You often hear that 60% will typically secure a pass, but I'm sure the typical pass mark is more like 50%.
The pass marks are something the institute seem to keep to themselves, but having taken 9 CT exams to date (and passed 6) with 8 of them probably being borderline, my guess is that the pass mark typically lies in the 45%-55% area, maybe a bit lower for CT3 where everyone seems to pass.
I also think its best to cover everything and spread yourself thinly than concentrate just on a few favoured topics. Even if i'm de-prioritising a chapter or two, I try to at least have a superficial understanding of it, so I can pick up the straightfwd book-work type marks for regurgitating lists etc from the core reading.
As the comment below suggests - you're really competing against your peers rather than trying to acheive a given pass mark, so avoiding dropping easy marks is top priority, (because everyone else will get those), whereas struggling on the difficult ones isn't such a problem (as most people will struggle with those), as long as you pick up some difficult marks through the paper of course.
Last edited by a moderator: Sep 22, 2009