QFI PM Syllabus Changes – Fall 2021

The SOA released the new QFI PM syllabus for Fall 2021 / Spring 2022. The changes were fairly significant, with the major change being the addition of the “Alternative Investments” textbook. Additionally, many larger readings such as MIP Ch 8 and QFIP-149 were removed from the syllabus.

In the next week, we will release a spreadsheet detailing our release date schedule for our seminar items, so stay tuned!

Add
1. New Textbook: Alternative Investments, CAIA Level II, 3rd Edition, 2016 (see syllabus for chapters/sections covered)
2. QFIP-155: Fundamentals of Efficient Factor Investing
3. QFIP-156: Minimizing Accounting Mismatches Relating to Financial Risk for Insurers

Remove
1. xVA Challenge Ch. 4 – Counterparty Risk
2. QFIP-130: Default Risk and the Effective Duration of Bonds
3. MIP Ch 8
4. QFIP-126: Infrastructure as an Asset Class
5. QFIP-149: PwC In Depth  – IFRS 17
6. QFIP-143: Risk Factors as Building Blocks for Portfolio Diversification
7. Ch. 19: Commercial Mortgage Economics and Investment

Modify
1. xVA Challenge Ch 12 changed from 12.1-12.4 to the full chapter
2. Commercial Real Estate Analysis – Add Appendix 12A

Section 1 Upgrades

This weekend, we are releasing some relatively minor updates to Section 1 of QFI PM. We are upgrading our coverage of Handbook of Fixed Income Securities Chapters 9, 18, and 24. We expanded coverage of some sections in these chapters and also added some Excel spreadsheet examples. These changes impact the videos, manual, handouts/downloads and flashcards.

As a whole they are relatively small changes to the seminar. For those who have already printed out or gone through prior versions of these materials, you likely don’t need to worry about reprinting. If you have time though, we recommend trying the new spreadsheet examples in the video lessons. For example, HOFIS Ch 9 (Part 2 Video) now has a new spreadsheet exercise.

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.
  • 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

Important Updates for CBT Exams

The SOA recently posted a video of the Prometric setup that you can expect to see on exam day. Be sure to watch it here.

A few noteworthy things and other comments:

  • It does appear you will be able to view files side by side
  • A timer will prompt you at key points to let you know how much time you have left.
  • You will have to submit the Word and Excel file before the exam timer ends

Additionally, anyone registered for a CBT exam this fall should have gotten an email from the SOA stating the following:

Once seated at your designated Prometric workstation, you will have 10 minutes to read through the instructions on navigation, saving and submitting your files. During the exam, 15 minutes of break time will be added to the advertised exam length noted in the introductory study note. When you take any break time, your exam timer will continue to count down. It is your choice when to break and for how long. All applicable Prometric security guidelines will apply if you take a break.

The clock will start to run as soon as you click on “Start the Test” and will not stop until you complete the exam or when time runs out. Note that you must upload your files before time runs out in order to submit them for grading.

Please note that final sentence!

Important takeaways:

  • Below are our thoughts based on the information the SOA has provided. Please note that some of the communications have not been completely clear, so we are doing out best to interpret what was meant. Be resilient on exam day as you’re likely to hit some unexpected snags as this is the first CBT sitting.
  • 5-hour exams are basically now 5 hours and 15 minutes long, while 2-hour and 4-hour exams are 2:15 and 4:15 long, respectively.
  • You can choose how you allocate this total time between taking the exam, taking a break, and reading ahead.
  • To be clear, the conventional 15-minute read-through time on all previous written exams seems to be gone now. Based on their wording, we believe the read-through is now a 15 minute break that you can take at your choosing.
  • While reading ahead and taking breaks are valuable, I recommend budgeting the conventional 5 hours for exam-taking time, especially if you are not a fast typist. This will help you stay within the conventional 3 min/point rule.
  • For 5-hour exams, I think the break will be more valuable. Since we don’t have any other reference point, I think planning to take a break after about 3 hours is a good idea since the 5-hour exams used to be broken into a 3-hour morning and 2-hour afternoon session.
  • Be sure to pay close attention to the instructions when you are getting set up at your Prometric workstation (during the initial 10-minute setup session). Become very familiar with the file submission process. As noted above, you must turn in your Word and Excel file before time runs out.

CBT INFORMATION AND SAMPLE QUESTIONS PROVIDED BY THE SOA

Last week, the SOA posted some very important additional information on each exam page regarding the format of the new CBT exams.  We strongly encourage you to review this information the SOA provided.  The new information the SOA released includes:

A few initial thoughts and observations:

The sample CBT practice questions for QFI Quant and QFI PM cover questions that are no longer on the syllabus.  We advise you to still review the practice questions to get comfortable with the new format, but don’t be concerned if you don’t recognize the material the CBT questions are testing.

The word file will contain an answer box right after each question sub-part. This will make it easier to reference that part of the question visually while answering.

