We have added a CBT format to the sample exams. This means that you now have the choice of printing out the practice exams and taking them as a traditional paper and pencil exam, or you can take it on your computer in a format that is very similar to what you will see on the exam day. There are a few differences between our CBT version and the SOA’s version, but we think it is close enough that it will be good practice. In particular, you can get used to using the online exam tables.
For a demo of how to use the sample exams, we have a sample videos that you can watch in either QuickTime or WMP format. When you take a CBT sample exam, the exam will end whenever time runs out or if you click the “End” button on the review screen. At that point, your exam will be automatically scored. Note that closing the exam window will exit the exam without saving your progress or grading anything.
One feature that you should experiment with is the ability to mark questions for review. At any point during the exam, you can click the “Review” button on the bottom of the screen and that will give you the option to review either all of the exam problems, only those problems that you have marked for review, or only those problems that you haven’t answered. For example, one possible exam strategy is to make a first pass through the exam working all of the problems that you can do quickly, marking problems that you think you can do but will take a long time, and skipping problems that you don’t know how to do. Then when you are done with your first pass, you can select “Review Marked” and do the longer problems that you know how to do. After finishing that, you can review the unanswered problems that you didn’t initially know how to do and either guess or take a second stab at them.
As the CBT format is a new feature, we welcome any comments and suggestions that you may have for it. In particular, if you have taken the official exam and can let us know about some format changes that we need to make we would really appreciate it. There will always be some differences since we have to deal with different browsers and screen sizes, but we would like to minimize them. Known differences are:
1. On the official CBT exam, if the problem is long enough that you need to scroll down to see all of the answer choices, you must scroll down before selecting your answer. We do not force you to do so.
dave Uncategorized
I’ve added two new study schedules for those of you taking the November exam. The one that most of you should use is a spreadsheet that generates a study schedule based on the actual date of the CBT exam that you sign up for (this has that advantage that it can also be used for other exam sittings, not just this one). The second schedule is a PDF that has the live seminar dates hard coded in. The live seminar is earlier than usual this year, so that schedule has more review time built into it but also starts earlier than the spreadsheet does.
dave Uncategorized
I have just uploaded new versions of all of the Section A-E problem sets and solutions. Almost all of the changes are too minor for it to make sense to print out new versions (e.g., fixing some font issues that bug me, making headers/footers more consistent, correcting obvious typos such as the 1 in 2^16 being a superscript but the 6 not), but there are a few new problems that I have added. The new problems are: A.2 #39-41 are 3 problems on hazard rates and how they are affected by mixtures of distributions and deductibles, C.4 # 25 about likelihood ratio tests in a case in which a formal likelihood ratio test can’t be done, and D.2 # 38-40 about lognormal/normal credibility stuff.
I am also going to be adding .zip files to each section containing all of the non-audio downloads in a single place for convenience. Again, this just duplicates what is already there but should be easier to print.
dave Uncategorized
I’ve replaced the old, handwritten solutions to the practice problems from section A with typed solutions. The old handwritten solutions were essentially screenshots of the videos, while the typed solutions can also include extra description that isn’t written in the video. They are also much easier for you to print and easier for me to correct, so ultimately I will be replacing all of the practice problem solutions with the typed solutions.
As these are essentially new solutions, they probably have some typos that I don’t know about. Please let me know about any errors you find so I can update them.
dave Uncategorized
There haven’t been any syllabus changes for the Spring 2010 sitting, so most of the seminar content is remaining unchanged. The biggest change that I am going to make is that currently all of the practice problems have both a video solution and a handwritten solution that is effectively a screen capture of the video, and I am going to replace the handwritten solutions with typed solutions that are easier for you to print and easier for me to update. The typed solutions for section A should be up by the end of the first week of January, with the other parts to follow after that.
There are also a few lessons from sections C and D that will be updated, some to take advantage of the new distribution tables, some to incorporate the MultiView calculator a little bit better. That should be done by the end of January, which is before you will need those lessons.
