2009 syllabus changes

[PittaPan]

The Institute's April education bulletin announced, "CA1 – Core Applications Concepts has been revised to increase the emphasis on risk
management. To reflect this it has also been renamed Core Applications – Actuarial Risk Management. The new Syllabus and revised Core Reading will be available from 31 May 2008."

My question for ActEd is: what happens if I am attempting CA1 for September 2008, but fail, and want to resit in April 2009? Will I have to buy a whole new CMP? At what cost? My company does not support resits financially.

Also, any ideas how much of a change to the syllabus there is going to be?

 

[Lynn Birchall]

Hi

As CA1 is changing significantly for the 2009 exams, we won't be able to produce the usual free CMP Upgrade for download from the ActEd Website.

So anyone retaking will need to purchase a new set of notes - but they'll be at a significantly reduced price. (As an example, this page http://www.acted.co.uk/html/paper_cmp_upgrade.htm shows how a similar thing worked this year for SA4.)

We'll be putting some more info on the CA1 changes on the website when the new syllabus and Core Reading are published.

Hope you're enjoying the "post exam" break - best of luck for the studying for the summer

Lynn

 

[Korach]

timing and direction

Do you or anyone else have any idea what how wide-ranging the changes in CA1 will be and when the new CA1 will be published?

For example, if the new CA1 is likely to be published in July or later and the changes will not affect the core skills being taught, students planning to take CA1 in April 2009 might want to buy the CMP now.

On the other hand, if almost everything will need to be relearnt, perhaps like the second and third sections of CT2 when IAS were accepted by the UK, and the publishing of the new CA1 is just around the corner, even with the generous discount you sent the link for, it would be a big waste of paper to buy the CMP now.

Any clues? As actuaries we can appreciate a prudent, unbiased, best estimate to help us make better sense of the future.

 

[Lynn Birchall]

Hi

I'm not ignoring your post Will hopefully be able to answer your question properly in the next few days - we're currently going through the draft Core Reading and deciding what to do for students who are planning to sit in April and want to start studying early.....

So my current answer is: the changes are pretty wide-ranging, check back soon for more details......

Cheers
Lynn

 

[Anna Bishop]

If you are thinking of sitting CA1 in April 2009 (and not in September 2008) then you are probably best off waiting for the 2009 version of the ActEd course to be published rather than buying the 2008 version and then buying the 2009 version later on . If you did want to get an early start, there is nothing stopping you buying the 2009 Core Reading, which is due to be available from 31/5/2008 and reading through this initially, followed up by the ActEd notes when these are available. You can buy the Core Reading though ActEd.

 

[Lynn Birchall]

Info now on the website for students who are planning to sit CA1 in April 2009 and want to start studying this summer:

http://www.acted.co.uk/Html/news_CA1_2009.htm

I hope this helps anyone in this position. As the message says, happily drop us an email if you'd like to discuss your particular circumstances

Lynn