• We are pleased to announce that the winner of our Feedback Prize Draw for the Winter 2024-25 session and winning £150 of gift vouchers is Zhao Liang Tay. Congratulations to Zhao Liang. If you fancy winning £150 worth of gift vouchers (from a major UK store) for the Summer 2025 exam sitting for just a few minutes of your time throughout the session, please see our website at https://www.acted.co.uk/further-info.html?pat=feedback#feedback-prize for more information on how you can make sure your name is included in the draw at the end of the session.
  • Please be advised that the SP1, SP5 and SP7 X1 deadline is the 14th July and not the 17th June as first stated. Please accept out apologies for any confusion caused.

Past papers

E

Edwin

Member
Hi admin,

Are the 400 series papers a good way to exercise for the exam, or is the difference in the change of syllabus too huge?
 
Hi, I think it deends on the particular SA exam. Some pensions and life papers will have common threads that were valid before 2005 (the 400 series papers) and are still valid. Many of the questions however will be out of date and have been superceded by new thinking and new ways of doing things. SA5 didnt exist before 2005, so that one is a special case. SA6 has changed a lot in recent years. Before 2005, the exam stuck to a number of topics that were linked to the core reading. In addition, the method of managing assets has changed - ALM is now firmly entrenched (it wasnt back in the day). Asset management is now about matching liabilities and managing balance sheet risk. Modern SA6 papers ask on anything, including politics and economics, and the style of the question is very different. SO I would say that, apart from a handful of older questions, many or most of the 400 series questions are no longer relevant to this subject.
 
Colin McKee said:
Hi, I think it deends on the particular SA exam. Some pensions and life papers will have common threads that were valid before 2005 (the 400 series papers) and are still valid. Many of the questions however will be out of date and have been superceded by new thinking and new ways of doing things. SA5 didnt exist before 2005, so that one is a special case. SA6 has changed a lot in recent years. Before 2005, the exam stuck to a number of topics that were linked to the core reading. In addition, the method of managing assets has changed - ALM is now firmly entrenched (it wasnt back in the day). Asset management is now about matching liabilities and managing balance sheet risk. Modern SA6 papers ask on anything, including politics and economics, and the style of the question is very different. SO I would say that, apart from a handful of older questions, many or most of the 400 series questions are no longer relevant to this subject.
Click to expand...

So what's the best way to prepare before doing the post 2005 paper?

Could it be advisable say to do a lot of external reading, understand the work and the approach to solving the problem. I think I work in an environment that cultivates thinking from first principles, with some of the problems really complex that may help.

But apart from that, I don't work in Investments I do ALM, Solvency 2 but not a lot of assets exposure.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top