Each question will tell you which parts will be answered in Excel or Word.  If a part of a question is answered in Excel, then any interpretations/analysis of your calculations will also be in Excel.  In other words, you will put all of your formulas, calculations, and any additional wording to interpret your results or state a conclusion entirely in the Excel file.  As a result, you won’t have to spread your solution across both Word and Excel.

You will be able to copy/paste between Word and Excel. For example, if a problem in Word provides a table of values, you will be able to copy those into Excel (or vice versa). It also appears that problems that provide data in Word seem to repeat that data in Excel for your convenience. It’s possible future questions will contain additional data exclusively in Excel for certain problems.

For the TIA QFI PM seminar, we included a few Excel-based questions in the 3rd full length practice exam. We released this practice exam before the SOA provided the new CBT information discussed in this blog.  However, our questions are in a similar format to what the SOA will provide, and we encourage you to work on these Excel-based questions to become more comfortable with them.  Going forward, we will continue working on building more practice questions that reflect the new CBT format.

Keep working hard during October!

Fall 2020 QFI PM Syllabus Changes

Yesterday the SOA released the new QFI PM syllabus for Fall 2020. There are some fairly significant changes. In particular, Section 2 saw substantial changes as two new textbooks were swapped in. The Bluhm textbook was removed from the syllabus.

Tomorrow we will post the Section A materials (videos, detailed study manual) so that those wanting to get an early start can begin studying for Fall 2020. The remaining materials will be released on a rolling basis as described in the first spreadsheet file download in the seminar.

If you have any questions please let us know, and good luck on your exams!

ADD
1. QFIP-146-20: Private Debt in an Institutional Portfolio
2. New Textbook: Handbook of Credit Risk Management (Ch 1,4,5,9,16)
3. Next Textbook: Credit Risk Modelling, Bolder (Ch 1-4)
4. Liquidity Risk: Measurement and Management – A Practitioner’s Guide to Global Best
Practices, Matz, Leonard & Neu, Peter, 2006, Ch. 2
5. QFIP-148-20: IFRS 17 Insurance Contracts – IFRS Standards Effects Analysis, May 2017, IASB (sections 1, 2, 4, 6.1-2, and 7.1 only)
6. QFIP-149-20: PwC In depth A look at current financial reporting issues IFRS 17, Jun 2017
7. QFIP-150-20: IFRS 9 For Insurers
8.QFIP-151-20: Chapter 5 of Asset Liability Management for Financial Institutions, Tilman
9. QFIP-152-20: How Behavioral Biases Affect Investment Professionals
10. QFIP-153-20: Asset Allocation in a Low Yield Environment
11. QFIP-154-20: The Evolution of Insurer Portfolio Investment Strategies for Long-term Investing
12. Commercial Real Estate Analysis Ch 14

REMOVE
1. QFIP-100-13: Modeling of Mortgage Defaults, Jan 22, 2008, pp. 5- 38 (pp. 13-25 background only)
2. Bluhm textbook
3. QFIP-132-19: What is an Index
4. QFIP-115-13: IAA, Stochastic Modeling, Theory and Reality from and Actuarial Perspective., Section IV.A.1-8
5. QFIP-129-18: Equity Indexed Annuities – Downside Protection, But at What Cost?
6. QFIP-113-13: Secular and Cyclic Determinants of Capitalization Rates: The Role of Property Fundamentals, Macroeconomic Factors and “Structural Changes”
7. HOFIS Ch. 55, 66 & 67

Fall 2019 Updates

Hello QFI PM Students,

We posted a few updates to the course and wanted to document them below:

1) Upgraded Materials for MIM Ch 10. We take a continual improvement approach to our seminars, and wanted to take the time to provide more detailed materials for this lesson. The updated materials include a new detailed study manual, video series, and flashcards. There are now also explicit materials for the appendix section of this reading too. We added 7 new flashcards for this reading which are in the latest flashcard set (620 total).

2) Formula Sheet Review Video Series. We just posted a formula sheet review video series, so definitely make sure to check it out! Also make sure to check out the intro video for the formula sheet review video series for our general comments and thoughts about the formula sheet.

3) Flashcards. As mentioned in (1), there were 7 flashcards added. The total went from 613 to 620. Besides adding the 7 new flashcards, we also fixed the ‘List two main risks of pension liabilities’ flashcard for QFIP-141.

4) TIA QFI PM PE #2. The solution for 16(c) was updated to state that as a risk metric, convexity also captures cashflows from embedded options

At this point, we don’t anticipate making any material changes to the TIA QFI PM course before exam day. Good luck on the exam and thanks for choosing TIA!

Thanks,
Zak & Ken

Fall 2018 QFIA Formula Sheet Posted!

The SOA just released the formula sheet for the Fall 2018 sitting. Feel free to download it in the “Introduction” tab of the seminar.

Also, for reference, there were no substantive changes to the formula sheet, and the SOA updated the header to reference the Fall 2018 / Spring 2019 sittings.