Difficulty of CS2A

[bernvall]

Considering the exam has now been moved online and “open book” would you imagine examiners creating a more difficult paper since they would “expect’ students to make use of the open book? This is also because , usually the first 3-4 questions of each paper are theory based and “easy’ but this time around they will not be included.

Lastly what are your thoughts about first writing down the computation on a piece of paper (where we are more familiar with) and then quickly copying it onto word. Do you think that would waste too much time?

 

[Andrew Martin]

Hello

The only information I have is that which has been provided by the IFoA on their website. I recommend reading the FAQs and CS2 specific documents. If you haven't already, have a look at the relevant documents at the following link:

https://www.actuaries.org.uk/studying/exam-bookings/2020-examinations/essential-documents

For example, in the CS2 Guidance document, you can find the following at the top of page 3 (as of the time of this post):

Due to the open-book nature of the September 2020 CS2A exam, candidates should expect very few pure Knowledge skill type questions. The approximate split of assessment across the two remaining skill types is 75% Application and 25% Higher Order skills.

Regarding writing computations on paper, it could be a good idea if you are struggling to get started on a question in Word and it helps you to scribble down some ideas or some equations. Personally, I would not be writing full solutions on rough paper and then transferring to Word. I feel like this would take a fair amount of time. The more you practice writing solutions in Word, the quicker and easier it will become.

That being said, I can't say what will work best for you. You could try both on some practice questions and time yourself to see what you want to do in the exam.

All the best

Andy

 

[bernvall]

Thank you Andy. I imagine most of the questions which include large computations will be the multiple choice ones whereas the smaller computations will be included which shouldn’t be too hard on Word.

Considering we are going to be the “guinea pigs”, without any official sample papers might I add, I sincerely do hope the examiners take this into consideration when deciding how complicated to make the exam.

we have come a looonggg way from the original CT4 and CT6 with now one exam for both of them, online, with the inclusion of R.

 

[associate]

Very difficult...

 

[Michal Piatra]

I agree. Only "CT" exam I wasn't able to fully finish. Not sure if it was due to word format, lack of focus while doing it at home or it's me not being prepared enough.

 

[associate]

yes and the R paper was a another story. I thought the R paper was going to be easy after doing past papers.

 

[Smithwicks]

Anybody able to shed light on how they answered Q3 iv on the the Time Series question?

 

[Michal Piatra]

Anybody able to shed light on how they answered Q3 iv on the the Time Series question?

After differencing I got model in form dY(t)=0.5*dY(t-1) + e(t) +0.7*e(t-1).
Then from part iii) I got answer A, i.e. Cov(e(t),dY(t))=sigma^2 and Cov(e(t-1),dY(t))=(0.5 + 0 + 0.7)*sigma^2=1.2 sigma^2
For part iv) I've written gamma_0 as
gamma_0=Cov(dY(t),dY(t))= Cov(0.5*dY(t-1) + e(t) +0.7*e(t-1),dY(t))
= 0.5*gamma_1 + Cov(e(t),dY(t)) + 0.7*Cov(e(t-1),dY(t))
using result from part iii):
=0.5*gamma_1 + sigma^2 + 0.7*1.2 * sigma^2= 0.5*gamma_1 + 1.84*sigma^2.
I took similar approach for gamma_1.
Hope it will be readable.

 

[Smithwicks]

After differencing I got model in form dY(t)=0.5*dY(t-1) + e(t) +0.7*e(t-1).
Then from part iii) I got answer A, i.e. Cov(e(t),dY(t))=sigma^2 and Cov(e(t-1),dY(t))=(0.5 + 0 + 0.7)*sigma^2=1.2 sigma^2
For part iv) I've written gamma_0 as
gamma_0=Cov(dY(t),dY(t))= Cov(0.5*dY(t-1) + e(t) +0.7*e(t-1),dY(t))
= 0.5*gamma_1 + Cov(e(t),dY(t)) + 0.7*Cov(e(t-1),dY(t))
using result from part iii):
=0.5*gamma_1 + sigma^2 + 0.7*1.2 * sigma^2= 0.5*gamma_1 + 1.84*sigma^2.
I took similar approach for gamma_1.
Hope it will be readable.

Thats perfect Michal. Makes sense.
Really appreciate the response and hope the exam went well for you.

 

[RossD]

yes and the R paper was a another story. I thought the R paper was going to be easy after doing past papers.

I'm glad other people are saying it was difficult. I found paper A really tough - definitely the hardest exam I've sat so far. There seemed to be quite a few questions on areas which aren't commonly examined, and despite thinking I had fully grasped differencing I couldn't get to the answer on Q3.

And then, yeah I thought I was very ready for paper B but that was a disaster. Seemed like a quarter of the marks available weren't possible if you couldn't append an extra column to some data (which granted seems like a basic I should perhaps have been able to do!)

 

[Srijana Raghunath]

I am appearing for IAI exam in 2 wks time. So I am practicing UK papers , too. I did not find CS2A that difficult, only Q7 I could not do and some 2 marks ones like Q3 iv) and Q8 vi) I am unable to get the answers given.

But as u said, CS2B is way too difficult. Q3 is a total disaster, as like u, i have no clue how to proceed from i) itself, forget about the later parts. For Q1, I can do only upto iv). and the fact that each sub-section carries so heavy marks, its scary even if u cant do one sub-section.

India usually have tougher question papers, so i am dreadful about CS2B.

PS. If u could send me your solution to Q7, I would be grateful.