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Ct 4,5 & 8

T

TheAce

Member
Hi.I really need your advice on this.I'm contemplating sitting Ct 4,5 & 8 in april 2011.i have already gone through Ct 4 & 5 material but haven't started yet on Ct 8.I will be putting in 4hrs a day.is it possible to pass all three or am i simply committing Actuarial Suicide?

Please advice.
 
Some would say empirically that is the toughest set of 3 CT exams you could sit.
 
actuarial suicide

4 hours a day? Every day? Really?

I agree these are the hardest three CTs you can do, but if you put in the hours (without going insane), I don't see why not. The recommended number of study hours for a CT is 125-150 I think, but it may be that something closer to 200 is needed for these three. Maybe 500 hours total, say. So you could do it with an average of 3 hours a day for the next 6 months, but I think you really need to question if you can keep that up. But if you can, why not?

Your expected number of passes may increase, but the volatility of your result will increase too. Would you rather have a 70% chance of passing two exams, or a 50% chance of passing three?

Might be worth checking they're not too close together in the schedule too - a few days in between the exams would be a big help i'd imagine.
 
Please consider this seriously. Its not that you can not do it but it is just that it is very difficult to do in 6 months while working at the same time. It really is a lot of material. Five things:

  • Actuaries are amongst the brightest people around. Actuaries have failed only a few exams in their life. Which exams? Actuarial exams
  • CT4 and CT8 cover material which you may never have dreamt of or imagined in your life. They are not merely expansions of your current knowledge; they are new knowledge in some cases requiring small paradigm shifts in the way you view the world
  • CT5 is very detail oriented. Small pieces of information can mean you win 5 marks or lose 5 marks. This means you may understand overarching themes but not the nitty-gritty. This requires lots of practice. Definitely over 150 hrs.
  • Matt78 is right. You are spreading yourself thinly. There is absolutely no doubt that you are reducing your probability of passing an exam. I feel from 90% to 50%.
  • Beware of people who claim to have sat and passed 3 exams in one session when in fact one of them was a resit or one of them was an easy one like CT7
 
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Passing those three subjects in one sitting would be a colossal achievement. Not advisable unless you can learn extremely efficiently and are very good at doing exams. 4+5 or 4+8 would be a much more realistic goal. Also keep in mind the difficulty of CT4 exams can be highly volatile, even for well prepared candidates.
 
I'm planning to take the same route in May too (from India)...more out of desperation. I'll be entering a job from June and I'd really like to get the CT series out of the way by then, after which I might have to stagnate for half a year due to shifting cities and adjusting to a new lifestyle etc. I know the odds are stacked against this route but I'm willing to at least try putting that to the test...so even if I don't cut it in a paper, the preparation will reduce my burden for retaking it paper next time :eek:
 
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Thanks a lot guys.I realize it would be a stupid risk.Ive settled for 2 4 5.Wish me luck...:cool:
 
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