I am done with the CTs and should be done with CA1 once this diet results are out. I am planning to go for ST2 and SA2 in the Apr 2012 exams. I have no insurance experience and was wondering how difficult would this make tackling and passing these papers, especially SA2. Any tips/ suggestions?
I would say ST2 is quite possible to study and pass with no life insurance experience. In fact there's often a pensions or GI student in my tutorials and they do OK. However, I don't think I've ever met anyone who has passed SA2 with no life insurance experience. That's not to say it's not possible, but I think you'd be at a very distinct disadvantage. Consider this Syllabus Objective from SA2: Produce coherent advice and recommendations for the overall financial management of a life insurance company. - Analyse more complex problems in terms of actuarial, economic and financial factors to a level where appropriate analytical techniques may be used. - Integrate the results of such an analysis into a coherent whole. - Evaluate critically and interpret the results in a wider context and draw appropriate conclusions. This sounds very difficult to do from a position of no experience. But it would be good to hear what others think. What is your background? Aren't any other SA subjects more suited to your experience?
I have about 10 years of experience in the banking and financial services' industry. But I am keen to shift to and make a career in LI.
Its a bold move. As you don;t have the life background perhaps you could juggle your sittings? Do 2STs together (1 being ST2) and see how you feel about the basic life one before committing to SA2. It just may take longer for the ST2 to sink in and you may find yourself short of time to study SA2, Also are you constrained by your employer on what you take? And sometimes I think office/work knowledge can also be a handicap as you get blinkered into 'this is how we do it' and can't always see the big picture required for some exam qns. Good luck.
I am planning to tackle ST2 and SA2 together in April because the topics covered are similar and the study window is longer. And most importantly, I have studied for CA1 for the last 1 year and am really in the CA1 kind 'zone'; so I need to tackle these subjects when I am in the 'zone' .
Make sure you get a good head start then on the ST as the SA won't make much sense until you have the basic STknowledge in your head.
Even if you have several years experience working in actuarial roles it is quite possible that you never had the joy of having to look in the FSA returns book to extract information given that most people work with spreadsheets and such these days and get their information in that way. Usually the FSA returns books are collecting dust somewhere. Even so, they find it amusing enough to set questions like April 2011 2(ii) to separate people on their knowledge of what form in the FSA returns the info has come from. Not even Acted has put sample forms in the Acted notes? And although you can see FSA returns online, they are rather forgetful, at least the form numbers are. Although why they would want to test people's memory of Form numbers is bewildering. It's a bit like if you had an RE exam they would give you a Bible verse and ask you to specify the chapter and verse number it has come from. It's just such a ludicrous thing to 'test' people at this stage of the exams. And to think that failing a question like that could cause some to fail the exam and have to resit really takes the biscuit. Until now, I never quite understood people who passed say 13/14 exams then didn't bother with the last couple enough to pass. Now I think I understand why. But having the enthusiasm bashed out of you one last time just before you qualify is not something I find very surprising, I must admit...
Just to say that it is a bit heavy to do both ST2 and SA2 even if you have life experience. Having banking experience is good start, but SA2 requires significant amount of practical understanding of how everything works. Loads of candidates failed to understand the actual practice issues and hence failed the exam because they cannot demonstrate the application of technical knowledge to the situations. Questions in SA are more practical in general and very UK specific. Imagine they are asking the items you need to consider in PPFM and relating them to a particular practice of existing bonus structure of a company in preparation for Solvency II. Even the most able students (or even qualifieds) would be struggling on various levels, purely because of the experience they have or do not have. Anyway, at this point, you should have done your SA2 revision for tomorrow. Best of luck!
Thank you all for your responses. I went with SA5 and have now cleared all exams (pending an exemption application). I am still toying with the idea of SA2, I passed ST2 in the recent sitting. With no LI experience, no actuarial experience actually, and no UK experience, how big a mountain do I have to climb? How should I go about it? With the fellowship out of the way, I can go totally medieval on SA2 with no pressure/ anxiety .
