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).

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!

 

If you have issues uploading your exam files at Prometric…

Good news… today I was told by someone (that I trust a lot) in the SOA education function that the Word and Excel exam files can usually be recovered directly from the Prometric workstation if there are issues uploading. If you end up having any issue whatsoever uploading your Word and Excel files on exam day, you can contact [email protected] to let them know, and the SOA most likely will be able to recover the files.

Random but important details we’ve learned about the Prometric experience after day 1

Today we surveyed our customers who took the ERM and QFI Quant exam under the new CBT format at Prometric centers on Monday, October 26. Here are a few things we’ve learned that we wanted to relay to anyone planning to take a CBT exam in the coming days.

To be clear, we have no way of verifying the accuracy of any of this information and are simply relying on information reported in our survey. However, we are focusing on things that appeared in multiple responses from people literally worldwide.

  • CTRL-F does not work (i.e. you can’t do a “find” or a keyword search in the documents). This includes the very large PDF case study provided with the ERM exam.
  • ALT-TAB does not work (shortcut for switching windows).
  • Several people reported difficulty uploading their Word and Excel files at the end. Some reported that the Prometric uploader would not accept files with a number in the file name. Others reported that it wouldn’t accept special characters. Some reported that when they initially downloaded their Word/Excel files to start the test, the Prometric system saved the files with “(1)” in the file name by default. They had to rename the file to get rid of that string before the Prometric uploader would accept it. Based on this, our advice is to rename your files to be purely alpha-only characters after downloading, and don’t wait until the last second to upload the files.
    • Update: after looking at more anecdotes from our customers and around the web, it sounds like “(1)” will only appear in the file name if you download the files more than once. In any case, it sounds like you need to get rid of that piece of the file name before trying to upload it.
  • Some reported that they were indeed able to eat a sandwich/snack during while taking a break outside the exam room. However, very, very few people surveyed actually took a break.
  • Some reported medium-to-long delays during the check-in process at Prometric because of various administrative or technical issues. Most of these issues eventually got sorted out. Please have a patient/flexible mindset when you arrive at Prometric. Try not to get frazzled if you have to work through administrative logistics like this before getting started. 
  • We asked people who had taken a handwritten exam in the past to compare it to Word/Excel. The vast majority of people felt that being able to type verbal responses into Word was a welcome change, but most felt that Excel was more challenging / time-consuming than pen and paper when it comes to writing out visible formulas and explaining work. This was a nearly universal theme and it’s clear that the biggest “time risk” in the new format is spending too much time in Excel on questions that require a response in Excel.
  • A few miscellaneous comments on the exam timer:
    • The timer can get hidden behind windows if you use all of the screen
    • The final timer reminder happens when there are 10 minutes left, so pay close attention to the time after that point 

CBT version of spring 2020 LPM exam

Today we posted a CBT version of the spring 2020 LPM exam under the Supplementary and Review Material section of the LPM course. The CBT version we posted is essentially identical to the published SOA version except for 2 sub-parts, which fell off the syllabus, so we added new on-syllabus parts for those to keep the exam complete. We also combined the morning and afternoon session into a single continuous file since the exam will now be given in a single 5-hour, 15-minute time block. 

We also converted the PDF version of the exam to Word and provided answer boxes under each question part similar to the CBT samples the SOA has provided. We’ve also included a companion Excel file containing tabs and data for questions that would have required a response in Excel if the exam had been given originally as a CBT exam. We’ve done our best to mimic the format that we believe you’ll see in the Word and Excel file on exam day.

Along with our own TIA-unique CBT exam, this gives you two full-length CBT-style practice exams to work with.

We are also planning to provide our solutions to the spring 2020 exam in a CBT format as soon as we are able. We are doing our best to provide as many CBT resources as we can in these final weeks, but please understand that we are spreading our time over all FSA courses and that we did not get the final details about the CBT format until very recently, so there’s just not a lot of time left!