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To write RSA or not to write RSA

N

Niel

Member
I work in South Africa and have only the Fellowship paper to go in order to qualify. Now it makes sense to me to write the exam on the area I work in, in other words the RSA fellowship paper. That way I can draw on 5 years industry experience and apply the knowledge from the subject to my working life.

However, there seem to be very little support for the RSA subjects. For example, I can't find an examiner's report for the SA4RSA subject for Sep 2007.

The long term education strategy in RSA is to move to an entire RSA-based education system but at the moment the process is still very much in the initial stages.

So the questions would be: do I write the RSA fellowship paper or still stick with the UK exams?
 
I'd say it depends where you intend to practice. The SA paper will probably have references to coutry specific regulation so if that isn't what you will be applying in practise do your own countries paper.
 
I really do support the RSA fellowship papers, and intend on writing SA2RSA, but I know of people who wrote the SA4RSA and were really unhappy. Apparrently the RSA paper is just a copy of the UK paper, but reference to UK replaced with RSA.

Maybe it will be worthwhile to talk to someone who wrote it. If you don't know anyone who wrote the RSA paper, send me a private message and I'll give you my e-mail address so I can get you in contact with someone who did.
 
well..

have you written / studied SA4 before?

As a student in the UK, who is from SA, I woudn't go near the UK exam unless you've really tried to study that paper before as so much of the course is stuff you don't need to know and will never look at again. And there's a LOT of it.

If you have not studied SA4 UK and you have worked in SA pensions for 5 years (ok, this SA thing is getting confusing now!) the RSA paper should be easier!

That said, the RSA exam is likely to be buggy etc as it's fairly new. And I did notice that there was no examiners report. I seem to remember that very few people wrote, so maybe they didn't feel the need to put it up, but surely they could put only the answers up and not comment on performance....

With ASSA moving away from the UK it's also possible that the next exam will be better than before (i.e. not just removing UK and adding SA!). I seem to recall in the exam entry I just got they were trying to shed a good light on the new RSA exams with the move to the FASSA (?) qualification post 2009.
 
Hi

I am also in that dilemma... RSA or not.. Sept 2007 looks identical save for the currency - obviously I am assuming that the solutions should have been tailored to RSA & UK? Or am I wrong? However in the absence of RSA solutions, it makes it quite difficult to go that route..

How many people have attempted RSA?

E
 
The more I think about it, the more it makes sense to go the RSA route. The vast differences between countries are coming through in the fellowship papers and writing an exam about an industry I'm not that familiar with will be a disadvantage. Current topical issues in RSA will differ from that in the UK.

I've ordered the RSA notes which should arrive shortly. These notes are basically only the core reading and much cheaper than the UK CMP. Tutorials with Q&A banks are being scheduled for February. If you want to order the RSA notes, you need to work through ASSA (Francisca Venter, contact details are on the ASSA website). ActEd does not supply the notes for this one.

Eeyore, you should find the take up of the RSA exams on the results page. They usually state X candidates presented themselves and Y passed.
 
Wow. I thought the core reading will be the same.. I've just received my notes this morning... from ActED.... hmm.. I don't know. I'd love to go the RSA route but do not feel so comfortable cos there is not much ito papers etc to work with... I think i'll just try the UK one.. Hopefully its not a decision i'll regret

thanks

Neil - are you writing SA6? its nice to know of others writing the same exam...
 
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