April 2008 (merged thread)

"September 1996 G1 Paper 1 Q(i) and (iii) are pretty similar to Q2 on April 2008. Part (i) asks for ads and disads of a captive set up by an industrial manufacturer. Part (iii) asks about factors to consider re capital required."

Does anyone know where you can get hold of the these exam papers? The Institutes new website only seems to hold papers back to 1997.

Thanks

 

I've been giving serious thought to this question and I've come up with a short-list:

When the insurance cycle is hardening and we need to get more actuaries out there it should be something like :

"Do you like music?" or alteratively "Do you like Posh Spice?" to add a teensy bit more difficulty and to keep men who wear ladies underwear out of the profession.

In harder times questions like:

"What is my favourite number ?" could be used , with a sliding scale for those who get closer to the fave number of the examiner.

I am accepting ActEd offers as of now...

 

guys don't worry about Mack and bootstrapping. Although I have used Mack, read the latest papers about reserving uncertainty and worked in the past in capital modelling I won't get more than 5 marks out of 15.

I'm worrying a lot about the last part of Q1 and Q2.

last part of Q1: I considered how to calculate a realistic p&l. i.e. discount reserves, claims analysis, allocate expenses etc Most of it was about how to do a claims analysis. I did not do any calculations.

first part of Q2: Claims analysis.....grouping data into homogeneous groups and adjusting it

If I compare it to the solution of assignment 6 I might only get 3-4 marks!

Q2 other parts: I wrote different things to the solution. For capital considerations I considered the technical issues-risk profile! Acted solution gives a business view.

For reinsurance, again I considered the technical issues. Not very similar to the acted solution.

Ian, I don't see why you can't comment. Did the paper meet the exam objectives? It's a bit scary to think that we shouldn't challenge the appropriateness of the exam system.

 

My thoughts on last part of Q1 (this was the is it profitable bit right?) were;

Based on most FDs I've worked with they can just about calculate a loss ratio, so I calculated the ULR for each year and in total. Not surprisingly this was over 100% so on the face of it looks unprofitable.

BUT you need to add on expenses etc.
BUT they might have RI - which could affect the "BAD" year and make things profitable
AND they might get investment income.
AND the outcome is still very uncertain (we've paid next to nothing)

I missed making a point about the insurance cycle I'm annoyed about.

Q2 Part 1 - I haven't seen X6 as I don't do assignments (gutted or what!)

They asked to comment on the loss experience and exposure.

So I talked about loss experience eg claims analysis with reference to long-tail for liability etc
and Exposure - measures of exposure by class and and any analysis of policies eg changes in T&Cs, premiums etcs.

Last part- Capital needs - I got a bit technical eg MCR and ICA. I may have missed the point totally on this. I didn't have a good list of capital needs to learn.

Anyway, we'll just wait and see..

 

I was disappointed to find out that q2 was a copy of a question in the assignments-I think it could help people get better marks in the exam just because they happened to study it recently.

The evaluation process for marking of the Casualty Actuarial Society exams seems to take into account views of students and issues surrounding questions. I hope IoA can do something similar here.

www.casact.org/admissions/passmarks/exam6.pdf

 

I've been giving serious thought to this question . . . but then i could not be bothered and went to the pub.

i think 40% would have been enough to pass most past SA3 exams. I don't think 50% will be enough this time for an FA.

the best way to cope with failure is to ignore it ever happened!

 

Does anyone know when the exam paper will be on the Institute website?

I was expecting it to be available today but it's not there (or if it is I can't find it!).

 

up there now

 

Boot Strapping and Mack Method

Check out the following link to IOA's discussion forum:

http://cgi.actuaries.ts.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=120

What do people think about this?

Ian - do you think this is fair game?