SP5 FAQs

This thread contains the Subject SP5 questions asked most frequently by students, with answers written by ActEd's tutors. Each year, we'll incorporate these questions and solutions into the study material.

This thread was edited on May 2023.

Question

How important is the ActEd material in the Course Notes? Can I get away with only reading the Core Reading for this subject?

Answer

Each of the actuarial exams is intended to test your knowledge, understanding and ability to apply the Core Reading in the relevant course. The non-Core Reading material is there primarily to aid your understanding of the Core Reading itself in preparation for the exams. In addition, much of the ActEd material is:

(a) in the form of summary sheets and end-of-chapter questions that encourage active learning

(b) focused on the parts of the Core Reading where students have had difficulties in the past.

Our advice is to work through all of the non-Core Reading material at least once. However, when revising for the exam, you should certainly focus increasingly on the Core Reading, perhaps referring to the remainder of the Course Notes only when you need further explanation.

At all times, you should remember that although the exam will contain a small number of bookwork questions (writing the Core Reading knowledge in your own words when the exams are online), many of the questions will require more than simple repetition of the Core Reading and this is where the other material is likely to be useful in helping to develop your understanding of the Core Reading itself. Of course, the most useful way of preparing for tackling questions in the exam is to practise exam-style questions.


Question

Many students talk about the problems presented by 'performance attribution' questions in Subject SP5. Is this a particularly difficult section?

Answer

In short, the answer is YES. Performance attribution questions used to come up relatively frequently and could be worth up to 20 marks. Since the exams have moved online they are much less frequent. The Core Reading gives a very brief overview of the topic, but refers mainly to past papers as the best source of material on how to approach these questions. Added to that, there are a large number of tweaks and changes that the examiner can make to the underlying assumptions, the exact data that is asked for, and the number of marks awarded for the work. This makes it quite problematic. The best approach is to get to grips with the basics, using perhaps one of the more simple examples. Then work steadily through all the earlier and later examples in past papers until you feel confident. This topic is also covered in some detail in SP5 tutorials.