STs - which to choose?

Is anyone else stuck as to which ST subject(s) to choose for the next sitting? I can't help thinking that the old 301-4 subjects were better in the sense that by studying them all, they left career options open to you in the future. Or is that by covering CA1, you've covered the most important bits of ech of them, so it doesn't really matter?

With only 2 to choose from out of 6, it seems to me like you might be precluding yourself from several areas of actuarial work. Are employers going to check that new recruits have the appropriate subject before taking on a new employee?

If you currently work in General Insurance / Investments / Derivatives / Health, would you recommend your area of work - and if so, why?

For those that have already taken an ST subject, which would you recommend taking or wish you'd never started and why?

Looking forward to some clarity.

SB

 

Ideally you should already be working in a given field.

That aside, I've heard the investments exam is one of the easier options as well as health-care (but apparently HC is a massive course and the industry is realtively small -so it has a downside too).

I would say, without a current job you'd do well to go for Life and General Insurance - as they are two very big employers of actuarial students. But these aren't the easiest of the ST's.

 

I'd say do one in the area you work in and one a bit wider. So only if your really committed to life do ST1 and ST2, or ST5 and ST6 if you're really sold on investment.

Going for the ones in which you are more interested in is probably a better bet than basing choice on pass rates. If you get a bit stuck, that way you are liely to overcome the hurdle more quickly.

I guess the 'er puts more emphasis on your choice of SA. But there again, there still shouldn't be barriers to change. After all, that's what CPD is aimed at.

Good luck

 

why don't you do all ST's..that way you get knowledge of all fields like the 300's did and you won't feel like missing anything..what say

 

having completed all 300s, I'd say it has surely helped me get a wider perspective. Also when looking for a job overseas, I could confidently apply to areas where I had not worked, but studied the relevant subject. infact I even landed a job in a different area, simply based on the relevant 300.

However to complete all 300s, has taken a long time and I found myself struggling with subjects that I did not have experience with. So in retrospect, if I had the choice of doing only 2 of 6, I probably would have stuck to my area, inturn struggled less and qualified a lot faster ! However, I do value what I gained by studying the other subjects, so dont really have any regrets!

In short, in my opinion, I would make the best of my experience and get exams out of my way as soon as possible. So for eg - if I were working in life; I would probably choose ST2 ( coz its easy to understand & study) Also having choosen ST2, I would skip ST4 ( essentially based on similar principles). Investments knowledge definitely good to have, but if I had already studied this via say 301 or CAs, then St3 would be my choice( gives me a chance to study a different subject and hence opens up new area).

Also its good to have the ST corresponding to the SA you plan to study, as that is assumed knowledge! Similarly, investments (301) is also assumed knowledge for any SA exam!

 

I chose my ST's purely on a tactical basis. I didn't want to sit CA1 immediately after the 100's/CT's, so I did ST3 and ST4 to ease the burden of CA1. Had I sat CA1 first I would almost certainly have done ST3 and ST6 which are obviously the most statistical

 

Do anything but ST4 (Pension are dying!!! see: http://www.the-actuary.org.uk/pdfs/06_07_01.pdf )

 

Dont do ST3. The exam rarely reflects the course!

 

Thanks for all the tips.

I work in Life at the minute, so this is the obvious one, but my reservations are that it looks a bit dry and some of it seems to repeat CA1 (judging by the exam papers). So I'm very tempted by ST1 (Health) this time. Again, judging by the exam papers, Health looks like its an extension of Life in any case, and I like the idea of doing something that's a bit more "niche". Maybe in the next exam session I'd do one of the investment papers, but the choice between ST5 and ST6 would be for another time.

Anyone got any final comments, particularly those that have done the Health paper - how did you find it? I want to make a decision by Thursday. Is avanbuiten's suggestion that Health is a massive course true?

 

Now I feel really happy about taking ST3 in April.

 

That's not true - the exams do reflect the course, is just that the amount of knowledge that you need to put into a question in order to get the required marks is very difficult to judge and hence the problem!!!