I will be out of town for Christmas until the 27th, so none of these updates will happen before I get back.
dave Uncategorized
Even though the exam window starts next week, I am still trying to add a couple final things. The SOA has now published samples of what the exam tables will look like at http://www.beanactuary.com/exams/C4_Tables_Oct2009.pdf and you should take a look at the screenshots to get a feeling for that. After you are at your computer, you will probably be given a brief demo time to familiarize yourself with the tables (in particular, you should probably experiment with the “Find” feature on the continuous distributions), but in the meantime I have also posted a .zip file with the exam tables broken into 5 sections that correspond with the screen shots in the Practice Exams section.
I also just posted another sample exam. Video solutions should be up later today (Thursday).
Finally, since this last practice exam is so soon before the exam, I will be holding online office hours both Sunday at 9pm ET and Monday from 12:30 to 2 pm ET. I don’t have anything planned for this–what will happen is I will share my computer screen using webinar software and answer questions. We have a relatively limited number of connections that our software can use, so if you are interested please e-mail me for login information. If you want to attend, it also saves time if you can send me some of your questions ahead of time. That certainly isn’t necessary, and in fact some people who have attended in the past have had no questions at all and just wanted to listen, which is also fine.
dave Uncategorized
I’ve started a review section of the seminar, which currently has a draft formula sheet and 30 review problems. I currently am working on solutions for a collection of 208 review problems that have different topics mixed together so that they really force you to review, and will be posting them as the solutions get done. (Even though many of these are old exam problems, I am waiting for the solutions to post them since doing the solutions helps me find defective problems.) I expect that I will update the formula sheet after testing it in action at the live seminar that is at the end of September, and I will add some review lessons around that time as well.
With the CBT version of the exam, you will be forced to use a popup window for the distribution formulas rather than having a written copy. Sometime between now and the exam, you should get used to using the distribution formulas in that way. My recommendation for the review problems is to work at a computer, using the 1 problem per page PDF version of the review problems and a PDF copy of the distribution formulas–that way, you will get more used to something that is closer to the test environment than doing everything on paper.
dave Uncategorized
A quick note before I disappear for the weekend–as of now (end of July), I’ve finished updating the lessons and problem sets for the syllabus changes. I’ve recorded the new solutions, but not yet finished producing the videos so the solutions to some of the new problems (e.g., end of D.2 and all of E.2) aren’t yet up.
Further additions before the exam will consist of a collection of review videos, meaning roughly 1 per larger section (so 5 or 6 total). The formula sheet also needs to be updated for the syllabus changes. I’ve mostly finished a draft of the new version, so that should be up next week, but I will ultimately make some changes after the live seminar in late September once I see how useful the formula sheet is for me. There will also be a largish collection of review problems that will mix the different topics up. The current draft has 175 of those, but there are a few topics I need to add and so my guess is that it will be closer to 200. These are different from the practice exams in that many of these questions are old exam questions that you may have seen elsewhere and the practice exams are original questions (albeit often patterned after recent exam questions).
dave Uncategorized
I guess I forgot to make last week’s update post. I re-recorded part of the (a,b,1) lesson (A.3.3) and added more (a,b,1) practice problems. The new approach that I am taking to (a,b,1) distributions is faster for solving exam style problems. That change is somewhat older.
I’ve done some more restructuring of the seminar: what was E.2 (stock simulation) has all been removed from the syllabus, even the parts that were also in the Loss Models text, so I have removed that section. It seemed silly for E and F to only have one subsection, so I have moved the risk section from F.2 to E.2. The notation and terminology for risk measures is different in the Loss Models text than the old Hardy study note, and the material is being reduced, so those lessons will need to be re-recorded. That should happen at some point next week.
dave new files
I’ve added a lesson on normal and lognormal distributions to Section A.2, as well as some practice problems. A couple of the new practice problems are about mixed distributions and are based on an idea that came up on the Spring 2009 exam, but most are about the new lesson.
As we get ready for the November sitting, I will be making a weekly blog post about what has been added recently in terms of updated lessons or (more commonly) more practice problems. Typically that will be at the end of the week, meaning that the next such announcement will be next Friday.
dave Uncategorized