I will be releasing 2 sample exams.
-Exam 1 (which was actually created last year) is the “easier” exam. This is of a similar difficulty level to a lot of the questions prior to the 2012 exam. This should be released around 4/1
-Exam 2 is more difficult, as it will contain several “Blooms” style questions. I’m aiming to release this around 4/15 (as well as an extra few sample questions hopefully).
I have posted a mapping of the papers to the “Additional Material” section of the website. This gives a very big picture view of the syllabus, showing just some of the main themes covered by each of the papers. As you can see, many of the themes are covered by several papers. I think this will be a good tool for preparing for the higher level questions.
Each of the papers is listed on the left hand side. Some papers covered several themes. In this case, I mentioned each just once on the left hand side of the page, and again to the right of the additional themes that it covered.
I also created a thread in the TIA forums talking about some of the common themes between some of the papers. I’ll try to periodically post comments/ suggestions to the forum, so remember to check it regularly.
The sample questions file for the Robbin paper was missing from the manual. I have uploaded to the website (under Robbin in the Study Manual section)
FYI I do wait approx 2 days to post my response to topics in the forum… to give others the chance to have a go at answering.
Hi Everyone,
Hopefully you have started studying, or plan to start in the near future. Couple of things I want to cover in this post:
BLOOMS
As you have most probably heard, the CAS exam style has been shifting recently to include more higher level, Blooms style questions. You do need to alter your study strategy to reflect this. I have included a PDF in the Introduction section of the website with some details about this. In particular:
-The most important thing is that you need to UNDERSTAND the material. It is not sufficient to merely memorize facts/ formulae. In fact, in my opinion, it is better to devote a larger ratio of your time to reading/ understanding/ thinking about the material compared to working past/ sample questions. Since these Blooms style questions typically are designed to be unique, it is unlikely that you will have run into a similar question, regardless of how many questions you have worked. That being said, it is still important to spend some time working problems to prepare for the more traditional questions, to test your knowledge, to improve exam technique and to build speed. In addition, as mentioned previously, I will be releasing a set of Blooms style questions later in the year
-related to the point above, it is more important than ever to read the source material, as this will improve your understanding
-as mentioned in the prior blog, participation in online forums will be very helpful. I’d encourage you to participate in asking and answering questions, as well as discussing topics. This should help you understand and remember the material, and it will allow you to think about the material in new ways (because you are exposed to the viewpoints of several candidates).
VACATION
I will be overseas on vacation 1/19-2/4. I will be without internet access for long periods during this time. As always, post all questions to the TIA forums (discussed in prior blog)
ERRATA
Remember to periodically check the errata (found in the Introduction section). I will keep this updated throughout the year.
Just completed Section D and have sent the files to be produced.
Also, for those of you who did not take a seminar with TIA last sitting, I want to let you know that we now have a discussion forum. Please post all questions about the exam material to the TIA forum:
http://www.theinfiniteactuary.com/mb/viewforum.php?f=86
I review all threads, and will post a response if no one answers correctly.
With the shift to Blooms style questions, participation in forums (both TIA and others) will be VERY helpful, as it should aid your understanding of the material, and hopefully raise questions that you may not have considered.
Here’s a post from last sitting about the forum:
In the past, using TIA to study for exams has been a relatively solitary endeavor. You watched the videos, worked the problems, and occasionally emailed your instructor for assistance. If you prefer to learn that way, then don’t worry, you can still do it that way. Think of the forum as an additional (and optional) way to enhance your learning. You might just browse other student’s questions, and decide to give it a try later on.
Although a few TIA members have gone out of their way to interact with others by posting on the Actuarial Outpost or other public forums, the TIA forum makes it incredibly easy for all of us to interact with other members. Any time you have a question or a topic for discussion, you can immediately enter the subject forum and make your post. Everyone else that is subscribed to the seminar will see that there is a new post in that subject forum, and can respond immediately, seconding or answering your topic. Watch the short video posted in the “Introduction” section of the course to see how the forum works.
Making your experience at TIA more interactive will result in much more powerful and effective learning. But another terrific aspect of the forum is that it will act as a growing and changing knowledge base of answered questions. As your instructors, We’ve found that we answer the same question by email many times. The forum will allow us to post answers to questions in a way that will remain readily available to all seminar users. After a while, you’ll find answers to many of your questions instantly in the forum, instead of needing an email response.
But the forums aren’t just for us to answer questions. As you probably know, there is no better way to test your knowledge than to try to answer the questions that other learners ask. You should try to answer the questions that other members post as often as you can. Other members can chime in to ask more about your answer too, and I’ll be keeping an eye on things to make sure that all the questions receive accurate and useful responses.
As always, we want your learning experience here at TIA to be a positive one. When interacting with each other on the web, please be sure to maintain a cheerful attitude and encourage your fellow learners. Feel free to immediately flag any post that you feel would discourage anyone from interacting.
The forum is open now, so go ahead and watch the introduction video and get started! You could start by introducing yourself in the “Introduction” subject forum.
Here is the status as of 12/9:
I have just finished updating sections A-C, and have sent these in to be produced. They should be available shortly.
I need to make minor updates to just a few videos from these sections. Will post to the blog when these are complete. I will also create videos discussing select 2012 exam questions soon.
I still need to update the manual and videos for section D. I am aiming to complete this by year end.
Additional Blooms style questions to follow in 2013.
The 2013 syllabus has been published. There were minimal changes from 2012.
I am currently working on the 2013 manual (correcting errata, adding 2012 exam questions, etc). This should be published in December.
I will also be producing an additional set of “Blooms type” questions, which will be available in 2013.
The CAS website mentions that the 2013 syllabus will be available early November 2012. Once the syllabus it published, I will need to make modifications to the manual.
In the meantime, my 2012 videos are available. Note that these are all subject to change.
I am getting a number of emails about this one.
Q. Why did I SUBTRACT twice the covariance instead of add?
A. I was using the Butsic methodology where we need to multiply the covariance by -1 if the items are from opposite sides of the balance sheet (I was making the assumption that this adjustment has not been made).
Since this was a Goldfarb question, I don’t think that it is perfectly acceptable to assume that the numbers provided to you in the question already account for the fact that the items are on opposite sides of the balance sheet… therefore you should still get full credit if you added instead of subtracted.