of that call it a memo.....

 

Hello all,

Just telling my tale of CP3 April 2018.

Having scored just 52, I failed CP3 by eight marks.

I got an SAR for a breakdown of my marks to help me understand why I failed.
Spotting my failures, I hope it will help me pass next time.

I mainly failed because I got:

• 0.25/4 for my description of Cryptocurrencies
• 4/18 for the advantages of Cryptocurrencies
• 1/5 for meeting objectives
• 4.5/10 for Jargon

One of the things that has really irked me is the use of jargon.

• Nothing I wrote was on the list - yet I got 4.5 out of 10 on that section
• I can't see how any of my numbers were superfluous (and so dropped a mark)

The other thing is the description of Cryptocurrencies. For 4 marks you need to say

• Digital currencies [1]
• International medium of exchange [1]
• For example X-Coin [1]
• Comment about the size of the market, backed up with a figure to put this into context [1]

Whilst my description of Cryptocurrencies (almost) completely missed these points - I fail to see how my description was an invalid one.

Losing 3 marks for including "irrelevant points of content that act to distract or confuse the audience" is also a killer. Such subjectivity here without the justification is frustrating to say the least.

I also lost half a mark because one marker deemed me to have made one spelling/grammar error "significant enough to compromise the professionalism of the document...".

The summary was worth 4 marks. Whilst I gave an advantage, a disadvantage, gave an example of the uncertainty and offered help, I didn't say "There are advantages and disadvantages" [1]. I didn't say "there are unanswered questions" [1]. I lost two marks.

But this is all nit-picking really. I failed because I didn't answer the question asked. I thought I read it well enough, I didn't.
"More specifically I’d like you to discuss how Cryptocurrencies might help IPS achieve the aims of the scheme, and any risks or difficulties in implementation.
I didn't have a (significant/good enough) section on how Cryptocurrencies may help the aims of the scheme.

Shame on me.

Thanks for reading my rant

 

I agree that the examiner report is quite confusing in this aspect. I prepared a paper/report type of document and scored well above the passing mark. So I think they would not have penalised for it, I think they would have given full credit for 'paper' format.

 

I can't remember learning about cryptocurrencies in the exams - was there much advanced material about this? I think Pete C is hard done by.

 

you don't learn about it that's the whole point, it's based on the material you get and you only use that material.

 

So cryptocurrencies are not in the syllabus for any of the other exams?

 

It's irrelevant if it is or isn't. The exam is based on all the material that you get - you don't use any other information about the topic. It's very clear on that.

 

Your response does not answer my question, ace. Also for CA3, those doing it on uni courses could choose their own topic and practice it for weeks. I wonder if that has changed now we have CP3?

 

But it's irrelevant if it's in any other subject or not, to be fair to all students that exam is based on the material you get.

 

I didn't ask for comments on the relevancy of my question, I asked a question.

 

Pretty sure the answer is no.

But others perfectly entitled to make comments if they want to l.