Hello, Hope everyone's doing well! I appeared for CP1 & CP3 this April session. I cleared CP3 but got 59 in CP1 and have probably just missed by 1 mark(Pass marks for CP1 has mostly been around 55 but this time it is probably 60! ). Anyways, I would re-sit this paper in Sept. Actually I planned to appear for SP9 sometime in future because I want CERA credential. But now I am thinking to appear for SP9 with CP1 assuming that these both generally relate to risk management. I was just wondering is there any overlap/similarity between the course contents of these two subjects that would make it worth going for both of these subjects in the same sitting? Also, if tutors or anyone could suggest recommended number of study hours for both of these subjects if I attempt these together and given my previous preparation of CP1. Thanks in advance!
Hi Krishna, SP9 definitely builds on CP1, but I wouldn't say there is lots of duplication / overlap. (I wouldn't be recommending sitting SP9 without having studied CP1!) SP9 is a BIG course. There is a lot of reading to do - as the extensive Core Reading also references 2 textbooks and 2 papers. I'd be interested to hear from those who have recently studied SP9 as to how many hours they studies for the exam. The IFoA recommends 200 hours for all the SP subjects. When I studied for SP9 I definitely studied for longer than that! I'm also a tutor for SP5 and I would say that SP9 requires significantly more study hours than SP5 to master the material. CP1 is also a BIG course, but you have already studied that material and so it might be ok to retake CP1 when also taking SP9 for the first time. Maybe someone reading this who has done similarly could comment? I hope these comments help you Krishna, but look forward to hearing others' views. Best wishes David
Hi Krishna Having studied SP9, I concur with David's above advice. I would not recommend someone taking SP9 before clearing CP1. CP1 is a "monster" in itself, and there are some techniques you learn when studying for CP1 that IMHO helps you in the Fellowship exams (for example, answering by thinking of stakeholders). In terms of study hours, I would say it definitely took me more than 200 hours! As David says, the Core Reading refers you to some materials - Lam and Sweeting textbooks, S&P and IAA papers. There are a lot of concepts that I had to research more about them given they are more "emerging risk themes", for example climate change. On a side note, the SP9 team at ActEd (shoutout to David and Anna) is very helpful, so doing a tutorial really helped me in learning what is required and building on my exam techniques and the tutors were very helpful whenever I had queries. When writing CP1, I did all the past examination questions going back to 2005 and when writing SP9 I did all the past examination questions going back to 2010. There is not a lot of overlapping in terms of materials, but in view of the number of hours that someone has to put in, I would definitely recommend you doing it separately. I hope these help and all the best in your prep.
