I dont think it was possible to complete the whole exam. I started with the last question on performance measurement. I spent over 90 minutes to complete the whole question! The question on swaps wasnt easy either..
Tough paper Am guessing re-sit is on the cards... Didn't get swap question, and what was accounting question doing on the paper?!
I had studied CT2 a long time back, and didnt remember all the ratios... Did use some of the basic ones, like gearing, profit over turnover, expense ratios etc..
Gcu well the basic lesson I learnt from this was to be well informed of the ''current discussions'' in the investment world. Every examiners report in recent times says so, but the pressure of study to "know your core reading well" seems greater somehow.
I was more-or-less clueless for the question on Global Currency unit. Moreover, 20 marks looked too much for this. In 27 marks (for performance) lot of computational errors is suspected as I did in hurry.
same here. I started with the last question as well.. dunno how much of it is right though.. took me 90 mins to complete all 27 marks.. I don't think it was possible to do in a shorter time, unless you made an assumption, such as "there are no quarters" or "yearly returns are uniformly distributed for each quarter", but the question was quite clear in what it was asking.. ratio analysis I did something like 7 ratios but, two i know are incorrect in terms of the formula.. rest were standard.. no idea about the GCU bit either, except for the 1st part for four marks, basically just described what the investor classes were... left the rest of the question.. did not have much of a clue either.. and ran out of time.. and yes resit is on the cards.. I was so well prepared for this exam.. can't believe it went so bad.. don't think the pass rate is going to be too high.. any other thoughts??
same here... i studied very hard, and i was very well prepared... i dont think ill be able to crack this one....
me too... read the course twice, went through four years worth of past papers, memorised most of the chapter summaries! I realise we're supposed to have some knowledge about current issues in the real world, but who really has the time/ inclination to read the business press every day after work/ study?!
A better paper for those who took it along with CT2. Truly, it was hard to remember ratio formulae, as these are not in use other than the periphery of CT2. Moreover, I tried to compute EPS, P/E ratio etc., then noticed neither the share price was given nor the number of shares. (may be, I did not see). Utlimately, I landed with 2 ratio for liquidity and profitability each. Current ratio was less than 1, so I did show liquidity concerns in analysis. Later, after exam I realized it was a trading company, so should not be a concern. I could notice the company's gearing was very low, so added all stories of WACC to MM theory. For performance question, one should get some marks for procedure/steps even if there are calculation mistakes (?). Passmark should be somewhere in 45-50 band, if they want to maintain consistent pass ratio of around 40 per cent this time also.
In light of this, one new use for forums might be to discuss current issues rather than just interpretation of core reading and past paper solutions. It will also help to get the different significant issues under debate as i did not even know the GCU issue was being discussed. and performance attribution. I suspect that when the examiners report comes out there will be something about misinterpreting the question and doing too many calculations , cause i just cannot see how we could have finished them all in the allotted time. There were just too many per quarter calcs, for each asset type. still, its not over till the results come out.
@ Nathaniel: I really like the suggestion for using the forum to discuss the current economic issues. I was expecting something to come up on Dubai or Greek Debt crises, but turned out something different completely. I really felt that I was lagging in some preparation though I did studied quite a lot. Next attempt is definitely on the cards as this was my first experience after CTs structure exams. I don't intend to go into details of questions but needless to say that 63 marks of the paper were allocated to three difficult questions, Investment Ratios, the GCU and Performance Measurement Questions. All the best to everyone
Thought this exam was a tough one. there were a few easier exams between 2006 - 07 but ST5 has become much and much harder, especially when examiers set questions doesn't really base on the course notes. Accounting ratios - it was a long time ago i did CT2 so can't remember these! Global Currency Units - i thought the swap rates meaning the risk free rates rather than any currency swaps. so i based my answers around risk free yield curve... any thoughts?
Examiner justification would be nice! Shocking paper, dont think it matters if you could regurgitate the notes it still wouldnt have helped on alot of the marks available! The GCU was simply "off the wall" - google it and you get some random articles that are 20 years old and a wikipedia link that contains a paragraph. I guess the examiner read a sentence in a paper 18 months ago about someone postulating it and thought, "hmmm that would be amsuing to set as a question, how many marks now, i know 20 that seems fair!" The ratios - fine about assuming prior knowledge but considering I sat the accounting paper in its 108 guise didnt bode well. The ratios mentioned in the core notes are PER, maybe gearing and some mention of NAV! who knows maybe they mixed up some question and there's one about securitisation on this years CT2 paper? And why oh why oh why do the examiners expect you to prove you can type into a calculator for an hour? NO ONE DOES THIS ANYMORE! Once you've done one line of calculations you've proved you understand the theory - and in real life who wouldnt use Excel to do this in about 10 minutes. Ok rant over - good news is that we all seem to have the same thoughts and so could mean that it could go either way, this is my last so a lot riding on it hence the frustation after being as prepared as I could ever be! Good Luck everyone - well maybe only 40% of you...........i still want to pass.
I think, ordering of answers is much to do in this ST5 paper. For example, performance paper got attracted initially by many due to its 27 marks as there seemed no clue of its long calculations. So, many did start with this and ruined first hour. It is lottery. Yes, you do not know in advance the best sequence to answer. Those are really lucky, who touched performance and GCU in the last after finishing others. Pass mark will definitely be 45-50 this time.
Falak - greek crisis might have occurred too late to have been included in the exam. Issues i suspect would be examined would be about 6 months to a year prior to the exam. Yes quite likely that period before you even knew which ST you were going to write let alone thought to familiarise yourself with the current issues occuring in it. In my Utopia examiners would give a list of investment areas to focus on each sitting as this field is just way too wide to do any meaningful research, especially if you are like me and do not work in investments.
Question papers have been posted on the website now. Is it not a bad idea to switch over from ST5 to newly introduced subject ST9-ERM? Any thought on this.
I suspect the Examiners Report on the accounting ratios will go like this...."many students just calculated a whole lot of useless ratios that were meaningless, thus losing critical time that would have been used to answer more dificult questions"
Honestly, how do the examiners expect us to recall accounting ratios done long time ago? But that aside the question on ratios looked straight4wad but the performance attribution was spanner in the works. There were too many calculations to do and time was limited. The currency question-clueless! I also had a look at ST9...was not as hard as expected..probably coz 1st sitting. May convince me to switch to ST9 but u never know how it will be set next time! All the best ...for July 16th
