Mock Exam Sep 06

A CRITIQUE OF THE CA3 ACTED MOCK
By avanbuiten
SEPTEMBER 2006

OVERVIEW

Just done the Acted Mock exam and found it to be a bit odd!
I'm going to talk about Q1 and Q2 as well as a technical consideration.

QUESTION 1 - Inappropriate advice?
The answer has a marketing actuary giving specific mortgage advice to a customer. I thought only Mortgage Advisors & IFA's registered with the appropriate body were allowed to give such advice?

QUESTION 2 - Wrong Exam / Wrong Seres?
This required so much numerical work that I found the calculations more challenging than the actual presentation. I actually wrote the presention in under 15 minutes having spent the rest of my time doing; NPV's, Sensitivity Analyses', Payback Periods, etc...

WHY ASK THIS?
We have the CT series to test us on numerical skills - this exam is meant to be about communication. I accept some calculations are necessary but this question (q2) went too far in my opinion.

TECHNICAL CONSIDERATION (Q2)
Looking at their answer to the NPV equations they incorrectly use annuity in advance when they should actually use a continuous/instant annuity (bar) since ticket sales occur continuously throughout the year (and not all on 1st January).

If someone in my department made such a msitake - I would be left with a poor view/ opinion of them as both an actuary and a professional.

SURPRISE - But it's not my birthday!
The mock was even more of a surprise after the relatively well written X-assignements. There didn't seem to be any consistency in style between the mock and the assignments. Yet the assignments also clearly aspire to be exam-like.

SUMMARY

+ The mock exam may have been badly written.

+ I could be a bad student making excuses.

+ Another possibility is that the real exam is so bad that Acted purposely wrote a poor paper in order to be more realistic.

***** What do you think ??? *****

Any Question ????



p.s. I hope this won't bias my mock exam result when i submit it for marking!!
Not that I'm very optimistic!!!!

 

I haven't tried the mock myself, but:

CA3 is not a UK-specific exam, so rules and regs about giving advice is irrelevant.

There have been big REAL exam questions recently on presentations which demand loads of calculations and not much communication so the mock exam does look like the real thing. I suppose the examiners would argue that sifting through loads of details and coming up with relevant answers is part of communication...

 

ca3 and confusions

hi, my story maybe good or bad - not sure - but i did pass ca3 in april 06 so some of below might be useful...

i did 201 back in 2000 and failed really badly and i bought the exam counselling - the advice was useful for that particular paper but in the end it's the same old stories - that you need to practice and practice.

then i thought i'd do ca3 again april 06 (some lightning striked and i thought restarting the actuarial exams was not a bad idea).

i read the ca3 notes (which was twin brother to 201 to certain extent). i also read more economists, FTs, and good financial journals...

and then i read the ca3 past papers.

In my opinion, the way to read ca3 past papers should be: Question, Answer, Question again. Because in that way you will realise how much information in the Q were to confuse you, make you agitated and waste your precious time if you are not FOCUSED enough on your given task.

You cannot underestimate the role of those materials which are used to confuse you. Unless you know exactly what you are trying to convey and get all the technical things right you will be easily misled by those extra informations. The consequence is either you write points which are not meant to be useful (hence reducing the reader's understanding) or you don't have time to put the required points across.

A good piece of ca3 writing/presentation should have the points you want to express IN THE FACE for your reader.

Usually the points are restricted to just 4 or 5 and if you are clear headed should be fairly obvious when you read the question.

Find those points - arrange them in a logical order - write them out in plain english. That's it.

For the presentation the same applies but logical flow of the slides is important (best thing is to do an agenda right in the beginning for your own clarity and the reader's). But the graphs and tables are also crucial - think about what information you would appreciate in these formats - what message you wish to convey - then do them in a simple way.


To summarise:

1) Find out your task.

2) Gather points for your task (filter to end up with 4 or 5).

3) Arrange your points in logical order such that you are satisfied if you are the person needing the info.

4) Write out the points in plain english.

5) Count words. If too many review your piece - trim and slim till count is not over. Similar concepts apply in number of slides in presentation.

6) For presentation remember to use tables and graphs such that they send the message you want and not overcomplicated. They are alternative forms of expressing your points -so the combination of words, tables and graphs should convey your 4 or 5 points in a coherent manner.

***********************

All the above are important to pass ca3 - especially the last 2 because they give the examiner an impression that you paced yourself well and make sure you FINISH what you were going to do (nothing is worse than an unfinished letter or presenation lacking an end).

I hope this is helpful. Good luck in Sept!

 

Question 1 - Inappropriate advice

I think you're forgetting that the only UK-specific exams where genuine UK laws and regulations apply are the SA's and Practice Modules. All the other exams take place in a fictional world invented by the Institute where they make up rules as an when it suits them!

 

ca3 and confusions

Thanks for that Rhoda,

I've printed your excellent piece of communication and will definitely be applying it in the rest of my preparations for September. It is very helpful.

You say that there should be four or five points. Where do those numbers come from? I was always under the impression that there should be two or three points. Maybe that is why I failed last September.

 

number of points for technical content

Hi Southern Butterfly,

I went back to the ca3 notes and checked where I got the impression re 4 or 5 points...

Because as you said the notes suggest 2 or 3 BIG IDEAS .

But maybe 2 or 3 Big Ideas would generate 4 or 5 points...

In the end I think I derived it from the number of slides: the max is 8, take away 3 (1 each for opening, agenda, summary) leaving 5. Usually I would convey one message in each slide.

Of course you cannot be too dogmatic about this, sometimes one big idea requires 2 points to explain it clearly (depending on audience) - then maybe you can use text for one and graph for another.

Usually the Q on letter is on how you make an unhappy/confused person feel better - 2 or 3 Big Ideas in this case do require 4 or 5 steps to show the person that you understand how he feels and then show him what the correct interpretation is.

**********

It is beneficial to go through some past papers or the like - try to find out the 2 or 3 BIG IDEAS and the 4 or 5 points.

1) Always ask yourself "what message do I need to convey?".

2) Gather the info you need from the question - they are always there!

3) Don't be distracted by the other info - they are there to test whether you can do the sieving. Sieving is easy if you have a good grasp of the technical stuff.

***********

If you have a good logical flow of the 4 or 5 points then you have a good framework for your answer.

Although technical content is only 40% but everything else builds on this framework...

Happy studying!

 

ca3 and confusions

Thanks, Rhoda

Much appreciated.

This morning I redid the first question of the exam I failed last year, using your ideas. Even though I haven't marked it yet, I must say that I'm happier with the script I produced this time around!

Thanks again!

 

I got my mock result back.....and scored 68%.

So apparently you can get all your numbers wrong (which I did on the 2nd question) and still pass - as long as you communicate well enough.

I'm happy!