Examination News

September 2006 examinations

Thank you to those students who either completed a Comments form or submitted an application for Mitigating Circumstances. Feedback via the comments form is extremely useful to the Examinations Team – some of the items raised, such as external noise, are often out of our hands but some of the items raised we are able to actively pursue to make improvements for future sessions.

All Mitigating Circumstances that are submitted in the given timeframe, and acknowledged, are submitted to the Examining Teams for consideration.

If at any time you have concerns about the conduct of any of the examinations please let us know.

We hope that you found the examination administrative process ran smoothly but your feedback is always welcome in order for us to improve our service to you.

Refund of examination entry fees

With effect from the April 2007 the refund of examination entry fees will only be granted on the following terms:

• an administration charge of 20% will be taken if a refund is made for a valid reason, such as a medical condition or bereavement
• if there is no valid reason for non-attendance at the examination, then no refund will be made

Further information regarding mitigating circumstances, refunds and special arrangements is available.

Examination results

The results for the September session have been released and for the Core Technical subjects you should have received your results letter. Results letters for all other subjects have been despatched and you should receive yours shortly. If you do not receive your results letter please e-mail the Examinations Team requesting another copy. Please ensure your ARN is shown in all correspondence and that the subject line clearly states the nature of your request.

Examination entry forms

Examination entry forms for the April 2007 session have been sent to the mailing house for despatch and should be with you early in the New Year. If, however, you find that you have not received your form you will be able to download a blank form with instructions. PLEASE ENSURE THAT YOU PUT YOUR ARN, NAME AND ADDRESS ON ANY DOWNLOADED FORM.

2007 examination dates

April

September

Closing dates for receipt of 2007 examination entries

Please note that these deadlines will NOT be extended under any circumstances.

Examination results for the 2007 examinations

Information for students when completing the CA3 examination

It has been noted that when completing the CA3 examination some of you are adding your name to the end of any letter you have been asked to prepare.

We remind you that as your identity is supposed to remain anonymous during the marking you should not use your own name when signing the end of the letter.

Transition arrangements – Subjects CT4 and CA1

Students are reminded that from April 2007 Subjects CT4 – Models and CA1 – Core Applications Concepts will no longer be available in two parts. Any student who was exempted from one part through the transition arrangements introduced on 1 January 2005 will lose that exemption if they have not passed the corresponding part by 31 December 2006.

CA1 – Core Applications Concepts

When it was introduced CA1 – Core Applications Concepts brought in a new style of examination subject for the UK Actuarial Profession. The principle behind CA1 is to cover actuarial concepts (e.g. risk, funding, reserving etc.) across a range of subject areas rather than each subject area separately. The aim is to encourage thought about how these concepts can be applied, in both familiar and unfamiliar situations. The course is built around the actuarial control cycle and forms a basis for subsequent study at the Specialist Technical and Specialist Applications levels.

Following the first sitting of the CA1 examination in April 2005 we set up focus groups to seek the views of students (who had sat both parts of CA1) on the subject. The output from these meetings has been shared with ActEd and will form part of the Syllabus and Core Reading review which is about to start for the 2007 examinations.

One point which emerged from the discussions was the nature of the split of CA1 into CA11 and CA12. This split is an artificial one for the transition period. It will end after the examination in September 2006. From April 2007 all students will be required to sit both papers of CA1. The structure of the papers will change and Paper 1 will no longer focus entirely on asset questions.

Recommended study times

We have reviewed our guidelines on the required study time for each subject and have decided that they are still appropriate for most subjects. The only change we have made is to increase the suggested study time for students taking a Specialist Applications subject and the UK Practice Module to 320 hours. Our full guidelines are as follows:

Of course, the actual amount of time each student needs to spend on a particular subject will vary from student to student. Quality of study time is far more important than quantity of study time.

Special overseas rate

As a reminder you are only allowed two exam attempts at each subject at the special overseas rate and further attempts will be at the standard rate. Sitting exams at a special overseas rate applies to certain centres only and is not related to specialist overseas rate subscriptions. If you have any questions regarding your number of attempts at the special overseas rate please contact the Examinations Team.

Online receipts

You are now able to obtain receipts for personal payments that you have made to the Profession via the members’ area of the website.

NUS Student Card

We have successfully negotiated a Student NUS Card and hopefully you are enjoying the benefits of this. If you haven’t applied yet then please visit the NUS website for details of how to apply.

Oyster Card

We would like to advise that we cannot offer a discount on the Oyster Card as we do not fall into the scheme criteria.

2005 Education Strategy Update

We are pleased to report that the legal content was well received by students on the 1/2 November and 23/24 November courses, the first to include this topic. In fact, the presentations and case study discussions for this part were rated the highest overall for this course.

The related reading material, which is distributed pre-course, is quite extensive and takes around 10-15 hours to work through thoroughly. We realise that it is not always easy for students to complete this before the course. However, it is important that they familiarise themselves with the content but this does not mean acquiring a thorough knowledge and understanding of it all, or remembering it all. The speakers from the College of Law, who deliver the sessions on the course, will cover all the main aspects. Students will need to have completed working through the reading material and consolidated their learning before taking the on-line test.

Other News

The Student Handbook has now been updated and hard copies will only be sent to new students.