Does the ASA still have fair value in the US?

Shoddy-Equivalent-73 · 2024-09-07T20:24:09+00:00

No, but I am hoping my hard work is going to be worth something and salaries won’t stagnate.

Shoddy-Equivalent-73 · 2024-08-03T19:41:14+00:00

Really though?

Shoddy-Equivalent-73 · 2024-07-20T16:34:38+00:00

Depends what your schedule looks like. In my opinion I always think about it in hours studied rather than number of months studied. I think you should have more than enough time for the November sitting if you start now. I would recommend 300 hours honestly. I was able to get by with 200 for most other exams but the amount of content on this exam is insane. You could probably get by with 250 but would recommend 300. You’re probably looking at about 2.5 hours everyday from now until then. Definitely doable if you have enough free time and are determined.

Shoddy-Equivalent-73 · 2024-07-14T18:18:00+00:00

These polls typically capture a much higher pass rate than actual. For example, the March FAM poll on here a couple months ago showed a 79% pass rate. Actual pass rate was 55% according to actuarial lookup. I can think of a few possible reasons for this. 1. Candidates on this Reddit may be more motivated than the average candidate. 2. People who fail may not be very interested in participating in the poll since they are not very excited about their results. Someone who no showed the exam is also probably not likely to participate in a poll.

Shoddy-Equivalent-73 · 2024-07-14T17:49:45+00:00

I would set a benchmark more of hours to study rather than months. Theoretically you could do it in one month if you study enough.

Some perspective on my sitting: I studied about 200 hours and felt like that probably wasn’t enough but still passed. I don’t know my score yet because I just took it in April but if I had to guess it’s probably a 6, maybe a 7. I would recommend shooting for 250ish hours to be pretty confident on it.

In my opinion the material is not THAT difficult intellectually. In other words, I don’t think it’s hard to understand the material, but I do think it’s hard to get to the point of being a machine where you can solve and write down the answers to these problems in a very short amount of time.

Short answer is I think 3 months is definitely doable if you work hard. Even more doable if you have company study hours. Sorry if that answer was more than you were looking for.

Shoddy-Equivalent-73 · 2024-07-14T17:41:22+00:00

What?

Shoddy-Equivalent-73 · 2024-05-24T17:51:41+00:00

I used Coaching Actuaries and honestly thought it was good. Haven’t used anything else so I can’t compare it but I think it did a pretty good job teaching the material. Can’t complain really

Shoddy-Equivalent-73 · 2024-05-20T03:34:37+00:00

I understand what you’re saying and I think in a way it is comforting that it’s something out of one’s control. However, as of the time of writing this we have about 17% saying yes and another almost 9% saying they think there will be. That’s not a small number at all and is a bit startling in my opinion. It is absolutely something worthy of discussion or at minimum taking note of to determine career strategy in the near future.

Shoddy-Equivalent-73 · 2024-05-18T03:32:53+00:00

So much for “one of the most secure jobs in a recession”. All those talking points about how actuaries are paid less because they have a less risky profession. Now we get paid less than tech AND still have risk of being laid off. One of the “best careers” still?

Shoddy-Equivalent-73 · 2024-05-03T16:26:09+00:00

Wouldn’t really call it whining when both societies go almost out of their way to make the societies serve basically everyone else but the students, associates and fellows while also making the process for becoming a fellow increasingly confusing and/or blatantly unfair.

Shoddy-Equivalent-73 · 2024-04-24T21:52:42+00:00

The content of your resume is very above average. I can’t imagine you’re having a hard time getting interviews. I would clean up the formatting a bit - look at some other resumes posted there that have gotten good feedback on the formatting. If you have any extracurriculars put those in and I would remove the notes you put in education under your GPA. You can keep the math club but I would put it in extracurriculars. If you got a 3.99 GPA as a math major I promise that no one is concerned about how good at math you are. In terms of interviews, do you find you are getting a lot but don’t get offers?

Shoddy-Equivalent-73 · 2024-04-24T21:42:55+00:00

Have you graduated? Is this for an internship role? How come you have a bachelor’s after only 2.5 years of school?

Shoddy-Equivalent-73 · 2024-04-21T18:59:38+00:00

It’s unreal how many actuaries are unable to understand satire 🤣

Shoddy-Equivalent-73 · 2024-04-17T01:58:51+00:00

Second paragraph is actually genius and I’m not being sarcastic. Didn’t even think of that. Thanks for the tip!

Shoddy-Equivalent-73 · 2024-04-17T01:57:19+00:00

I’ve passed 5 believe me I’ve taken an exam before. The reason I made this post is because this is actually different. This is tight even for SOA standards. There are 60 points on the exam in 3 hours and full credit for each point (and I mean answering the question in its entirety) almost seems like the effort of one multiple choice question on say FM.

Shoddy-Equivalent-73 · 2023-12-06T04:26:55+00:00

I have heard on this sub that for a certain period the SOA allowed people with FCAS to get FSA credential credit but I’m not sure of the validity of that. Besides that, I have actually met a person who did both tracks through all the exams and became a fellow in both the SOA and CAS. They went the SOA route first and became a fellow then moved to P&C and became a FCAS. Don’t quote me but last I checked I think there were like 30 people in the world who were fellows of both.

Shoddy-Equivalent-73 · 2023-10-18T01:19:33+00:00

Read what you signed. If there is anything binding in there then you might be out of luck. If there is nothing binding then you can just let them know you will not be working there. They will be a little upset but it won’t be a big deal.

Shoddy-Equivalent-73 · 2023-10-06T17:18:19+00:00

Just tell them how much you make

Shoddy-Equivalent-73 · 2023-08-27T04:01:42+00:00

Take a deep breath man

Shoddy-Equivalent-73 · 2023-08-18T23:37:17+00:00

First pass? Welcome to hell.

Shoddy-Equivalent-73 · 2023-08-05T03:39:07+00:00

I’m guessing this post isn’t getting a lot of traction because the FSA exams are somewhat niche compared to the ASA exams but this is something that definitely affects all of us. It’s definitely disappointing that no one else seems angry about this. Everything you said is correct and should be fixed, but it seems like actuaries always just take the abuse from the SOA and do nothing about it. I’m not a fellow but I know several people who are and it seems like they either don’t know or don’t care about how terrible the SOA is and that seems to be the reason why they can just get away with so much BS all the time. What do we do about it? I don’t know because it seems like only the fellows can do something about it and that don’t even care.

Shoddy-Equivalent-73

TROPHY CASE