Sept 11 Exam

Guess the exams are over so we can post again!

How did you find the Sept 11 exam?

I found some of the theory questions really tough such as explaining spot rate, forward rate and redemption yield curves. I thought these topics were not really covered in the course notes, except that these are just different kinds of yield curves. So, I hope I did the wise thing by leaving them alone to concentrate on what I could answer.

Overall the numerical questions were straight forward so I think I answered them correctly. I'm now looking forward to the results!

Please share your experience.

 

Thanks for the post !

I am surprised that not a lot of people have posted anything regarding the exams.

I agree with you on the curves theory, although I could explain the spot rate curve, the forward rate and redemption yield was probably a rubbish explanation.

Was I right or wrong to get a negative NPV for the World Cup bid question?

 

Well....

To be frank, I felt the exam was comparitively harder than those seen in recent years. With a lot of the "standard" questions (such as Loans, Inflation adjusting, Bond pricing, Forward rates, Stochastic P(%) ) replaced with some rather strange questions, and a lot of definition/wordy questions.

I'm pretty sure I made some rather silly mistakes throughout the exam, with the uncertainty of whether I actually answered the questions properly! So not entirely sure come December.

Note: For the World Cup Question, pretty sure I got +ve NPV. Although I could have been wrong.

 

Hi,

Good to see people responding!

If I remember correctly, I got an answer of minus £1.8m in the World Cup question. I checked the discounting back twice for each of the portions in the calculation so I'm pretty sure my answer is correct.

Agree with Knowslian that there were just too many theory questions and I am looking forward to the examiner's report to see what were the answers. However, some of the questions were pretty straight forward, easy marks!

Knowslian, I found the exams easier than some of the previous papers, which had questions that just knocked me out (especially the ones concerning the stochastic models chapter). I smiled when I looked at the last three questions were not on probability!

The paper has been uploaded on the actuaries website and I'm going to attempt it again at leisure to recheck my answers. Will post my answers on this thread ASAP.

Let us have some more posts!

 

I think I had a -ve NPV for that question, which seems to make sense as the next question leads on from that, I said it would be more likely to go ahead since with less probability since the cost to bid is relatively small in comparison, and may spark interest in the football meaning more revenue, not sure if that is a very "actuarial" answer however though!

I agree with the yield curve question being a bit out there, as well as 9iv), most likely dropped most marks on that question. 8iv) a) had me struggling to come up with anything at all aswell. Apart from that the paper was pretty fair and the lack of a variable interest rate seems a bit odd considering it's a main chapter in the notes. It often is a regurgitation of formulas and maybe they realised this!

@ ntalwar : do you know when the examiner report will come out? Will it just be with results because I can't say that I'll care after the results unless I fail

 

So many people got different answers, so probably another one of my mistakes
I didn't know the exam came out so soon. Might give it a little look, although depressing.

Apart from that 47% pass rate exam, I felt all the other papers were Quite straight forward.
I agree that there were some easy marks to be had, but some questions had me in a right pickle.

Well I'm pretty convinced that I failed it, bummer.

Examiners report won't be out until scripts are marked I guess.

 

Hi guys,

I'm glad at least someone put down a negative NPV, I'm pretty relived now cos all of the past papers and examples on NPVs were positive. If I remember correctly, I think I got (-£1.8m) too... although, DJaved,I'm not sure what you mean by "since the cost to bid is relatively small in comparison" - is the cost to bid not £2m per year for 2 years (which is more than £1.8m)?

Nevertheless, reading the paper again frightens me how many theory question there were - we all kinda understand the theory, but some like me must find it difficult to put it into words.

Looking at Question (9iv), I think I put down that the risk for a corporate bond is higher than a government bond and therefore the investor will look for a slightly higher yield than the government bond (i).

No idea how to do 8iv !

What is Knowslian on about 47% - what does this mean dude?

Question 6 was tricky at first, but thats cos I messed up the algebra quite stupidly. I think I ended up with a negative answer for one of the letters, probably A.

