I'm planning on sitting ST6 in April 2006 and have just skimmed through the solutions on the web site. Each solution is cross refereenced to Hull and the sylabus. Is it possible to pass with out reading Hull? Or, is it worth matching the sylabus requirements to Hull chapters and reading those with out reading ActEd? I suspect the answer is in between, bgut was curious to hear others views.
The answer to this question is the current Holy Grail in ST6 examination circles! In theory, you should be able to answer the questions just off the Core Reading (all of which is contained in the ActEd notes), however the April and September 2005 papers have shown (almost conclusively) that the examiners have been using the CiD Core Reading i.e. Hull and Baxter & Rennie. As I am a September ST6 failer, I'm going to be e-mailing the Institute to ask them for a definitive statement on the status of Hull etc. before deciding whether to retake it. If you ask an ActEd tutor, I guess they would say something similar at the moment, i.e. that they have no idea what the examiners are doing!!
No way through without reading outside the course! I've now received 2 FB's in Sept and April 2005 for ST6. I've already ordered hull as the answers all seem to refer to that rather than the course notes. Follwing the course notes for ST6 is a joke!
Rough summary Without pre-empting what does or doesn't happen, I understand that there's going to be an Education Noticeboard before the end of the year which will "encourage" (their word) students to look at Hull. I also understand that ActEd will be preparing a note as to their understanding of the important chapters of Hull so maybe a kind ActEd person might put that on here for the benefit of us retakers who are yet to order their retakers pack...
Hull "Student Solutions" I'm about to order Hull for my third crack at ST6 in April - it seems to be the only way to prepare yourself sufficiently for the style of questions in the exam (other than having working experience of derivatives I guess). Does anyone know whether I need to also order the "Student Solutions" book? I.e. are there questions in Hull with answers that can only be found in the Student Solutions?
Which version of Hull?? There are a few versions of Hull which 1 do the examiners cross reference in the exam solutions?
Which version of Hull? The Examiners' Report for the Sept 2005 exam gave references to the 5th edition of Hull, which was superseded by the 6th edition in June/July 2005. For those of you with the latest edition of Hull, we have included references to this edition in our ASET for ST6 (covering the April and September 2005 exams), which should be available early in the New Year.
Education noticeboard And lo, the Institute spoke forth... "ST6 Finance and Investment Specialist Technical B Candidates for ST6 in 2006 are encouraged to refer to the textbooks: Options, Futures and other Derivatives, by J. C. Hull (6th ed), ISBN 0-13-149908-4, and Financial calculus: an introduction to derivative pricing, by M. Baxter and A. Rennie, ISBN 0-521-55289-3 in addition to the Core Reading issued for the subject. Reference should also be made to worked examples in ActEd material, the textbooks and past Certificate in Derivatives [CiD] exam papers." A nice "focused" piece of help then
