ASET seems to say that you can expect a calculation question on each paper although in reality they same to come up less frequently than that. There aren't that many within ASET, particularly on pricing of policies and options, so I'm worried that I will have overlooked a type of calculation question in my practice. Can anybody advise a list of calculation questions that I need to practice? I have on my list: Pricing of options with North American method Pricing of options with Conventional method Pricing of policy with cashflow method Pricing of policy with formula method Does anybody advise practicing any other pricing calcs or have suggestions of questions which would be good to practice for the above 4?
Hi, There was a period of about five years where there was (at least!) one calculation question on all but one of the exams. More recently it's been less consistent, but the calculation questions are still fairly common. Reading the course, I'd agree that the calculation questions that seem the most likely are pricing and options, however, the reality is quite different. The Subject ST1 examiners seem to be happy to put in calculation questions on just about anything! For example: A05 - CI claim costs A06 - reinsurance S06 - CI pricing (including an option) A07 - IP benefits S07 - group IP (earned premium, loss ratio) AND group cash plan (loss ratio and rate increase) A08 - capital requirements S08 - capital requirements A09 - reinsurance S09 - group PMI pricing I would probably delve back through these past papers and have a go at them. I think it's almost impossible to predict what the examiners will do next, but if you've tried a range of questions, you should have the skills to cope with most things that they throw at you. One thing that strikes me about most of these calculation questions is that even if it's a topic that you don't know much about, the examiners will typically give you enough information so that it's possible to have a go. On the tougher questions, even if you don't get exactly the same answers as the examiners, they will generally give credit for sensible approaches where you have stated your assumptions. I hope this helps Anna
