MyCIMA

Presentation of Report

Posted: Wednesday 19 October 2011 by LaziD
Replies : 7
Keywords: T4

Hi there

 I am doing the T4 written exam in November and writing for 3 hours is painful. I usually write in upper case. Is this a problem and will I be penalised for this. I can write the entire report in upper case and probably will do because this way I write the fatstest and the neatest.

 Does the examiner penalise you for grammar errors and punctuations and so on because it is not apart of the matrix although effective communication skills are?

I am practicing now and so if I have to change my style of writing, best to do so now.

IT'S A LITTLE UNUSUAL

Posted by Adrian Rutter on Thursday 20 October 2011 09:57

As someone whose handwriting leaves graphologists advising that my ideal career is a GP working for MI5, I'll leave CIMA's examiners to answer your specific question.

But may I suggest that writing completely in upper-case is a little unusual, not least because the conventional style is actually easier to read. (British Railways did a study many years ago, and consequently changed station names from the previous capitals to sentence-case because our brains recognise and differentiate lower case more easily than upper.) 'Unusual' is sometimes good, sometimes not good.

Would you write a job application or its covering letter totally in upper case?

 

 

It's a little unique technique

Posted by LaziD on Thursday 20 October 2011 10:11

No I probably wouldn't write a job application in full upper case because the intention is to make an impression. In this case however I am fighting against time and so I guess if I won't loose any marks then it wouldn't matter. I didn't finish my May paper and by the time I got to my recommendations, I can promise that full upper case would have probably been easier to read.

 It's nice that you point out how this impacts the brain though because I wouldn't wan't the person marking my paper to struggle to recognise anything on it. I may just get an immediate fail.

THANKS FOR THE TIP! :-) 

 

Upper case

Posted by Jamie on Thursday 20 October 2011 10:12

David Harris - in his book about how to pass Cima exams first time - advocates writing in upper case if your handwriting is poor.  He's the previous E3/P6 examiner, so I guess it's alright.  He says something like "if I can't read it I can't mark it" so the most important thing is that it is legible.

carefull

Posted by Michael Archibald on Thursday 20 October 2011 10:40

If David Harris advocates writing in upper case then i guess it is an option.

Also the odd spelling, grammar or punctuation error should not be a problem.

Just be carefull though, if your script is marginal then the examiner will take a hollistic look at the professionalism of your report. If it is all in upper case with lots of spelling/grammer/punctuation mistakes then i would assume he wouldnt be too impressed. There is an argument that it would not be classes as a professional report and he would doubt your competence at this level. Marginal script marking is all about impression and you dont want your marker to be swayed unneccesarily.

I can sympathise because my handwriting is very very bad (combining upper and lower case inappropriately, poor grammar and spelling) so much so that when i do pc exams my average mark goes up 15%. Thats why i decided to do this one on pc.

I wouldnt try and change now if i were you, your style has gotten you this far and your time would be much better spent researching and practicing mock exam and past papers. Just be carefull an try and limit the errors.

 

CAPITAL CITY

Posted by Rebecca McCaffry on Thursday 20 October 2011 18:20

Hi all

Michael has hit the nail on the head here. While there isn't a problem in principle with you writing in capital letters, you'll need to be extra careful about grammar and punctuation because the marker will find your script more difficult to read. Presentation is very important.

Just an idea, LaziD, but you might want to try out different types of pen before the exam, as some are more messy-looking than others. I personally favour a very fine fibre tip or gel pen.

If there are any other scribblers reading this, please do consider the PC option!

Best wishes

Rebecca
CIMAsphere moderator (and defender of markers' eyesight)

  • Reported

Pen types a really good idea

Posted by Adrian Rutter on Friday 21 October 2011 09:33

Thanks to those who've explained some people are more comfortable writing in upper case - I hadn't realised that, and it's useful to know.

Rebecca's made a really good point. I use a broad-nib fountain-pen for anything like Board reports and the annual accounts that deserve sign-off with a flourish, but I'm genuinely convinced Pilot HiTecpoint V7 Fine pens ought to be up there alongside my name on my membership certificate.

It's perhaps worth bearing in mind that back in pre-history our brains developed the technique of "jumping ahead" by discerning patterns and predicting what'll come next - useful to avoid becoming lunch while you work out if you're looking at a pretty shadow from a branch, or a tiger-stripe. And relevant to Michael's point about the holistic picture an exam answer-book presents as well as to general legibility; people don't read each letter, add up to a word and then retrieve the meaning from our memory, we leap ahead from the shapes we see and make up whole words from just a few key 'pointers'.

Slightly off-topic, but in the day-job we're experimenting with fonts in our reporting, looking for something that's authoritative without being overbearing.  Our current favourite is Gill Sans, standing out a little from Arial and not upsetting the brand-police while helping to set the background we want in our readers' minds.

LaziD, I hopewe've helped you be comfortable that first you're not alone and second the exams are fair to both candidates' wrists and markers' eyesight! 

 

PC versus written

Posted by LaziD on Monday 24 October 2011 07:54

Thank you all for your guidance on this. CIMASphere definitely is an advantage for students and I will urge all students to make use of it. I cannot believe the amount of useful information that I now have from a single question about uppercase and all very useful.

I also prefer the fine point and I think that my strength will be presenting a legible script and ensuring that I finish the paper. I understand that presentation is important in this exam and I guess that the only way around it is practice. This so that I am not left scrambling for marks at the end of it.

I wouldn't mind taking the exam on PC and I believe this exam works best on PC, especially for people like myself that spend 8 hours a day typing. Unfortunately though there are not enough centres for this exam and it would cost more that the exam fee to fly to a centre. I am sure that with time though this will all be resolved.