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Ca1 Motivation

J

justine otieno

Member
Hi,
I just did Ct7 and Ct8 in April and though am not sure of the results, I would like to write CA1 in September. Can anyone give me advice on how to start reading CA1 coz its just too volumnous.
 
Hi,

Just START! And if you can, skip chapters and go back and forth coz it can really get boring. especially the 1st 10 chapters. Picks up after that. Good luck!
 
Thanks, I just did exactly that coz chapter 0 is so boring. Then the notes are just too much, how does one get to deal with that?
 
Don't have the whole pack in front of you when studying. Just take out a few units and the pile will be smaller.

Set yourself a timetable because this is a short sitting to do a big course.

That alone should motivate you - if you fail there may be syallbus changes next time around too which make resits harder.

So look at the individual trees (units) not the whole picture (th eentire reams/folders) at this stage.
 
Thanks for the advice. The weekend is here and I want to make the most of it. will give you a shout whenever am stuck.
 
What are the odds that one can start reading for this subject today and pass?:rolleyes:
 
Hahaaaa! How did you arrive at that devastating figure?
I could use a more encouraging answer.
 
Edwin said:
Lol...Oxymoron, how did you compute the odds??
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FloWesh said:
Hahaaaa! How did you arrive at that devastating figure?
Click to expand...

You can find out more about the methodology when you buy my book - "Oxymoron's guide for predicting odds by generating random numbers" which soon be available in Amazon.


FloWesh said:
I could use a more encouraging answer.
Click to expand...

40.326% :D

On a more serious note, CA1 can be broken with the right strategy. I'm preparing for CA1 too, and it's taking me a while to get adjusted to the different approach to answering questions. Other than that, the course material is relatively simple compared to the CTs.
 
If you can do 3-4 hrs daily and double that during weekends and other off days, you certainly can go through the course enough times to make a decent attempt and even pass if you can write well and meet questions that can be tackled with whatever level of common sense you have.

I don't think there's enough time for you to amass the great deal of confidence that comes with having memorised most of the Core Reading and attempted a lot of past exam questions.

Be sure to address some exam technique issues, like what to do with the reading time, when to move on from a question, the optimal question order (in terms of difficulty of questions), which types of questions to attempt when time is running out, etc.

(NB: I've written this on the assumption you are a standard, competent actuarial student.)
 
zhin2000 said:
If you can do 3-4 hrs daily and double that during weekends and other off days, you certainly can go through the course enough times to make a decent attempt and even pass if you can write well and meet questions that can be tackled with whatever level of common sense you have.

I don't think there's enough time for you to amass the great deal of confidence that comes with having memorised most of the Core Reading and attempted a lot of past exam questions.

Be sure to address some exam technique issues, like what to do with the reading time, when to move on from a question, the optimal question order (in terms of difficulty of questions), which types of questions to attempt when time is running out, etc.

(NB: I've written this on the assumption you are a standard, competent actuarial student.)
Click to expand...

Thank you so much for that. I am going to give it a shot. Let the sleepless nights begin:(
 
I have also just finished my fisrt reading of the course notes this weekend. I got my mind made up on giving it a try this Sept so I will still forge ahead.

Oxymoron said:
I've decided to mix it up with ST6 for May 2013.
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CA1 is very demanding, many people agree that it is best done alone and combining it with another subject is a sure kill. Is this your formula for suicide?
 
FloWesh said:
CA1 is very demanding, many people agree that it is best done alone and combining it with another subject is a sure kill. Is this your formula for suicide?
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haha, it's my formula for an actuarially fair suicide! ;)

On a serious note, I'm done with a good portion of the ST6 syllabus too. I think I can just about pull it through.
 
FloWesh said:
I have also just finished my fisrt reading of the course notes this weekend. I got my mind made up on giving it a try this Sept so I will still forge ahead.


CA1 is very demanding, many people agree that it is best done alone and combining it with another subject is a sure kill. Is this your formula for suicide?
Click to expand...


Better start going through the past exam papers..and the answer style they follow...try brain-stroming to generate as many point independently as possible...this is the kind of feeling I have been receiving in my studies so far...:)
 
I have gone through the core reading twice. The content is just so much. I have not gone through the Q&A, does it add value to go through the Q&A given some of the questions are trivial and some have been derived from past papers?:confused:
 
justine otieno said:
does it add value to go through the Q&A given some of the questions are trivial and some have been derived from past papers?:confused:
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Personally, I would leave the Q&A bank as a last resort if you run out of other questions to do. Do past paper questions first, then if you run out of those I would do the acted assignments next.

The reason I say that is that the past paper questions are the best example of the standard they will be expecting in the exam, so it makes sense to concentrate your revision on these. After that, the acted assignments give very detailed solutions with a full marking schedule.
 
cjno1 said:
Personally, I would leave the Q&A bank as a last resort if you run out of other questions to do. Do past paper questions first, then if you run out of those I would do the acted assignments next.

The reason I say that is that the past paper questions are the best example of the standard they will be expecting in the exam, so it makes sense to concentrate your revision on these. After that, the acted assignments give very detailed solutions with a full marking schedule.
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Thanks a lot for the advice. I believe there is enough time to tackle all the past papers and the assignments and also the Q&A. I think reading through the course by following the syllabus objective help put everything in proper perspective than to just read all the chapters one after the other
 
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