Why aren't Actuary exams completed by University courses

[morrisja]

Calum was referring to mpyan1 not you.

Oh I know, but a bit further back mpyan1 was referring to me when he originally asked the question.

Not that the question is particularly relevant unless one of us actually is an examiner.. no one has any more knowledge than the other - it's all opinion and speculation, though some may be more biased than others.

 

[mpyan1]

And long may they! In university you get no experience in working in industry. Surely even you can appreciate that it would be stupid to have fully qualified actuaries who have never worked or specialised.

Is that as stupid as having an IFoA Director of Education and a IFoA CEO who have never worked a day of their lives as Actuaries?

 

[mpyan1]

Specialisation with STs and SA requires experience, it requires students to understand what companies do and why they do it.

Sorry but that's a myth. People with a decade or more experience find themselves failing SA, while some pass it 3 years from Uni. Maybe it's to do with how blue your eyes are.

 

[mpyan1]

I wonder if you are forgetting how expensive it is to put people through the professional exams? The company have to pay for study leave, tutorials, material and exam sittings and then also give the pay increases when the exams are passed. Do you really think it is preferable for a company to take on people with no exams?

I'm not forgetting that. I agree with you. This is why I've seen a trend of putting non-Actuarial people in Actuarial Analyst jobs. They're cheaper and get the same job done. Because it's not hard working with spreadsheets.

 

[morrisja]

Sorry but that's a myth. People with a decade or more experience find themselves failing SA, while some pass it 3 years from Uni. Maybe it's to do with how blue your eyes are.

You could be on to something there .. my eyes are quite blue and I passed SA2 two years out of university.. Not to say I didn't study hard and apply what I knew, but from my experience exam technique is the most important thing for passing the exams.

 

[mpyan1]

You could be on to something there .. my eyes are quite blue and I passed SA2 two years out of university.. Not to say I didn't study hard and apply what I knew, but from my experience exam technique is the most important thing for passing the exams.

Good, so that's another myth busted about the SA series exams.