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CA3 Study Material & Tips

B

b_colgan

Member
How applicable is old study material to the new two-day course? I've sat CA3 a number of times and now have quite a collection of old study material.

I'd also appreciate any insights you might have into passing this exam. Anything that helped you understand what exactly the examiners wanted would be really helpful.
 
Not surprisingly, the majority of the ActEd's new Course Notes are the same as in old versions. However, there is a completely new section on presentation skills and we have updated the section on slide design - both aimed at the new examination approach. In addition, we have expanded the planning section to cover storyboarding - a useful way of planning and building an answer when using Word or Powerpoint. References and advice relating to the syllabus have also been updated.

The Q&A bank and assignments have been re-worked so that the questions are appropriate to the new syllabus - in particular, the recipient can no longer be a 'pure layperson'.

In summary, the basic help given by the old material (in terms of what makes good communication) is ok but some of the specific advice and the questions (Q&A/assignments) are not applicable to the new syllabus.
 
Thanks David.

I guess all past questions from both CA3 and 201 are still relevant?
 
Old papers give extra practice but beware.... I think the new CA3 focusses its qns around material in CA1.

I'd say best prep is a current mock.

Also practise your oral communication as speaking in public is often the most daunting bit.
 
The new syllabus is quite clear in stating that the topic areas used in CA3 exam questions will be those covered in CA1.
 
Assignments - use Word?

Isn't it more sensible to answer the Assignments and Mock using Word?
It should be a better preparation for the exam.
The cover-sheets and the time allowed for the assignments seem to assume pen and paper.
 
b_colgan said:
I'd also appreciate any insights you might have into passing this exam. Anything that helped you understand what exactly the examiners wanted would be really helpful.

Shouldn't the profession be explaining this to you? They're the ones who made the decision to fail you. They promote themselves as a profession that engages with their members, supports their members... put it to the test! Plus you have rights under the Data Protection Act.

They charge huge fees for these practical exams which take up 2 days of your life. Before anyone says exam counselling - that's not free it's an additional £225 charge for an exam you've already paid £740 to sit, and there's even restrictions on that.

Work it out :- 20 people on a CA3 (or CA2) paying £740 fees each, that's about £15k revenue for the profession. A staggering amount of money for what's involved; & they even recycle the exam questions!

The least they should do AT NO EXTRA COST is have the courtesy to explain why they failed you and must put you through the huge expense and inconvenience of it once again.

I feel really sorry for anyone who's failed CA2 or CA3 a few times who's employer has then stopped funding your resits. It would just be too expensive for people to fund from their net pay.

They claim the UK has a shortage of qualified actuaries, well we must wonder why and stop pretending the policies of the institute has nothing to do with it. There are many out there an exam or two short of being fully qualified and the reasons for giving up usually involve cost and lack of transparency about the reason for failure, and a suspicion that they pass on quotas rather than on a pre-determined pass mark.

I find it really odd that people in actuary find this kind of regime acceptable, or can be proud of it. Communicate this setup to non-actuaries and no wonder they find us weird!
 
I found great tips from this presentation for passing CA3. See the link below.

https://web.actuaries.ie/sites/defa...0/111124 How to pass CA3 24 November 2011.pdf


The only things I would add on are:

1) Record every presentation rehearsal and analyse for areas to improve on (keeping it to 10 minutes, body language, avoid urrrmm, aaaahhhs in speech). You want your presentation to look great on video. And this is rather different from face to face presentations where the human eye tends to ignore little mistakes and bad habits. A webcam doesn't.
 
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