Why the exams are held at the times they are

Time needed to mark papers

Examiners are given 6 weeks to mark scripts in the Core Technical (CT) series subjects and 8 weeks in the Core Applications (CA), Specialist Technical (ST) and Specialist Applications (SA) series subjects. There is also a period of 10 days necessary to agree final results and get results letters out. We have looked at these timings carefully but unless we change the process drastically little can be done to shorten this period at present. We need the time to allow all scripts to be double marked and scripts take time arriving from overseas. We also triple mark borderline candidates. This means that the results for the CT series are published on the Friday 8 weeks after the end of the examinations and for the CA, ST and SA series they are published on the Friday 10 weeks after the examinations.

Examination dates

We believe that results should be published by the first Friday in December normally. This is to avoid problems of Christmas post and also unavailability of examiners at a busy time of the year.

This means in practice the autumn examinations have to be completed by the end of September and are therefore scheduled at the latest for the last two weeks of September.

We have considered many alternatives to allow a six-month gap between examinations but the last two weeks of March are not popular in many actuarial practice areas. Similarly, nor are the months of January and February. July and August are not popular for the autumn examinations.

If we moved the autumn examinations to October or November then we would have to allow a longer time gap before results are published because of the Christmas post and this has been considered unacceptable by students. We therefore have always concluded that April and September are the best times to hold examinations.

Examination subject patterns

We keep a pattern for when subjects are held as subject examiners ask not always to be in the second week of examinations. We also keep the same pair of examinations together purposefully so that students can plan their study. It is one of those situations where it is difficult to come up with combinations that suit everyone, every diet.