For the VEE corporate finance exam:

I am wondering, if a question is worded that a stock's price volatility is 25%, is that referring to the standard deviation (sigma) or to the variance (sigma squared).

(See solution to Excercise 23.1 of Black Scholes pricing which indicates that we are referring to sigma squared. However I find it hard to believe that the exam would use this ambigious wording, as elsewhere sigma squared is referred to as the variance of the stock price.)

[NEAS: The variance rate is the variance divided by time. Volatility is the standard deviation divided by the square root of time.]