Thoughts?

Thankfully I passed this (And SA3 which was my biggest worry) but I noticed the pass rate for this was still only 45% of people. That seems worryingly low to me for an exam for intelligent people where there are marks for structure and document templates are given in the notes, marks for wordcount which is easy to meet and marks for spelling and grammar which is almost impossible to mess up with Microsoft Word's help. Can't help but feel there must still be something wrong with this exam somewhere? Anyhoo, glad its over - hope everyone else managed to jump through this over-engineered hoop as well.

 

Missed it...still waiting for my FIA/CERA, lol...i thought I had passed. Better go again in April

 

To me it highlights the problem with the exam more. I could sort of believe 60% of people failing when there was a presentation involved with exam nerves and a once only shot at recording it. That 55% of actuaries can't write an acceptable letter with document templates, Microsoft Word Count, Microsoft word spelling and grammar check and specimen answers in front of them.....I find that incredibly hard to believe. Maybe I'm just incredibly lucky with all the students I work with in my company and in other companies they spend most of their time walking into walls and falling off their chair? I doubt it though. In trying to fix the exam I feel like they've just shown even more clearly how broken it is. Good luck to everyone in getting through it.

 

I too missed it this time to get FIA. Got very close. Now to focus for April.

 

Unfortunately I did not pass. I achieved a mark of 60, so failed by 2 marks.

What I find with this exam is that each mistake is severely punished.

We were told that the recipient had a good knowledge of insurance and insurance companies. I therefore decided that reinsurance was not jargon and I could use that in my answer. On reflection, I do accept that this was a mistake. However I feel like the punishment received does not fit the crime.

I requested a breakdown of my marks:

• I achieved 4 out of 10 for jargon, as marked down for using reinsurance and also risk retention (which I would not have used either if I realised at the time that reinsurance was jargon).
• I used up valuable word count writing about reinsurance, which meant that I didn't have the available word count to write more about the risks that I knew was lacking, and so lost some marks there.
• In one of the parts of Q2, I justified why I used reinsurance, but explained why I didn't go into quota share reinsurance as he didn't know the details that well. I therefore got no marks for this.

I think it is possible that I could have lost around 10 marks for deciding that reinsurance was okay to use, which to me seems an awful lot.

 

Hi,

I'm planning to take CP3 in April 2018, but not sure what's the best way to prepare for it. Course notes/tutorial? My exchange rate is 5:1GBP so would really appreciate an opinion on what would be the most helpful.

Thank you

 

I am preparing based on a part of CA3 Acted material (Written documentation) - Combined Material Pack. It was not expensive and I think it gives you more than enough insights on what is needed to pass. However, passing seems very difficult .

 

I was also marked down on jargon, scoring only 3 out of 10. The only jargon I used in the list was "reinsurance" (which was also used in the sample solution without explanation). I even defined profit margin, expense ratio and claims ratio (which the sample solution assumed was not jargon). I was likely also marked down on "irrelevant points of content" (and used up valuable word count) for including some background information on YOUTHSURE (explaining what YOUTHSURE was is not in the content marks). I'm not a fan of the marking here.

Some of the content marks were also questionable.

• 3 Product Economics: "Fortunately sales have been steadily increasing... ten fold growth in two years"
  • Comparing to the first quarter of a startup's sales to say there's "ten fold growth in two years" is pretty dubious.
• 4 Opportunities: "Chart or Table or Summary Statistics to support [that YOUTHSURE targets younger customers]"
  • I don't feel there is a need to give 3 marks to cite the survey and create a chart just to justify the point (the sample solution actually avoided the fact that the chart's data was from a survey). Surveys are not a reliable source for an age distribution of customers.
• 5 Risks: "Large percentage of risk is reinsured... so long-term profits are being diluted"
  • This should be a synergy instead, PRESTIGE LIFE can provide sufficient capital such that YOUTHSURE will not need to reinsure. Similarly, poor customer service should be a synergy as well, since PRESTIGE LIFE does well on this front and can share their expertise. I lost marks for stating the correct points but in a different section.

Unfortunately, there is nothing I can do about it. I will look ahead to the next sitting, where I will be writing in an ELI5 style to pander to the markers.

 

After going through Sep17, I found a lot of Jargon and irrelevant material in the model solution. It doesn't really make sense to give us a poor model solution that could potentially be a pass.

Also, I thought the exam time changed to 2pm UK time? I am sitting this exam in Pacific Time and was looking forward to this 'new' feature. I guess I'm at a disadvantage AGAIN like CA3 which I happened to fail twice already.

 

Nothing much has changed since CA3 then, except for presentation scrapped.