Hi guys, just wondering if I needed to be sponsored by an organisation to actually do the exams. I'm currently unemployed so want to try and get some CTs done. I've heard that you cannot do the exams unless supported by an employer. Is this true? Is there anything stopping me from funding study materials and exams myself?
There is nothing stopping you from doing the exams yourself. It can be very expensive which is why people do not normally do it. I have heard on interview that it is very impressive to have funded and sat a few CTs to potential employers. It shows dedication and commitment. A common warning is not to sit too many as too many exams with no experience can make employers wary. Im not sure how true this is when a lot of the actuarial graduates can come out of university with 8 CT exemptions and no experience!
There are many students who are self-funding but it is an expensive business. A good first step would be taking just the CT1 as this doesn't require membership of the Profession. Costs would be: CMP (containing the course notes, Q&A banks and X assignments) £120 (or since money is short you could go for the notes at £70 – but you will need to do many past papers) Exam entry fee (paid to the Profession) £230 Past exam papers – free to download from the Profession’s website Formulae book - you can live without it for CT1 otherwise £15 (from the Profession). If you start now you should be easily able to take this in the September sitting. I've rewritten large chunks of the Core Reading for 2013 so after you order if you drop me an email I'll send you these bits as it will make things much easier!
Not in the context of independently sitting exams. It's pretty reasonable to ask what's going on if someone had paid and studied for eight CTs, yet hadn't got a job in the meantime.
Obviously depends on the reason for doing it and how long it took. In the context of university exemptions, this is complete garbage. An employer knocking a candidate back for doing 'too well' at uni?
I find some employers don't like students with too many exemptions as they have to be paid more but just don't have the experience. Yes they have exams but often can't remember much of them nor their content nor what their application is to real life problems.
Bobba, if you have two Uni graduates, one with 8, one with 2. Who would you hire? Who do you think will learn the skills faster? I think you have to rephrase your statement to mean some employer's don't like Uni graduates, because of zero experience.
Saha The main downside of doing exams on your own is the cost. You also need to bear in mind that you need 3 years of experience (WBS) to become a Fellow. At some point they made students submit a form to record their supervisor in order to sit exams. However, once you tell the Profession that you're unemployed and that you're fully aware that you'll have to come back to do 3 yrs of work experience before qualifying, I doubt they'll stop you from sitting exams. As for the controversial topic of "too many exams being a disadvantage" I suspect this stems from concerns about large periods of unemployment, imbalance between exams passes and experience etc. You might find difficulty with CT9, CA2, CA3 and these depend on experience, and latter depend on CT9, but no reason why you couldn't do remaining exams. I would not recommend a strategy of not putting effort into finding employment and choosing to do lots of exams first. But There's nothing wrong with doing well at uni and either gaining exemptions or sitting exams on your own along uni exams. Better to have some exam passes than none if you have tried to find employment and were unsuccessful (latter will need explaining at interview) It's reasonable to expect that at some point an extra exam pass no longer adds to starting salary without the comparable experience to go with it (but if you can prove yourself once you have the job you'll have better chances of climbing the ladder quicker)
ddster, I'm at Uni and have the Uni exams as well as CT8 through IOA/ASSA. I'm writing CT5 this September and one Uni CT as well. But I have never set foot into any company. They simply don't want to hire me because I'm not a citizen of South Africa, even vacation job, common in SA is reserved for citizens. But I can't just sit and watch, better do the exams in the time I have. I'v seen my friends get jobs and invitations for vacation work, but not me, simply because I am a citizen of a small country called BOTSWANA northern neighbor of South Africa. My advice is if you can't get noticed for your effort, keep trying and keep writing exams so at least you have something to offer.
I can't agree more, all this "Employers don't like too many exam passes" and "Exam passes don't mean higher chance of entry level position" effectively amount to saying "give up now on your actuarial career". I would much rather employ someone who has passed CT1-8 & CA1 independently than someone who has a non actuarial degree and probably doesn't even know much about what is involved in actuarial.
