A bit of a distant memory...but what did you think of Sept 09? Personally, q2 did it for me! never expected such a question to come up...and with exam pressure, I won't score well (or at all???) on this one... managed to get down something for q1, but then again, from past experience, I wouldn't be 100% about anything... Colin - what did you think of the paper? Was it a "standard" one or a Black Swan? lol Thanks
Sept 2009 Sorry for the late reply. I normally get informed when someone makes a forum comment (must investigate) I thought Sept 09 was a very hard paper. Q2 was very unlike anything that had been asked in the past, and very general insurance focused. I have just seen the pass rates and they are very low. I hope that this is a black swan and that we will see lots of finance questions re-appearing in future papers. Hope you passed!!
Thanks for the reply Colin...Kind of comforting to know that I wasn't the only one who thought that the paper was really tough (and unfair?), but then, with there's the associated pass rate. By the way, what is the pass rate for SA5? it seems to go down every Sept! I haven't checked my results yet (!)...waiting for next year...I'm pretty sure I've failed it, and so as not to be miserable around this time of the year, I'll check them early next year...sounds crazy isn't it? Congrats to everyone who passed. El Gringo
The usual rant! Hi Colin Happy New Year! I have just seen the answers of the examiners to last Sept paper...and I'm a bit lost! Did they seriously expect someone who studied the material provided to be able to give such type of answers? As you mentioned previously, the focus was on GI. I thought that SA5 would bring a breathe of fresh air to the exams, giving us the opportuniy to explore NEW areas...and then the examiners decide to test something which, i believe, would be more suited to SA3 or SA2..or any SA exam for that matter...I thought that we were done with calculations at this stage of the exams! Is there any way to voice out this concern to the Institute? Are Acted tutors planning on doing something about this? I'm thinking whether this is all worth going through, and whether I should switch to my more natural choice, SA6... Thanks in advance for your reply. From Frustrated El Gringo.
SA5 exam Sept 2009 Hi I thought that the examiners solutions would have been quite difficult to get to, particularly if you have no GI experience. There are a few assumptions about the minimum amount of capital that a company would get away with, and about the likely percentage of brokers that would take up the new product, which you need to get a result. However, it is not clear how a student would know what to use for these estimates. The danger here is that a student will search the questions for hours looking for the information that he/she needs, without realising that it was necessary to make an assumption. The pass rate was very low by historical standards (low 30s) - although the tutorial pass rate was 67%. Always good to take some credit for the work and efforts of others!!! I suspect that this exam will turn out to be a bit of a blip. Worth continuing with SA5 I think. SA6 has its fair share of unusualy questions. If you want to voice concern, the Institute staff actuary would be the appropriate place. The Institute's website gives details of the staff actuaries and the subjects that they are responsible for. Colin
