Hi, I am currently studying for SA3. I have read the notes once and currently I am going through these again. Eventually my goal is to know them inside out. I will then do past papers from 10 plus years and focus on exam technique. I am tempted to forget about futher reading and hope that my general work knowledge will carry me through!! However I have only 2.5 years experience to date. Any thoughts / advice?? Thanks in advance.
Congrats on having got through the reading once at this stage. Regarding your specific question, I would say there aren't many marks on an SA level paper for bookwork learning. You do need to know it but that's not the be and end all. It really all is about proving understanding and practical application. So 2.5 years practical experience is not a lot to fall back on, and with all the will in the world you won't cover everything in the office. So you do need to do some wider reading I think - maybe pick areas you have less experience of. For example, if you have lots of valuation type experience, look at other areas etc. Yes there is a lot to be said for practising technique but sometimes you aren't the best judge of how you are doing. So I highly recommend getting second opinion be it from a qualified actuary - ideally someone who themselves have recently passed SA3 or other methods as mock exam with marking. All depends on your budget if self funding. But I'm sure others will offer different advice and you have to find the solution that works for you.
Well done on the work so far. I agree exam technique is critical. The main weakness I see with your approach is you may only cover items that were historically topical and miss out on current 'hot topics'. As well as the usual institute sources (e.g. giro) I found publications from industry interesting, e.g. http://www.swissre.com/publications/featured_publications.html Can't say that it helped me pass or not. Colleague of mine also passed (with limited experience as yourself), when a 'ten year old' question that he had done the week before came up, so who knows...
I took SA3 several times. They changed from ST3 to ST7 and ST8 in the middle of it, so I lost a year of my life there too. I had no idea why I failed as some of the questions required the most ridiculous answers. I remember one question on how to increase premium volumes without altering the price and one of the answers was "give away a free pen with quotations". For supposedly the most difficult professional exams in the world, this is quite absurd. Since no proper marks were given to me, I was never certain why I failed and from what I understand, there are huge differences between markers (like 20 percent), so it is always worth getting the SAR done where you can see what marks you got for individual questions. When you find that you have been short changed, you can complain to the IFoA and they will likely do nothing at which point you will end up trying to complaint to the FRC who will also do nothing and if you have the patience, you will go to court. The SA3 exam has changed a lot in the last 10 years, so I am not sure how relevant the older papers are. It is just pot luck and there is no point in really even bothering to study, it is just a matter of paying your dues to the IFoA and you will eventually pass or get bored and give up. The two or three questions which come up are random and can be on any obscure topic, so even with the hot topics, you are unlikely to get lucky. I don't see the point of learning all this material only to be questioned on a fraction of it in the exam. What is the point? Worryingly, I was speaking with the IFoA on new content for the SA3 exam. The gentleman who I spoke to didn't even know that SA3 had been rehauled when ST7 and ST8 were introduced. It was embarrassing to have to explain this to him.
