Navigating the uncertainties of CBT

Someone recently asked a question that I’m sure many of you have thought about too:

There are times in the seminar where Eddie instructs us to not worry too much about some section of material because any question the SOA asks would go “beyond what you could realistically do with a handheld calculator”.

Now that we are in a CBT setting with Excel – should we be ignoring this advice? Or has the SOA provided some guidance that would indicate that the problems asked would be workable with a handheld, and Excel is only really used to show work?

As you may have noticed, we are actively adding more Excel-based problems, and many of them involve calculations that would have been totally impossible with a handheld calculator. I think that’s the best we can do for now. Over time I plan to edit some of those audio comments in the lessons, but it’s going to take me a while. It just can’t happen overnight, especially with all the setbacks in timing this year.

As for guidance from the SOA, as of right now, there has been very little. We really need to see some sample problems from them and probably go through 1-2 exam cycles before we catch on to the pattern in CBT era.

For now, I recommend just learning as many of the concepts as you can and think of Excel has just a more complicated calculator for exam purposes. Also keep in mind that everyone is taking the same exam and subject to the same unknowns. Moreover, the source material itself rarely shows things in an Excel-like format, so there are no other sources that you could use to prepare you for the unknowns. It’s quite possible the SOA is still figuring out what they want to do as well.

So as I said, just do your best to use the information available (of which there is a lot!). The Excel-based exercises we’re adding will help you get comfortable with doing certain things the “Excel way,” but having a solid conceptual foundation will put you in the best position to succeed on the exam.

2012 Spring Exam Solutions

I have loaded video solutions for the Spring 2012 exam. As with the other exams, I have included the source material for each question and worked through the calculation-based problems.

Be sure to watch the “summary” video and download the attachment that contains a summary of the exam problems and which ones were calculation-based.

Good luck with the last few weeks of studying!!

Jeremy

Section F Updated

On August 12, 2012, I updated Section F for the 2012 syllabus. The only section that was changed was Section F.2.2 on Moody’s Corporate Default Rates. This study note is updated every few years to reflect the recent experience, so the information is very similar to the previous lesson.

Now all of the online seminar lessons should be updated for the 2012 syllabus! I hope to add some addition items (like video solutions for the Spring 2012 exam) in the coming months.

Good luck with your studying!!

Jeremy

2012 Updates – Sections D & E

On July 9, I updated Sections D and E of the online seminar for the Fall 2012 syllabus. There were two sections from the spring syllabus that are no longer on the syllabus (one each from Sections D & E). The video lessons had been removed several weeks ago, and I have now updated the “Outline” and the “Notes” files to remove these lessons.

The only lesson that still needs to be updated for the 2012 syllabus is the lesson on Moody’s Default rates (Section F.2.2). This update should be coming in the next week or so.

Happy Studying!

Jeremy

2012 Updates – Section C

On July 8, I updated section C of the online seminar. I added two items that were new for the 2012 syllabus:

Section C.2.5 covers the November 2011 Product Matters article “Level Term Lapse Rates: Lessons Learned Here and in Canada.”

Section C.3.11 covers the published reference “Expected Mortality: Fully Underwritten Canadian Individual Life Insurance Policies.” Special thanks to Eddie Smith who covers the Canadian portion of the syllabus for the use of his video and notes on this section. Previously, this section was only on the Canadian syllabus, but it has now been added to the U.S. syllabus as well.

The Outline and Notes have also been updated for Section C. For the “Notes” section I split out the final section on Expected Mortality since it was in Landscape and the other sections were all in Portrait.

Good luck with your studying!!

Jeremy

New TIA forums now open!!

We are very excited to announce the launch of the TIA 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 “Introductory Material” 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 instructor, I’ve found that I answer the same question by email many times. The forum will allow me 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 my answers to 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 “Introductory Material” subject forum.

Jeremy

2012 Updates – Section B

On July 2, I updated Section B of the online seminar. I added the new study material on “Socioeconomic Influences on Life Insurance” at the end of this section. This new material covers more “current events” than anything else, but I included it in the Marketing section because the last section deals with Marketing and Distribution Trends.

The Notes have been updated with this new material and I also added a clarification about the section on Compensation to indicate the chapter from the most recent LOMA textbook (the Notes still said Chapter 16 when the updated chapter is Chapter 8).

There are still a couple of updates that need to be made for 2012. Specfically, there will be a couple of new items for 2012 related to Assumptions that will be added to Section C.

Good luck with your studying!

Jeremy

2012 Updates – Section A

On May 29th, I made the updates to Section A for the 2012 Syllabus. This involved removing one lesson (VUL Secondary Guarantees) and revising the lesson on Annuity LTCI combination products (the “Small Talk” article was removed from the syllabus).

I have updated the online seminar to reflect these changes and posted the 2012 version of the outline and notes.

There are not any revised lessons in Section B, but I plan to update some of the files to reflect the most recent chapter numbers in the online videos.

There are a few more updates for 2012 that will be coming in the next few weeks. I will be posting updates on the blog as I update each section.

Good luck with your studying!

Jeremy