What's their point???
Just found out that I've failed CA2 again - 3rd attempt and this time it was through distance learning. I thought that I did well enough to pass it this time.
The main thing whcih astounded me was the pass rate - 5 out of 21, that's less than 25%! I cannot think of any other professional exam having such ridiculously low pass rates!
People in general sit for professional exams for career progression, but given the stance which they have taken, it's more like a burden to career progression.
We talk about keeping pass rates low to stem the number of newly qualified - but if this is their main motive, then it is pretty stupid! Look at the accountants for example - their pass rates lie in the 70%, and yet I've never heard them complain about having too many qualified accountants.
Myself, I actually took a break from the actuarial exams (two left SA5 and CA2) and studied for the CFA from scratch - and today, I have qualified as a CFA charterholder, and this has helped me a lot in career progression...if I had stuck with the actuarial one, not sure I would have even been qualified...and let's not even go in the salary debate...So, the bottom line is that to make this profession better, we should have more actuaries, plying their trade not only in the traditional sectors but in new ones...
Focusing on keeping numbers down to protect salaries in one sector is akin to protectionism policy ,and we all know where this will end up.
Finally, I agree that this exam has no relevance at all to the real world - CA3 did help me a lot I must admit - but this one is more of a waste of money. I would rather have a course with VBA in, which would add more value to my profile than bog-standard excel modelling, skills which one can easily pick up on the workplace, if there is a need to.
Anyway that was my two cents...
Last edited by a moderator: Mar 29, 2012