Differences between SA subjects
Shyguy: Don't panic! It's very early days so far.
Having no GI experience is a disadvantage for SA3. However, I've known plenty of people in this situation who have passed, but it will involve more reading around the subject and perhaps talking to people in the industry to get a better idea of "what's going on".
Should you switch to SA1 (health)? If you need a "fresh start", this could be the way to go. SA1 is fairly similar to SA3 in terms of volume and difficulty of content. There are bits taken from SA2 and SA3 (
eg legislation), but there is less detail than in those subjects. Again, having health experience is an advantage, but it's not impossible without it. Like SA3/ST3, SA1 questions test ST1 Core Reading knowledge too, but be warned as ST1 is BIG.
How do the other SA subjects compare?
SA2 has a vast amount of CR and also relies on having a good understanding of ST2. Although specifics from ST2 are unlikely to be examined in the SA2 exam, the topics will be similar.
SA4 is similar in these respects to SA2.
SA6 relies heavily on CA11 and ST5 but contains a lot of stuff that is outside any of these.
SA5 contains a lot from ST5 and a lot from SA5 itself but not much from outside the courses.
I hope all this gives you some idea of which way to go. If you're still not sure, contact the relevant SA tutor for further information or you could try asking other students via the other SA subject forums.
Parnell:
You need to log in as a member to the Institute/Faculty site, then click on "resource centre", then "actuarial journals" to access the relevant BAJ.
Best of luck to you both
Ian
