• We are pleased to announce that the winner of our Feedback Prize Draw for the Winter 2024-25 session and winning £150 of gift vouchers is Zhao Liang Tay. Congratulations to Zhao Liang. If you fancy winning £150 worth of gift vouchers (from a major UK store) for the Summer 2025 exam sitting for just a few minutes of your time throughout the session, please see our website at https://www.acted.co.uk/further-info.html?pat=feedback#feedback-prize for more information on how you can make sure your name is included in the draw at the end of the session.
  • Please be advised that the SP1, SP5 and SP7 X1 deadline is the 14th July and not the 17th June as first stated. Please accept out apologies for any confusion caused.

CM1A - Goal Seek for GRY

U

User_111995

Keen member
Hi,

I was just wondering if we are allowed to use the excel function goal seek to calculate the gross redemption yield for paper A?
I've looked on the FAQs and it states that we are allowed to use excel to aid with calculations but we must then show our calculations. Would it be the case that we would still need to do trial and error and interpolation and use goal seek to check? Or would we be allowed to state in the word document we have used goal seek to determine the solution?

Thanks
 
Yes - I think you can use Goalseek in Paper A to calculate a yield. It's no different to using Table Mode on a Casio calculator and that has always been allowed.

Yes - you must show working. What you cannot do is just do the whole calculation in Excel and then type into your word document 'Yield - 7.54%' with no justification.

So (just as if you were using Table Mode), my advice is to make the equation you are evaluating very clear in your script. Then show calculated values either side of the true value, ie 'At 7%, Price = XXX and at 8%, Price = YYY'. You can obtain these values from your spreadsheet. Then say 'Yield = 7.54%'. I can't see a problem with saying you used Goalseek, as it's equivalent to saying 'by interpolation' but not showing any working (which I think was fine in the past).
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top