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April 2021- SP5

N

newkid

Member
Found the paper very different to previous sittings. Less book work - small calcs that took too much time

Q1: straightforward question
Q2: got caught up with calcs and then decided to skip as not much reward. thought part i) and v) were very similar. This was probably my weakest question.
Q3: Wasn't sure what angle they were looking for in certain parts - i think it went ok, but anyone got examples of questions to ask companies?
Q4: messed the calcs up, so just skipped over but answered the rest.
Q5: For part iii), what were we supposed to say for the strategies, that's not in the question?
Q6: Didn't really understand what they were looking for in part iii) with regard to VaR?
Q7: Didn't feel that this was a question for SP5 - more of a CP1 or maybe SP9 type question - what way were we suppose to answer this - language/time issues/regulation/tax etc?

How did others find the exam? Do we expect high/low pass mark, i think the pass marks have ranged from 54 to 67 over the years.
 
I didn't think it was a particularly hard paper, that aside I don't know if I did enough for a pass. Didn't help on my end having to sit it at 3:30am, an issue that IFoA seriously needs to resolve ASAP for us overseas students.
 
With the exam paper now up: https://www.actuaries.org.uk/system/files/field/document/SP5_April2021_ExamPaper.pdf

Can anyone tell me what is expected for Q5 part iii) - 9 mark question - comment on each strategy? and Q6 ii) 6 mark question - "comment on the ALM output"

I found the comment command bit odd, as there isn't a whole lot of information to talk about but they are offering quite a lot of marks, if you think of 0.5 marks for each point, I don't see how you have that many point available.
 
I thought it was a pretty strange paper at times to be honest. More like a CP1 paper at times, in particular Q3 and Q7. Was quite stuck for time on Q2 (the index question), which put me under pressure for later questions. Overall I think it was a bit harder than the last few sittings and I think the pass rate will be a bit lower.
 
I found the paper quite difficult.
There were oddly very few marks dedicated to bookwork and the calculations were a bit cumbersome to type out in MS Word.
Question 4 on forwards was by far the easiest in my opinion.
Question 5 iii was particularly challenging for me as the terminology was a bit unfamiliar(what does full protection exactly mean?). I interpreted it as being similar to an excess of loss reinsurance cover and went ahead with that.
The ALM output question (6 ii) was quite interesting (I doubt a similar question has been asked in the past) but tricky to answer.
The paper felt quite long as well. Too many small calculations to make.
 
I got 52 and failed. Previous attempt I got a 59. The exam was quite different from previous years. Not sure what is the passing mark. I have asked for SAR report to analyze where I lost marks. Also, writing it at 4:30am was hard enough on its own.

Any strategies for next attempt?
 
Ashwin Shrivastava said:
I got 52 and failed. Previous attempt I got a 59. The exam was quite different from previous years. Not sure what is the passing mark. I have asked for SAR report to analyze where I lost marks. Also, writing it at 4:30am was hard enough on its own.

Any strategies for next attempt?
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Sorry to hear that! I too had to sit at 4:30am it wasn’t fun and I think we deserve some kind of mitigating circumstances for having to do these exams so early. I had a 56 which was a pass, so it must’ve been a low pass Mark this year.
 
Managed to pass with 70 in the end so pretty happy + surprised. No secret strategies unfortunately - just do lots of exam questions and the tutorials with @Colin!
 
Interesting language in the examiners report:

This paper was the first SP5 paper specifically written to be taken in an open book environment. This has resulted in knowledge based parts of questions being more integrated into questions, the aim being to eliminate, or at least reduce, the opportunities to copy parts of the core reading into the answers. It would seem that the result has been that candidates have found this more challenging, despite the large number of extra marks being available.
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Would September 2020 exam not have been written for an open book environment?

I checked a few other SP exams, and they didn't have this wording - are all SP exams being written with the same intentions - not really fair to introduce something new for SP5 but not SP2 or S4?

Anyone got any thoughts?
 
It is my understanding that there can be up to a year's lead time in exam writing (initial drafts, redrafts, sample testing, tweaking etc) so the September 2020 paper would have had its genesis long before COVID-19 came into our collective consciousness, therefore it would have been too late to materially alter it.

