In cp2 exam, I have found myself taking longer route solving things. And realizing when I do further parts that it would have been easier if I had data in other form. I generally jump into creating spreadsheet in order of questions asked after reading background. Basically what I realize is I m lacking proper planning in paper 1. Can someone help me , how much time do you spend in planning the spreadsheet. What all steps do you do when you are planning. How to approach planning part of exam . Also, I have often found myself spending too long where less marks are allocated in modelling. How do you plan how much time to be allocated to each part in model? Thanks for your inputs in advance.
The IFoA publish a guide to CP2 which includes some suggested planning/reading times: https://www.actuaries.org.uk/system/files/field/document/GUIDE_CP2_Guide_IFoA_2022_v1.pdf They suggest 45 mins planning/reading for both papers. For Paper 1, if you can get through the information in less time you could use any extra time to write your audit trail which does take a while. For Paper 2, there is a lot of information to read so 45 mins may be closer to what you need. Practice planning/reading and see how long you need. Also remember that during this time you can be generating ideas for the assumptions, next steps (in P2), identifying parameters (in P1) etc so make the most of it! For the modelling use the marks as a guide to how long something will take and work on roughly 90mins for all the modelling. If you need to make assumptions to simplify the question and make it easier to model. CP2 is a reasonably time pressured exam and you need to work quickly and efficiently to get through everything in the time. Good luck for the exams. Sarah
