A
avanbuiten
Member
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!!!!
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!!!!