That being said, we now have a sample size of one for this new style of paper / question format, so does that obviate all previous examiners' reports?

Would it be too much to get them to issue another set of sample papers with the reduced bookwork content?
 
My main concern with it, is that if i sit SP4 next, will that be in the format it is now, or is that going to change. Is their a particular reason why it's openly stated in the SP5 examiners report and none others?
 
newkid said:
My main concern with it, is that if i sit SP4 next, will that be in the format it is now, or is that going to change. Is their a particular reason why it's openly stated in the SP5 examiners report and none others?
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I got SP4 this sitting and found it to be on the easier end of the difficulty range. Still had a fair amount of bookwork and nothing unusual. Assuming they’ve written the September 21 exam at the same time, I don’t see why it should be anything unusual next time either.
 
Roy672 said:
I got SP4 this sitting and found it to be on the easier end of the difficulty range. Still had a fair amount of bookwork and nothing unusual. Assuming they’ve written the September 21 exam at the same time, I don’t see why it should be anything unusual next time either.
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Thanks, my point was around the fact that the chief examiner explicitly stated that the April 2021 SP5 paper was the first one wrote for the open book environment, but this statement isn't written in the SP4 report, why would one SP be changed for the open book environment but not the others?
 
newkid said:
Thanks, my point was around the fact that the chief examiner explicitly stated that the April 2021 SP5 paper was the first one wrote for the open book environment, but this statement isn't written in the SP4 report, why would one SP be changed for the open book environment but not the others?
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It’ll have been written by different examiners I’d say, depending on their particular expertise. I agree the lack of consistency across subjects is another issue they need to address.
 
I will be writing SP5 again in September 2021, for the 4th time. I guess due to change in the format of questionining, it's better to be prepared for a more open book approach, where examiners will be testing more application based questions. Unfortunately there is not much reference available. Maybe the Acted Tutors will provide some guidance.
 
Hi Ashwin,

For what it's worth my take is:

Previous SP5 exams (pre-COVID) had lots of bookwork or otherwise simple applications of bookwork. In the open-book world you can expect little to no bookwork. We don't have much to go off at this stage but can speculate that this may lead to more simple application of bookwork and perhaps more in the way of numerical questions. The skills and the core reading they are looking to test remains pretty much the same (there have been some core reading changes over this period as there would in any period) so you should be able to prepare as you otherwise would including a number of past papers. However, you might like to put less focus into the pure bookwork questions and instead spend more time on more applied questions.

Note that you shouldn't expect to look everything up, even though it's an open book exam. You will really struggle for time if you do so. As such I'd be looking to commit as much as I could to memory along the way. Also, for calculation questions you may want to practice performing some calculations in Excel as this is available to you in the exam. These calculations will need to be typed up then into Word as it's only a Word script to be submitted but it can nevertheless save you some time and increase accuracy.

Sorry we can't be more helpful than this. Unfortunately, at this time there just isn't a significant sample size of papers to know how the examiners will approach the exams going forward.

Joe
 
Joe Hook said:
Hi Ashwin,

For what it's worth my take is:

Previous SP5 exams (pre-COVID) had lots of bookwork or otherwise simple applications of bookwork. In the open-book world you can expect little to no bookwork. We don't have much to go off at this stage but can speculate that this may lead to more simple application of bookwork and perhaps more in the way of numerical questions. The skills and the core reading they are looking to test remains pretty much the same (there have been some core reading changes over this period as there would in any period) so you should be able to prepare as you otherwise would including a number of past papers. However, you might like to put less focus into the pure bookwork questions and instead spend more time on more applied questions.

Note that you shouldn't expect to look everything up, even though it's an open book exam. You will really struggle for time if you do so. As such I'd be looking to commit as much as I could to memory along the way. Also, for calculation questions you may want to practice performing some calculations in Excel as this is available to you in the exam. These calculations will need to be typed up then into Word as it's only a Word script to be submitted but it can nevertheless save you some time and increase accuracy.

Sorry we can't be more helpful than this. Unfortunately, at this time there just isn't a significant sample size of papers to know how the examiners will approach the exams going forward.

Joe
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Thanks so much Joe! Appreciate it.
 
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