Sept 2009 Exam

Well my motivation for posting has dropped (as the exam feels quite a while ago now) but I'm still curious what you all thought...

About 1/3 of the way through I was thinking that it was going well as I could generally recall the info for the bookwork questions. But soon after I started to struggle a bit and wasn't convinced that what I was writing was what they were after.

Did anyone else think it was strange that we hardly had to use our calculators?

 

yuck

I dont want to say it was a terribly difficult paper , but i did horrendous . I got so much wrong . I basically couldnt do any of 4 big questions cant remember now how many marks they were worth but about 40% gone straight away . the other 7 questions were do able and i got most of em out but didnt get them perfect . I most definitely failed .

 

I feel the same, it was a pretty horrible paper after the first few questions, I answered around 50% of the available marks, so most likely got a fail. Most people I've spoken to agree...

 

I didn't like this paper, large chunks of Black-Scholes and the Binomial Model weren't tested; what's the use studying Financial Economics if you're not going to be asked to demonstrate how to price a derviate, no matter how weird or complex it is! Anyway, as others have mentioned, I felt comfortable with the paper until I flipped to the 3rd page. Thereafter it was a lot of incomplete answers, and theory which I just couldn't recall, especially state-price deflators!! And yes I find it very strange that I rarely used my calculator; just way too much theory. These examiners are really strange muggles...

 

CT8 Oct paper

Agreed it was a (another) tough CT8 paper

That said, about 50-60 marks of it were ok, but there were a couple of big questions I couldn't really do - I think both were around evaluating unusual derivatives - not like anything i've seen before.

If you cleaned up on the easier stuff (unfortunately I didn't) you'll probably pass, because I don't think there will be many high marks on that paper.

CT8 has probably the most difficult content of any of the CT subjects, and seems to have consistently tricky exam papers, but yet I don't think it has a particularly low pass rate - so hopefully the pass mark will be quite low(?).

 

Did anyone check what the total mark for this paper was? I summed all of the questions up and got to around 107. Bonus marks?

 

marks

i'm pretty sure it was just the usual 100!

 

Pass mark

Bearing in mind the difficulty of the paper, what's everyone's early prediction on the pass mark and/or pass rate??

 

CT8 Paper

It was not the usual CT8 paper.Lots of material not examined in earlier years was asked. My attempt was around 75-80 marks.
agree that we did had to use calculator only on one full question.The challenging one was Q5 and Q6. The last question(Q 11) on market price of risk i.e. to show that MPR is the same for bonds of all maturities is not covered in the syllabus.
If pass marks is in the range 50-60 % I am fairly confident of clearing.
I did not leave any question completely .This is my 2nd attempt . I got closest to passing last time.(FA)

 

All the bookwork questions were OK. However, as soon as you turn over to the 3rd page, here comes the horrific part.

None of the questions appeared in any of the previous paper before.
I didn't have a clue how to attempt them at all.

Everyone I've spoken to feel the same which is comforting.

I really hope the pass mark will be very very very very low!!
but I suppose it's a fail for me unless I'm very lucky

 

Well, that was easily the most unpleasant CT I've sat. It really was an exam of two halves - the first two pages were fine, but when I turned that page over it was like I was in a completely different exam. Got a few questions done okay after some thought, but there were a good 3 or so questions that I basically couldn't get anything from. Hopefully I will have done enough to sneak through, but I'm not holding my breath.

 

This was my second attempt as well, makes me wonder just how well must we know the material in order to pass this exam. Or do we rather hope it's a relatively easier exam.

Who thinks the next exam will be a stonker just like this one? I'll say it'll probably contain a 20-marker on Binomial tree calc's, a few questions on EMH theory for 10 marksand a question at the end asking to compare to compare 2 types of Wilkie processes for 16 marks. And the hardest question would be to use the Merton model to find the value of a company's equity.

 

And not forgetting the favourite name and write the formula for 3 interest rate models, followed by a lovely explain the advantages and disadvantages of each.

If the pass mark is about 50% then I have half a chance of passing. Any higher, probably no chance.

 

yeah, I wish we had a "compare the Vasicek, Hull-White and JLT models" question...man!

I don't want to even start to ponder whether I passed or not, think I'll leave that for the day of the results...just trying to relax now before I consider other exams.

Holding thumbs for Portugal to make it to SA next year!

 

CT8 Oct paper

the paper is now on the institute web site by the way - just 100 marks Goku

 

That sucks! Now I'm starting to worry a bit more...

 

I felt violated with this paper - LOL - thought i was prepared until i got there. Pass mark over 50 would make it difficult for me to pass... oh well