• We are pleased to announce that the winner of our Feedback Prize Draw for the Winter 2024-25 session and winning £150 of gift vouchers is Zhao Liang Tay. Congratulations to Zhao Liang. If you fancy winning £150 worth of gift vouchers (from a major UK store) for the Summer 2025 exam sitting for just a few minutes of your time throughout the session, please see our website at https://www.acted.co.uk/further-info.html?pat=feedback#feedback-prize for more information on how you can make sure your name is included in the draw at the end of the session.
  • Please be advised that the SP1, SP5 and SP7 X1 deadline is the 14th July and not the 17th June as first stated. Please accept out apologies for any confusion caused.

CP3 exam - revision

A

Angel1

Member
I will be taking CP3 in Sept 2018 and would like some guidance on following aspects:

  1. I am going through core material pack and briefly looked at past exam papers. Is there any other study material or preparation (ie additional reading) I should do to prepare well for this exam? Please note that I am doing this exam prior to taking CA1.

  2. I do plan to submit the X assignments and Mock exam.

  3. How useful are the tutorials? Is it better to attend face to face prep days or online versions?

  4. Any tips on how best to prepare once you receive the advanced study material?
    Thanks
 
Hello

Thank you for your post, and your study plan looks good.

1. & 2. Once you have read the Course Notes it really is about question practice. It is a very good idea to submit the Assignments and Mock so you can get some independent feedback on your answers. Also look to work through the past CA3 exam questions (the "word" tests rather than presentation tests). Although these questions may be a little shorter than we expect in CP3 they still test you on your ability to communicate clearly, avoid jargon, create a good structure ... just the same skills as you will be tested on in CP3. Working through a good range of past questions will also help you with your "technical" understanding given you have not tackled CA1. I would not worry overly about not having sat CA1, the aim of the CP3 exam is to test your ability to get across fundamental actuarial ideas rather than complex ones, and you will have the time between receiving the advanced material and the exam question to get to grips with technical issues too.

3. Students who attend a tutorial tend to do better in the exams across the subjects, whether you attend face to face or online is just a matter of preference, both tutorials will cover the same material.

4. The aim with the advanced material is to ensure you understand any technical issues that are clearly presented in it, eg if it is covering IRR check you are happy with that concept. Also it may be that figures are presented in the advanced material, so a case of checking you can interpret the figures and identify any key messages, eg trends.

I hope this helps and your studies go well!
 
Helen Evans said:
Hello

Thank you for your post, and your study plan looks good.

1. & 2. Once you have read the Course Notes it really is about question practice. It is a very good idea to submit the Assignments and Mock so you can get some independent feedback on your answers. Also look to work through the past CA3 exam questions (the "word" tests rather than presentation tests). Although these questions may be a little shorter than we expect in CP3 they still test you on your ability to communicate clearly, avoid jargon, create a good structure ... just the same skills as you will be tested on in CP3. Working through a good range of past questions will also help you with your "technical" understanding given you have not tackled CA1. I would not worry overly about not having sat CA1, the aim of the CP3 exam is to test your ability to get across fundamental actuarial ideas rather than complex ones, and you will have the time between receiving the advanced material and the exam question to get to grips with technical issues too.

3. Students who attend a tutorial tend to do better in the exams across the subjects, whether you attend face to face or online is just a matter of preference, both tutorials will cover the same material.

4. The aim with the advanced material is to ensure you understand any technical issues that are clearly presented in it, eg if it is covering IRR check you are happy with that concept. Also it may be that figures are presented in the advanced material, so a case of checking you can interpret the figures and identify any key messages, eg trends.

I hope this helps and your studies go well!
Click to expand...

Thank you Helen.
How much time is required to go through advanced study material? Reason for my query as if I have to retake CA2 (as they are on consecutive days), could that cause any issue?
 
It is difficult to put a figure on how long it will take to go through the advance material, as it does depend on the particular question asked (ie how well you already understand the topic and the amount of material there is). It certainly shouldn't be a great deal of time/impact on you sitting CA2. If anything it is important not to spend too much time on the advance material as there is a risk of over-analysing the situation and reading too much into it!
 
Thank you Helen.

Also, how useful are the old exam papers (prior to presentation version) for revision when CA3/CP3 was three hours written exam? My concern is that there may not be enough past exam papers with CP3 with the recent changes? Welcome your guidance. Thanks
 
The older CA3 papers are also good prep for the exam, just ignore the questions asking you to draft slides for a presentation or give a presentation.
 
From my personal experience preparation beyond a certain point does you no favours and may damage your chances. Get comfortable with some very basic things like knowing the template layout for formal letter etc. or ensuring you provide within the word count requirement or you're giving them an easy excuse to deduct marks.

Preparation beyond that cannot be of any value when the exam is such a lottery so I would caution students to be careful with how they spend their money. It's not just me stating it's a lottery look at the student consultative forum minutes of meetings since 2014. My advice would be as follows - treat this thing as a lottery. Sit it at the first possible opportunity and expect many resits. If it ends up being your final exam then it will probably delay your qualification. Also I advise that if you fail this exam to submit a subject access request to the IFoA as per your rights according to section 7 of the Data Protection Act to obtain your mark breakdown. Almost certainly there's nothing wrong with your communication skills already. The flaws are with the assessment itself that they stubbornly insist is required for qualifying as an actuary- unless you seek Fellowship with the benefit of a MRA of course as then you don't need to complete this "key part of the competence standard".

I had received from acted & ifoa over the years so much contradictory and confusing advice on why I failed CA3, what I should do, what was jargon and what wasn't, whether my voice and movements were ok or not. I'm still waiting over a year for a response from IFoA on what the standard for voice and movements were using that they were so willing to deduct marks for me - doesn't that say it all? As such I decided for CP3 to just completely ignore everything I had been told and just sit the thing. I sat CP3 with no preparation at all and passed it.

I must wonder whether the decision to pass the presentation aspect of CA3 to employers might have something to do with the questionable compliance of voice/movement criterias to stop people qualifying as actuaries with regards to say the disability discrimination aspects of the Equality Act?
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Of course sitting the exam a few times previously and getting comfortable with some basic things accounts to some preparation. But each to their own.;)
 
annuitydue said:
Of course sitting the exam a few times previously and getting comfortable with some basic things accounts to some preparation. But each to their own. ;)
Click to expand...

How many of the historically 2 out of 3 people who sat and failed this exam do you consider had not prepared for it?
 
It seems that the pass rate is high for cp3 which is good news....
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top