Exemption?

[Blitmund]

I've spotted that the Profession's web site quotes an exemption fee for CA3, and that a couple of modules on university master's courses are listed as being suitable replacements. So it must be possible in principle to gain an exemption for CA3.

I was just wondering if there are any stand-alone courses that one could take for this purpose, without having to sign up for a whole MSc? Evening classes in business writing and/or public speaking, maybe, or similar correspondence courses? Suitably accredited of course.

Does anybody know anybody who's gone down this route? Or any courses that the Profession are likely to accept as substitutes?

 

[bystander]

They are very picky. Best way is to contact the profession - maybe one of the staff tutors or exemption office, to get the latest list. If you find a course you think fits, I think its a long process to get accreditation so probably quicker to take the course or exam if sitting in Apr!

 

[anon2]

Blitmund - please let us all know if you find anything useful.

 

[Blitmund]

Blitmund - please let us all know if you find anything useful.

Work will pay for me to have another couple of goes at CA3, so it's not a pressing issue for me at the moment. But if you want to investigate for yourself, there is a list of universities with courses accredited by the Profession here:

http://www.actuaries.org.uk/students/tuition/courses

I think the following institutions are the only ones in the British Isles with modules that can be used for CA3 exemption:

Cass Business School
Dublin City
Imperial College
Kent

Links from the above web page give contact details. If you (or anybody) would like to find out whether any of these places would be willing to offer CA3-equivalent courses as stand-alone modules (and at what price), I'm sure that would be interesting information for many people.

 

[almost_there]

People who go on these courses can have 50% of their CA3 assessed via coursework, their presentation topics known, chosen to suit and practiced months in advance... while those who do the CA3 exam online have no such luxuries. Clearly this presents an unfair advantage!

 

[almost_there]

There's no exemption possible for CA3 unless you go on their accredited Uni courses. I think CA3 is much easier there because you get to choose your topic in advance from a list and have weeks, months to prepare.

I don't think the Institute are examining people on the same basis, since the rest of us are lumped with whatever topic they throw at us on the day and have to produce a written document and presentation on that day. This means a highly time pressured environment, having to weed out all the red herrings they inject into the questions and so on.

It's little wonder therefore how low the pass rates for CA3 are compared to on a Uni course when this is the case.

Doing CA3 via the Institute increases anxiety, stress and so on compared to the Uni option. There appears to be no equivalence in the competence being tested.

I think the IFoA should immediately either scrap CA3 from their University courses or provide an uplift to the CA3 marks / reduce the pass marks for those who've had to do CA3 directly with them. Alternatively the IFoA should completely scrap CA3 for reasons of complying with the Equality Act since they don't require CA3 from anyone who's qualified from a foreign actuarial society to confer FIA on them when they come to the UK.

 

[almost_there]

At some Universities they even let people make a 15 mins presentation and 1,000 word summary of their MSc dissertation to get exempt from CA3. I have a MSc dissertation from many years ago and wasn't given any such option by IFoA. I had to spend money repeatedly sitting CA3 and paying for Acted material.

 

[Sweetactuarialprincess]

They are very picky. Best way is to contact the profession - maybe one of the staff tutors or exemption office, to get the latest list. If you find a course you think fits, I think its a long process to get accreditation so probably quicker to take the course or exam if sitting in Apr!

The best courses are in Europe. In Turkey, you can qualify with just the CTs. You dont need CA1, CA2, CA3. It is ranked the same as the UK Fellowship.

 

[Infinity]

https://www.unil.ch/hec/en/home/menuinst/etudes/masters/sciences-actuarielles.html

What about this one? Two years and you can be a fully qualified actuary, plus have a nice holiday in Switzerland. Used to be in French only but now it’s changed to English...