Revision materials

Discussion in 'SA5' started by Angelina, Aug 4, 2014.

  1. Angelina

    Angelina Member

    How do people revise for this exam? There aren't any flashcards and ASET isn't available either. Given that this has been my strategy for every other exam, I'm not sure how I'm going to approach this. What are other people doing? :confused:
     
    Angelina, Aug 4, 2014
    #1
  2. Colin McKee

    Colin McKee ActEd Tutor Staff Member

    With luck, some other SA5 students might share theor experiences here. The low numbers of students sitting SA5 dont justify the time and cost to produce and maintain these extra products. But we do realise that they are valued.
    Fortunately, SA5 has a good set of examiners reports which are quite thorough and are a good revision tool. And being an SA, there are a higher proportion of "off-core reading" or "higher-order skills" questions, which would not be helped by (for example) flashcards or revision booklets. Maybe if numbers continue to grow, Acted will step into this space and start producing them (but it wont be in the coming session I am afraid).
     
    Colin McKee, Aug 4, 2014
    #2
  3. april2105

    april2105 Member

    I missed the extra bits and pieces too but pased first time with no tutorial.

    Just study everything there is and maybe read around the economist or FT too. Very little in the exam related directly to all the stuff i had learned off but wanted you to think quite broadly. So I think if you build up a bank of knowledge you can draw form it and make it fit the question as appropriate.
     
    april2105, Aug 12, 2014
    #3
  4. Angelina

    Angelina Member

    Thanks for the replies. A little reassuring that its not just bookwork because I am struggling to remember the details of all of these regulations!
     
    Angelina, Aug 16, 2014
    #4
  5. Colin McKee

    Colin McKee ActEd Tutor Staff Member

    You are not alone I suspect
     
    Colin McKee, Aug 18, 2014
    #5
  6. Eldino

    Eldino Member

    Any chance of flashcards for the coming April 2016 sitting?

    I've been reading make it stick and it really emphasises the importance of testing knowledge. I'm currently doing ST9 and testing myself after each chapter and realising just how little is going in from just reading the chapters. So I'm concerned about how I'm going to approach SA5 if it's going to be a similar experience except without the aid of flashcards or anything I can use to test knowledge of the core reading.
     
    Eldino, Jun 3, 2015
    #6
  7. Colin McKee

    Colin McKee ActEd Tutor Staff Member

    Funny you should mention it but ... We actually have flashcards as the next product in the production line for SA5. Whether I will get them done in time for the summer sitting is a different matter, but they should be along soon. :)
     
    Colin McKee, Jun 4, 2015
    #7
  8. Eldino

    Eldino Member

    That's really great news.

    One thing I would note about previous acted flashcards, is they assume they're being read in order. Even assuming they're being read with the flashcards of the same chapter is a bit of stretch in practice.

    My approach this sitting has been to shuffle together both ST5 and ST9's flashcards of all the chapters I've done so far and work through them. It just makes it a bit confusing sometimes when one flashcard is either directly referring to another or is missing the necessary context to get the right answer.

    I'm hoping this isn't an unreasonable or uncommon use case for the flashcards.
     
    Last edited by a moderator: Jun 5, 2015
    Eldino, Jun 4, 2015
    #8
  9. Ivanhoe

    Ivanhoe Member

    Hi April2105,

    The specific reading list (for SA5) is just too large. I tried reading the SA5 specific articles and papers that were listed. They were very technical in nature. Frankly, I did not understand most of them

    Regarding the 'General Reading List', I saw that the reading list pertaining to Financial Crises itself runs to 73 pages.

    Could you please guide us regarding the extra reading that needs to be done (especially regarding the financial crises)? I stay in a developing nation and hence I am not acquainted with the Eurozone developments. I have started reading 'Financial Times' though.

    I would be grateful if others could respond as well.

    Regards,
     
    Ivanhoe, Jun 5, 2015
    #9
  10. Colin McKee

    Colin McKee ActEd Tutor Staff Member

    Hi,
    Firstly thanks for the advice on flashcards - I had not thought of that issue, but it should be an easy one for us to sort. I will pass an email round the ActEd tutors to watch out for this the next time they update a set of flashcards, and make each one self-contained.

    On the SA5 reading list question, this is a really hard one. I have no insight into what the exam may examine, nor which further reading papers may be used as the basis for a question (if one is indeed used!) I will say however, that in the past, there have been very few questions that I can directly link to ANY paper on the further reading list. The main use of the further reading list is to widen students' awareness and outlook, rather than to give specific reading that can be directly examined. The most important material is definitely: the SA5 core reading, the parts of ST5 core reading referenced at the start of the SA5 course notes, and the general financial press. The above list accounts, in my opinion, for 80% to 90% of exam material in the last 10 years of papers. Financial press means the FT (particularly long view articles, economic articles, geo-political events and articles on these, discussions on European and global regulation with a particular bias towards insurance regulation), the economist, and the BBC business website (which is actually pretty good for most of the above items).

    Hope this helps. It is more difficult when living abroad, but not impossible.
     
    Colin McKee, Jun 8, 2015
    #10
  11. Ivanhoe

    Ivanhoe Member

    Thank you for you response Professor.

    Regarding ST5, would I be right in saying that Chapters 13 (Industry Classification),14 (Investment Indices),15 (Performance measurement 1),16 (Performance measurement 2), and 18 (Actuarial Techniques 1) are less important? Any other chapters that I need not go through in the interest of time?

    For subject 305, there only papers for the years 2003-04. I wonder why
     
    Ivanhoe, Jun 9, 2015
    #11

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