Fall 2021 / spring 2022 video lessons and detailed study manual fully updated

Even though the spring 2021 exam just happened (yesterday), we’ve already updated all video lessons and the detailed study manual in the course for fall 2021. We’ve also posted a fall 2021 study schedule and reset the Revision History and Scheduled Updates spreadsheet in the Introduction section.

Flashcard and condensed outline updates are coming next week. We’ve also taken down the drill problems for some updates and maintenance and will repost those soon.

Additionally, we’ve made some major updates to some of the material in the Introduction section as well as the videos in the “Understanding the Format of FSA Exams” section. These videos are intended to help you understand the format of FSA exams, which is important to keep in mind as you study the syllabus.

 

Fall 2021 / spring 2022 LPM syllabus changes

Today the SOA posted the updated syllabus for fall 2021. The changes are fairly light. No readings were dropped entirely.

Only one new study note was added: LPM-171-21, which includes several sections from Ch. 12 and 18 of the textbook Statutory Valuation of Individual Life and Annuity Contracts. These excerpts cover standard nonforfeiture law and a few other specifics (sections 12.2, 12.3, 12.4, 18.2, 18.3.2, and 18.3.3). If you’ve taken LFMU, you’ll be quite familiar with the SVILAC book, but these are only a few short snippets that I think will make the pre-existing SNL material on the LPM syllabus easier to grasp.

There were several modified readings for fall 2021:

  • ASOP 2: updated from May 2011 version to June 2020 (appendices still excluded)
    • This was a fairly significant update, and we are rewriting our ASOP 2 course materials to match the new version
  • The following HFIS chapters have smaller syllabus page ranges than before:
    • Ch. 26: pp. 537-546 & 558-567 (previously all pages were on syllabus)
    • Ch. 62: pp. 1445-1468 & 1475-1478 (previously all pages were on syllabus)
    • Ch. 66: pp. 1541-1556 (previously pp. 1541-1559 were on syllabus)
  • LPM-169-19: all sections of Ch. 8 were dropped (interest rate swap material), but the Ch. 7 sections that were previously on syllabus are still on syllabus
    • There is also still a lot of swap material in one of the HFIS chapters that is still on syllabus

We will begin posting fall 2021 / spring 2022 versions of our detailed study manual, video lessons, and other items starting Friday, May 14. Keep in mind that the spring 2021 LPM exam will be given on May 13, so we don’t want to cause confusion by posting new materials while folks are still using the course to prepare for that exam.

If you have already started using the current course to prepare for the fall 2021, exam you should still be in great shape since the syllabus changes were so mild. I would hold off on printing too much until we have the new items posted, however. It won’t be long!

Update to Prometric folder format

If you are registered with the SOA to take a spring 2021 FSA exam, you should have gotten an email from the SOA recently about an update to the way file folders on Prometric workstations will be named (PDF link). These instructions seem to be coming directly from Prometric and are slightly different from the Prometric video posted on the SOA’s YouTube channel earlier this month. However, the changes seem to be only cosmetic—nothing too major.

My advice is to pay attention to the name of the folder where your working files are stored on the computer. These files should already be pre-loaded when you start the exam. As long as you know the location of these files, it should not be hard to find them when uploading. Fortunately, there is an entire 5-minute section dedicated to uploading files at the end, so hopefully it will all be very straightforward.

SOA releases updated Prometric video

Today, the SOA released an updated video covering the Prometric setup for the spring 2021 exams. Please make some time to watch this video before you take the exam.

The key change for spring is that the SOA has created a new, distinct 5-minute session for you to use solely for submitting your exam files (Word and Excel file). This is in addition to the time provided for taking the exam. The time allotted for taking the exam is identical to before: 5 hours, 15 minutes for LPM and LFM; 4 hours, 15 minutes for ERM; and 2 hours, 15 minutes for LAM. In other words, you’ll have an additional 5 minutes on top of these times to use just for submitting your files. This is good news and likely intended to alleviate some of the issues that happened last fall when people ran out of time before they were able to submit their files (although it seems the SOA was able to recover those files anyway).

Excel feature availability in Prometric

I’ve gotten an uptick in email in recent days asking which features will be available in Excel in Prometric. Each exam page on the SOA’s site links to the most recent information on this (PDF here). In particular, several people have asked me if Goal Seek will be available. The answer is yes. However, Solver is not available (as noted in the PDF). But to be absolutely clear, you will have access to Goal Seek, which can be useful for IRR-type calculations.

Full solutions and CBT files available for the fall 2020 LPM exam

Today we posted full CBT-style solutions to the fall 2020 LPM exam in the Supplementary and Review Material section. We also converted the PDF exam provided by the SOA into a Word file with answer boxes so that you can use it to practice the exam. Since this exam is 100% on syllabus, it’s a valuable resource during your final weeks of prep.

Thoughts on the Prometric CBT exam experience

I recently joined two of our other instructors, Zak Fischer and Derek Brace, on a recorded Zoom call to talk about the Prometric exam experience so far as well as other topics listed below. You can check it out on YouTube. Let us know if there are other topics or questions you’d like us to talk about sometime!

  • Overall thoughts on the first sitting of FSA Prometric Exams
  • Special characters in file names / upload problems
  • “Reading period” / “break” / time available for exam / different time slots 
  • Overview of existing resources available to help prepare for CBT exams
  • Key takeaways from the TIA survey
  • How does the change to CBT exams impact time management?
  • Role of Excel
  • Typing formulas in Word
  • Looking towards future sittings: how might the Prometric FSA experience evolve over time
  • How FSA exams are different from preliminary exams

Spring 2021 study schedule posted

Today we posted a spring 2021 study schedule and also updated our “quick start” guide in the Introduction section of the course. As you probably know, the spring 2021 LPM syllabus is identical to the fall 2020 syllabus, so there are no syllabus changes for spring. 

That means the current LPM course is 100% ready for you to use to prepare for the spring exam when you are ready to start. Our priority right now is updating lessons for other exams whose syllabi have changed for spring (like ILA LFM). Once we complete those critical updates, we will begin working on additional enhancements to the LPM course, including more CBT-style practice problems and other updates.

As always, please let us know if you have any other questions, and good luck on LPM!