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When to start..

  • Thread starter LazyLinePainterJane
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LazyLinePainterJane

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Right, I'm all booked up for an online exam in November. I've ordered the CMP. This is my last exam so I have nothing else to study. I'm temporally keen from the novelty of finally passing CA1.

I don't get much financial help from my company, so can't afford tutorials or series x marking (though I'll probably get a marked mock or two myself). I can't afford to fail this one.

The question is, seeing as I generally can't study effectively without "the fear" and I have a history of peeking too soon, running out of past papers/motivation and then failing, should I start studying as soon as the material arrives?

There don't seem to be many past papers online, and I gather there is no Q&A bank, so practice seems to be limited.

Should I be aiming to have finished all the ActEd material by 8 weeks before the exam, when the IFoA are due to send the exam material through, or is the idea you don't really start until this material comes through?
 
Hi, is this your first attempt at CA3?

The Acted CA3 material contains very little to read.
Practicing past years under exam condition is still the best IMO.
I don't think peeking-too-early is really an issue. On the other hand it may help preparation sometimes.

I recommend starting immediately. There are actually plenty of past year papers floating around.

Here are some CA3 tips [not sure if relevant to your query]

For written/typed quesitons, you can start with old 201 & old CA3 past year papers in addition to sample online ones. Although they won't test CT topics anymore, the same skills are being tested except it's in a CA1 context. Study the examiner reports carefully, like CA1,STs & SAs I found repeating patterns in answers & a hidden syllabus in 'em.

If these are not enough, you can find even more practice past year papers from the Institute of Actuaries India.

On video presentation, I remember spending abit of time for logistics (finding the right room, webcam positioning, soundchecks, where I should stand etc) as initial preparation. Invest or borrow a good webcam & mic if you can.

On practicing this bit, I used old CA3 presentation slide questions as presentation questions. Though I admit there werent enough. Study Acted's 'answers' to presentations for tips on how to score up.

The advantage of CA3 online is we get to practice & rehearse our presentations until it is presentable. So I used to recording every presentation rehearsal to analyse for areas to improve on (keeping it to 10 minutes, body language, avoid urrrmm, aaaahhhs in speech). You want your presentation to look great on video. And this is rather different from face to face presentations where the human eye tends to ignore little mistakes and bad habits. A webcam doesn't. I did about 9 takes for the actual exam. For normal practice 4 rehearsals was enough.

You can look out for great tips from this presentation for passing CA3. See the link below.

https://web.actuaries.ie/sites/defa...0/111124 How to pass CA3 24 November 2011.pdf
Click to expand...
 
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Thank you, that's great advice.

I did try CA3 once before, but back when it was a written paper, so over 3 years ago now. I can't really remember what was on the course, and am not sure how much it will have changed.

Last time I started off really well, did well in the early assignments, but it somehow fell apart at the end, and I got an FA in the exam. (Which was particularly annoying as I thought it had gone well.)

Oh well, hopefully this time!

Thank you.
 
Good luck!

The link above still works and has been fixed.
 
LazyLinePainterJane said:
(Which was particularly annoying as I thought it had gone well.)
Click to expand...

Of course you thought it had gone well - you wrote the answer so obviously you understood what you had written! Critical thing in CA3 is to get other people to read your stuff - to see if they understand it. So I'd really recommend getting mocks and assignments marked.
 
I did. At the time I was working for an employer who actually paid for stuff. I did assignments, started with As but then the last one or two got worse. I did tutorials, during which we did a mock, which I got 81% in. Things just seemed to fall apart near the actual exam.

If I were to get a marking voucher or two, can I record a presentation and get that marked too, or are the X assignments just marked on the written communication and the slides?
 
Yes, thank you, I know they can for mocks, but it doesn't say anything about X assignments on that page. I was hoping a tutor would be able to clarify this?
 
Hi LazyLinePainterJane

Marking via Youtube is a new facility we offer, and to start with we're only offering it for Mock Exams, not X Assignments (this may well change in the future, depending on demand).

However, we're happy to mark pretty much anything for you, including Youtube presentations, if it counts as personal tuition. Quite a few students use this to get individual feedback on various CA3 'attempts', for example past exam papers, X assignments, or anything else they've found! If you'd be interested in this, contact our admin team in the usual way and they'll give you the details and see what can be arranged.

Hope this helps!
Ian
 
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