Binomial Trees and Run-off Triangles in Paper A

Hi, reading the latest guidance from the Institute, they have stated below:

Can I use Excel to help construct my answers?
Most of the examination subjects require the answers to be provided in Microsoft Word. The exceptions to this are CP2, CM1 Paper B and CM2 Paper B which require the use of Excel. When sitting other subjects, you may wish to use Excel to aid with calculations. It should be noted however that any calculations have to be typed in full into your Word answer script to ensure you receive full marks.  Calculations that are copied and pasted from Excel (or any other application) into your Word answer script will receive zero marks.

For the CS and CM exam papers, the level of detail that is required for your workings in calculation questions is similar to the model solutions in previous sittings. If you miss out any of the calculation steps then full marks may not be awarded.

I'm wondering if it's still OK to do the Run-off triangles or Binomial Trees in Excel, then paste it into Word (typing the calculations for one of the steps in Word as I would do in a paper exam)? Or do they mean absolutely no copy paste from Excel, and I have to create the actual tables from Word? How would people do Binomial Trees or Run-off Triangles in Paper A basically?

Thanks,
Emily

 

Hi Emily

I wondered the same thing, having practiced these in excel only also..
I think I was now planning on pasting in as a table (the second from the left when you right click in word) so it then looks like a word table and not a picture and just making i sure i explain how I have calculated these figures in terms of the algebra / formulas. Maybe with a few examples.

I had just been planning on pasting in the work as pictures from excel with the end answer written in word until I read the new FAQ.

Laura

 

Thanks for the reply Joe. On the safe side, i will retype things out (hopefully i dont run out of time)...

One thing i was wondering is whether it is okay to copy and paste within the word document itself. Quite often there are maybe two black scholes questions which might require the three formula (call, d1 and d2) in cm2. I can see in the exam faqs that you should not copy and paste from "any source" but what about within the word document itself, this isnt a source is it ( from the context of the assessment regulations i deem the word "source" to mean online notes etc). What i am interested in knowing is if i have typed out the formula once in question 2 can i just copy and paste it for question 8? Really unsure about the rules around this exam and the specifics... Think there is a lot of room for misinterpretation of these rules...