Hi all! Just wanted some advice, is it possible to pass the CT1 exam without doing chapters 14 and 15? I've just not got enough time to cover the remaining material. Is this a bad move? kind Regards, Dublin
Are you going to be short of time? When is the exam? I believe it's still at least 3 weeks away. I would encourage you to skim over the material and see if there are any easy marks you can pick up from having read the chapter.
Thank you for your reply. yes the exams are just under 3 weeks away! I started going through the CT1 material 5 weeks ago, and today I just finished chapter 13. So far i've understood around 80% of the material, but i've just looked over some exams questions and realised that i'm not up to speed with all the questions. Further more, i'm getting confused with concepts that I thought i had understood previously. My two options are: 1) Cover chapter 14 and 15 which will take me atleast 6 days to cover or; 2) Forget the last two chapters and get a good extra 6days of exam practice, which i really need!! Can some tell me from your experience how long it would take on average to cover the last two chapters? Kind Regards, Dublin
Do the last 2 chapters! You are mad not to , there is a bit in it but not that much . Look at it this way 2 big questions come up on the last part of course and your up the creek . so chapter 14 term structure of interest rates there is few easy marks to be had on some papers by just knowing the definition of forward rates and being able to calculate em , but they are very straight forward they are just a new interest rate (time dependent), and they have a continuous version as well and this is just like a new delta rate . Don't get me wrong there can be some hard questions involving the forward rates but the easy ones are easy.Onward , Par yields nice definition for ya to memorize and an important concept so learn it , comes up all the time. Now the bit I forgot was in this chapter : Effective duration , Duration (Discounted Mean Term DMT ) , Convexity these 3 formulas are needed for Redington's Conditions which I bet is coming up this time cause its to do with protecting yourself from small !!! interest rate changes . Check out the papers see if ya can find any questions on this ! Chapter 15 , way easier than 14, first of all its only like 2 pages long ha , two main questions one of which I think is very cruel on the folk coming to ct1 without alot of stats under their belts . its method of moments estimate for a log normal distribution if you've done ct3 or ct6 this should be cake . The other part of the chapter involves a model for future interest rates and there seems to be two types asked one really easy and the other a bit harder. The model comprises of a list of possible interest rates with probabilities of occurring p1,p2,...,pn and we want mean and variance over the next n years. Anyways if pushed you could get enough learned in 6 hours of studying these 2 chapters to pick up some easy marks in the exam. I will scan in some better explanations of the easy bits if you like . Also do you live in Dublin as your name suggests cause I do , I reckon I could cover aload of this in a 2 hour grind .
Definitely learn the bit on convexity, reddington's formula example - this comes up so often in past papers!!
finished Chapter 14! Hi,Hi, Just though I’d let you know I’ve just finished chapter 14 and got my head around the "redingtons condition"!! There's a few bits on "par yields" that I’m not that clear on but i suppose i just have to memorise the equation and apply it. I need to start getting some exam practice in!! I'm gonna try to give chapter 15 a bash tomorrow, see how I get on. Thanks for the advice Hamilton and MissAussie! Hamilton you seem to know your stuff on the ct1 material inside out!!. How long has it been since your finished the last chapter on CT1? Kind Regards, Dublin
emm I started studying ct1 a year ago I think, so Ive been at it awhile and I still don't know it inside out .I get questions wrong all the time. I probably covered the whole course in like 2 weeks quickly then straight to papers to see what questions were most common . Then do it all over again ,paying particular attention to those questions I spotted on the papers, rinse and repeat and eventually you can do most questions on the paper . I'm studying for other exams tho so I couldn't put a figure on how long I've really been at ct1 . Alot longer than the recommended 150 hours ? anyways. Took me an age to get my head round nominal vs convertible interest rates and i , v , d , delta . Then annuities , flat rates forgot that loads of times . Par yields I suppose are easy in comparison to the earlier stuff most of the concepts of the course are at the start and its just another application.
