27%

27% pass rate for a CT subject, any CT in my opinion indicates some kind of institutional failure. Is it the examiner's fault, Acted's, or our own?

40% is a low CT pass rate, 27 is just plain wrong. I feel like I've been conned somehow, that I am a victim of some sort of crime. I feel like I've worked a whole month only for my employer (laughing at me) to refuse to pay me.

Has some kind of injustice been perpetuated here or are we all just stupid?




p.s. my employer is a good one and always pays my wages!!

 

Can I ask:
Is there any easy way of getting an individual report on how you did following the exam?

Leafy

 

Exam counselling
http://www.actuaries.org.uk/Display_Page.cgi?url=/students/counsel_booklet.xml

View your exam script
http://www.actuaries.org.uk/Display_Page.cgi?url=/students/exam_viewscript.html

Exam Appeals
http://www.actuaries.org.uk/DisplayPage.cgi?url=/students/examappeals.html

 

You might think 27% is bad - but spare a thought for the poor IoAA (Instutite of Actuaries Australia) students - pass rate was 18% for that subject!

15 ppl out of 85 passed in Australia!

 

I thought the exam went pretty well, but managed to fail it... On the other hand CT6 wasn't so good and I managed to pass. I reckon there was some seriously unfair marking for CT4.

 

I have a theory. Maybe the institute is in need of money, so would want to make a quick buck or two through appeals, resits etc.

 

I took Ct4 for the second time in September and failed it again I thought it had gone better than the exam in April....but obviously not! I won't be wasting my time sitting this one again in April 08!

 

Well done to CT4 making it into the Hall of Fame for lowest pass rates under the new exam regime. This is the 3rd lowest pass rate, taking Institute and Faculty combined. Full list of the worst exams with pass rates under 30%

1. 21% SA3 April 06
2. 22% ST6 April 05
3=27% CT4 Sept 07 & ST6 Sept 05
5=29% SA3 Sept 05 & Sept 06 & SA6 April 06

My genuine sympathies all round. I'm a little obsessed with this 'cos I got caught out by 2 of those on the above list and I can still feel the pain.

 

Don't forget CT8, April 05, at 29% (Institute only) or 29.8% if you include the Faculty.

Funnily enough I got caught out by this one.

In the paper in April 06 though, they repeated almost verbatim 2 questions from the April 05 paper, so watch out for this next year.

 

i failed the april 07 paper for this, but after that exam i knew it was a tough paper.

but when i took the sept 07 paper i thought i did a pretty good job at doing most of the questions (think i prob skip the exposed to risk question), thought the paper was fair but do-able at the time. i felt i was going to pass this....guess i was wrong

guess we will all be looking at the examiners report as soon as they are out... currently i felt robbed somehow

 

I noticed ct4 is the only CT to make it into the hall of fame.

What annoys me now is that whenever you get a really low pass rate (< 35%) on a CT exam in one sitting you can guarantee they will let everyone and their cat pass in the next sitting. Look at ct8 pass rate history to see if I am right ('cos I haven't checked). Unfortunately I have two big exams in April and just can't attempt ct4 again until September. Still, good luck to you guys in April, hope my prediction comes true for you (even if I will feel like I missed an "easy" one).

As for me I think I am doomed to become one of those urban legends, the kind of student you've heard about but never met ... the kinda student who has passed every exam but keeps failing the same ct (or ca3) over & over again, never qualifying but fated to repeat the same sorry process for years & years... always just one exam away from qualifying.

Actually I don't really feel doomed, I'm far too optimistic.

 

Perseverance...

Sorry to all those who failed the CT4 exam; am extremely grateful that I finally conquered the beast! I felt the exam was much better than the last one, except for the second last question that required a TERRIBLE amount of calculations for a mere 5 marks...I think a lot of students had only 15-20min left to do the last 2 questions and thats where most of their marks would have been lost...I answered that question by just showing how I would obtain 1 of the cells in the table that was provided. I also left out a large of part of the last question. in total the amount of marks I left was around 20 (!!!); however I did a thorough job for the remaining 80 marks which I found very do-able...

Anyway, to all those pondering on whether or not to do CT4 again for the 3rd (or even more) time, I'd go for it, and get it over with (I spent a lot of time on contemplating what I'd do if I had failed ); it's clearly the hardest of the CT's...also, it's worth knowing that the level of difficulty of an exam paper does not exhibit the memory-less property...

Goku

 

interesting. as this is CT4 thread, your pessimism is implying that the path to progress on that exam can be modelled as a two state markov chain, State Space (P,F), not irreducible (as pass is absorbing), aperiodic, and no unique stationary distribution.
with time inhomogenous probabilities more suitable, reflecting level of knowledge after each attempt etc


be optimistic mate, im sure it will be much better than you think

 

I thought the paper went Really well I hate FAs

 

The marking process is very rigorous so I don't think any mismarking has gone on.

Why don't those that failed (I didn't do the paper) write to their student consultative rep and get it onto the next meeting agenda. Maybe they will release more detail at a high level of what went arry.

Whenever you sit, stay positive. Treat each attempt on its own merits. Going in pessimistic or angry will not help your state of mind on the day.

And if you really can't get over doing a resit in Apr, defer it. The break may do you good and feel less like saying 'but I've seen & know this stuff'