Good luck to everyone and well done to all of us for trying ! Pat on the back.

 

Hi,

I was referring to the past papers being relatively easier to this Sept paper apart from the CT1 that had a pass rate of 47%.

Jeez, I guess the positive npv at the end was quite off since people have found similar negative values.

I agree that there were a lot of Wordy questions on this paper.

Question 8 was immunity question wasn't it? Think I added by accident with that question.

 

SindyRob, your answer to 9(iv) is correct. I did not answer it though cos the examiner called time as I put my pen down to write! It did however occur to me straight away that the invester would require a higher yield from a corporate bond and therefore would use a higher spot rate to discount coupons & redemption payment meaning that the total discounted value (price) would be lower than the government bond (equivalent to giving a higher yield).

I've been reading on the yield curves, the answers were pretty straight forward based on what we read in the notes and I would've got them if I had just another 5 minutes to think. Anyway, can't do anything now.

I think the examiner's report will be out soon after the results are announced. They do have us hanging for a long time man! I guess I'll move onto CT2 in the meantime to keep myself occupied.

Any of you guys working at the moment? Afford me some insight on how the assessment day/final interview goes, if you don't mind.

 

Knowslian - I see what you mean about the 47% now...thats quite an interesting stat.

ntalwar, I've just received CMP for CT2, and it looks interesting. Good luck with your study and I hope you enjoy it.

 

Sad as I am (!), I had a quick check of the exam paper to see what I think I got score wise.

Q10: I again, got a +ve NPV value which I'm gonna stick my neck on the line and stand by. + £73 m roughly.
Which followed onto the thinking for the last part; being that even with the low chance of securing the world cup; the profit that would be gained outweighs the risk of bidding and would make it a worthwhile venture etc.
(Those with other answers, I'll wait for examiners comments to see what the "real" answer is hehe)

Q9: For some bizarre reason, (probably due to exam stress) I managed to calculate the j-rate wrong. Although I followed through with the correct methodology. Would that mean I get "most" of the marks? Hoping I get a couple knocked off.

It seems I made a lot of calculation errors in this exam, stupid exam stress!

Best of Luck to us all.

 

Knowslian - I got about £70m for Q10 too...and when I applied 10% probability to cashflows that take place after the bid decision, I got a lower +ve answer so concluded it was still worth pursuing the bid despite the low probability of success as the expected value is still +ve...

Agree with everybody on here about the theory questions. A bit too many. I just wrote as much as I could think of and hoped some of it was what they were looking for!

 

Hey,

Well that's certainly a relief to hear somebody else got a positive value! *high five to us*
Although I can't say for exact what my final answer was! As for the probability bit, I calculated it exactly the same as you! Seemed reasonable at the time.

Yeah, theory questions were a bit annoying, particularly the Eurobond one, 6 marks on definitions not covered much in the notes followed by another 3 marker at the end. Crazy!

All the best.

 

Woo Hoo! Passed CT1! Well done & Congratulations to everybody who passed. A big thank you to all the Acted tutors for their help in answering my queries. It does make a lot of difference when you know that support is always there whenever you need it.

I can't wait to take my next exams in April!

 

Passed!

Me too! Well done everyone...

Onwards and upwards from January after a boozy festive period...

 

CT1 preparation

Hi,

I am sitting CT1 on Oct 12 and bought CMP only. Is CMP (notes+QA+Assignment) plus Formula enough for me to prepare the exam? Also what's the best solution for enough practice as it looks the test questions are too difficult to finish in 3 hours. Thank you very much for your comments.

 

When you are in the learning stage, yes it can be hard to meet the time constraint but don't worry about that. When you reach the exam, you should be well past learning and have all the knowledge at your fingertips.

What you have bought is enough to prepare. But as you intimate, you do need to practise real exam qns too so do a mock and also practise the past papers. You don't need to buy them as papers and reports are on the actuaries.org site although there is material abailable from ActEd that expand on say the harder areas that you may want to try if you aren't happy with the examiners reports.