Hi I will be sitting CT7 and CT8 in September and if I pass these two then I will have completed my CT's. Therefore I considering to sit CA1 in April 09, the only problem is that my company will not support for some reason. I have been told in my office to sit ST4 as I work in the pension industry. Can anyone lend some advice should I sit ST4 first which is cheaper and less studying compared CA1. Thanks
I'm not sure why your company will not support you in taking CA1 first. CA1 was created to be a bridge between the CTs and the STs and it covers a lot of ground that will be extremely useful to your ST studies. CA1 will also help you to gain the breadth required to answer ST questions that you might not gain from work experience alone. I took my first ST before I studied CA1. I didn't want to sit CA1 over a shorter, summer session so swapped my studies around to accomodate this. I failed my ST with an FA. Once I had taken (and passed) CA1 in the winter session, I was in a much better position for the STs and passed both in the following sitting. I think it is certainly possible to pass an ST before you take CA1 but I wouldn't recommend it.
I think the best thing is to discuss it with your employer to find out their reasons. It's debateable whether you should do CA1 before an ST or vice versa. CA1 was intended to be done before ST (and indeed some ST's assume knowledge of CA1) On the other side, having a bit of pensions and insurance experience may assist with CA1. CA1 is quite a large course, and I wouldn't recommend attempting it in a September session because of the time required. There are also changes to be made to CA1, which could be the reason your employer wants to postpone it.
