Various aspects of the application of shell model approaches to cluster transfer reactions involving exotic nuclei are discussed. A scheme to calculate Spectroscopic Amplitudes for transfer reactions is given. It is calculated for a tetraneutron in8He as an example. The reduction of the t+t clustering in the6He nucleus, suggested by an experiment where transfer reactions were studied in the6He+p collision is confronted with the concept of a supermultiplet for A=6 nuclei. © 2004 American Institute of Physics