CT4 CT5 and CT6

Hi,

Im planning on studying for CT4, CT5 and CT6 for April 2007.

Can anyone give me any advice?

Cheers

 

Be afraid. Be very afraid.

No, seriously, there's quite a lot of interactions between the topics. You'll want to really get your head round the CT4 notation nice and early. 3 can be quite a lot for one sitting. It depends on your study time and experience.

 

I don't know your situation, so hard to say... Those are a hefty chunk of maths aren't they? You okay with that?

I did CT6 this time, am planning to do the other two next time. Something I was advised on CT4 and I would advise on CT6 (or indeed anything you study) is to read the study materials with a critical eye. Not that anything's necessarily wrong, but some things are explained differently from the way I'd be able to understand them, if that makes any sense at all?

 

You have to study the second half of CT4 before CT5 as they're very much related to each other. The 2 halves of CT4 are not very related though, so you could start at chapter 7, and do the first 6 chapters later on. Chapter 6 in CT4 is very tough, try not to get bogged down in the gibberish notes. CT6 requires a good working knowledge of stats. Good luck!

 

I'd say drop it, as it is the hardest combination of 3 back to back (sequentially) papers.

 

I'm taking the slower route. Study one exam at a time, and pass it, and move on to the next. I would sit at most two CT's per sitting. If you are really brave, follow the advice of Dha. Anyway, I'll hold thumbs for you.

Cheers.

 

No., I'd say CT4, CT6 and CT8 would be the 3 hardest to sit together. CT4 and CT6 both require a good knowledge of stats, so it's not a bad idea to sit them together. And CT4 and CT5 relate to a lot of the same topics. It's definitely doable with a big enough effort.

 

I'm tempted. If I could finish 2-3 chapters per week (read notes and finish Q&A, assignment), then probably I could finish one subject within 1.5 months? Assuming taking 4.5 months to finish all 3, then there's still 1.5 months to practic all the past exam questions. Does that sound achievable? Or would I go crazy?

 

While it is perfectly possible to take and pass 3 CT's at one sitting there are risks. Coming out with 2 or 3 FA's would not be good use of your time.

Also I've noticed that some of the advocates of sitting three CT's on here are also the same people who appear on the post exam threads saying they didn't understand how to do certain questions. This suggests they underprepare and probably only scrape through. This can be a problem later on. CA1 and ST's assume knowledge of the CT's. The more thoroughly you prepare the CT's the greater your retention of the material for later exams

 

Maybe that's right. It's possible that although the materials seem straightforward, the questions are actually quite hard. I haven't tackled any questions yet, so may be severely underestimating the workload...

 

*Cardano: I don't really think it matters if you scrape through, or ace the exam, so long as you pass. Very little of the CT subjects is really relevant for work anyway.
*ActStudent: For last April's sitting, I had all 3 subjects doen by the end of January, so I spent Feb & March revising. (Though the exams are a bit later this year.) Maybe that might be a good strategy?

 

DHA - I agree a scrape is as good as a clear pass, but if you aim for a scrape then the chances of a retake are obviously much higher.

More importantly, there was a very good example of why you should aim for more than a scrape in the CT's in the recent ST3. This exam was the easiest ST3 for some considerable time, but when the results come out I expect the pass rate to be the usual 30-33%, simply because the long last question required a reasonable retention of CT work. There were loads of people complaining about not being able to do it.

There are other good reasons for thorough preparation. For example if you are going to teach it, or if you are actually go in the modelling direction rather than the business administration direction.

 

Well obviously I don't aim just to scrape by, and I wouldn't advise anyone to do that. I always prepare very thoroughly. But if it's a very hard exam, or just one that didn't suit me for whatever reason, I'd happily take a bare pass.

 

I just think taking 3 CT's inevitably leads to underpreparation

 

Surely it depends how fast you study; and how much time you have to study; and what prior knowledge you have; and how much overlap there is between the courses; and how much pressure you have at work; and what colour your uncle's cat's third cousin's teapot is...

Having made a start on CT4 and CT5 now, these three are looking like a combination with plenty of overlap for one thing.