Some questions, thanks

[marlie]

Q1) In the Study notes, there is a section of Formulae sheets, I am wondering will these be provided during the exam, or we have to memorize all the formulae.
Q2) What is the percentage distribution between the calculation problems and memorization problems. I understand no FET exam has been offered before, but for those who have taken APM or old course 8, can you give some rough idea about this? Suppose you did right in all the numbers questions, how many points will you get? Out of how many points? Is that sufficient to pass?
Q3) How does the JAM did in covering the materials? I mean, is there any problem/question that you found out in the exam but is not covered in the JAM. can you give a percentage that is not covered by JAM. Basically i am trying to see how much time I need to spend other than JAM.

Thanks for your input.

[Car'a'carn]

Q1) In the Study notes, there is a section of Formulae sheets, I am wondering will these be provided during the exam, or we have to memorize all the formulae.


Somewhere in the note it is mentioned that the list will be provided for the exam. However one needs to know the list pretty well or it will be useless.

[campbell]

For 8V and APM, I made a copy of the formula sheet and annotated it so I could tell what each formula was about. You need to be able to recognize which formula is which, and how to use them.

[marlie]

Thanks for all the replies.
How about questions 2 and 3? Nobody?
yanz, how about you? you seem to be the most active ID for this subforum, can you shed some light?
Anybody else?

[rekrap]

Q2) What is the percentage distribution between the calculation problems and memorization problems. I understand no FET exam has been offered before, but for those who have taken APM or old course 8, can you give some rough idea about this? Suppose you did right in all the numbers questions, how many points will you get? Out of how many points? Is that sufficient to pass?


60 points in the morning, and 60 points in the afternoon
42/18 (knowledge/calculation) in the morning and 45/15 in the afternoon

There was very little "memorization" honestly. Sure you could put something down from having studied condensed outlines and notecards, but being able to make recommendations (>30 points perhaps) requires some "thought".

You will not pass just being able to work Hull's practice problems and the game theory questions.


Q3) How does the JAM did in covering the materials? I mean, is there any problem/question that you found out in the exam but is not covered in the JAM. can you give a percentage that is not covered by JAM. Basically i am trying to see how much time I need to spend other than JAM.


All study manuals try to paraphrase and condense the material into manageable, coherent chunks. And in doing so, some material which winds up being tested is lost in the translation or not well covered, but rarely is it "detrimental" or pervasive across all the material. Also, as noted by those who took APM in May, the SOA may ask questions not on the syllabus (http://www.actuarialoutpost.com/actuarial_discussion_forum/showthread.php?p=2094603#post2094603), so who knew they were supposed to cover it in their manual?

[marlie]

Thanks, that is what I want to know.:tup:
.......

[campbell]

And not to scare you about that last bit rekrap threw in: the question asked in the spring APM exam that was not on the syllabus most likely got thrown out during the grading. The ombudsperson is supposed to get back to me some time after results are released to let me know the resolution of the problem.



I used the JAM manual for APM, and it covered all the readings, and I thought it did a good job of pulling out the important points from each reading. I read most of the study notes in addition to the manual (and the online seminar) - some study notes were frankly unreadable, so I relied on the manual and Carmody's online seminar for those. I will be able to tell you the outcome of this study method on Friday...

[yanz]

I will be able to tell you the outcome of this study method by Friday...

IFYP

[plp]

just curious, for the people who did APM, how much time did you leave for memorization of lists (if say >30 points were recommendations.)

I'm trying to figure out if I should spend longer on understanding the material rather than memorizing the lists (e.g. course 5)....thanks

[campbell]

Mere memorization gets you very few points. I don't see that memorization will get you far on FET either.

I'm not saying that you won't have to review note cards or anything, but that you're not going to be able to simply parrot back canned lists and get a lot of points for it.

[plp]

Mere memorization gets you very few points. I don't see that memorization will get you far on FET either.

I'm not saying that you won't have to review note cards or anything, but that you're not going to be able to simply parrot back canned lists and get a lot of points for it.

thanks for your response.

did you do any memorization of lists at all then for APM? e.g. did you update the condensed outline from jam, and memorize them for APM? I planned to do at least 3 weeks memorizing of lists for FET, since i thought it would be similar to a course 6 type of exam(except with more material). do you think these 3 weeks would be better served just going over the material?

[campbell]

I never did straight memorization (like I did with Course 5). I was using the JAM manual and had the JAM cards -- I pulled out the ones that covered major lists/topics and didn't memorize them so much as review and make sure I knew what all the major points were, how it connected to the case study, how it connected to other parts of the syllabus, etc.

For 8V (which I passed last fall), I actually made mp3s of me reading lists and explanations of major points, cleared my iPod of everything else, and hit shuffle. If you've got a mic and an mp3 player, I recommend doing this. I could listen to lists on the subway, while exercising, whatever. But the very act of making the recordings cemented some of the knowledge.

[marlie]

campbell, since you took 8V and APM, did you find some problem on APM that is directly modified from old 8V problems?
Another question, for the calculation problems, is it true that we can always find a similar problem/example from the textbooks and study notes?

[campbell]

I don't think in those terms. Looking at old exams gives you an idea of the kinds of problems they can ask, that's about it. You could have the old exams down cold and still do abysmally on the next one -- there's so much material on the syllabus, that they don't really have to recycle old problems. You really have to be mentally flexible on these things.

As for the computational problems, most of the ones from Hull do have something really similar in an example or problem, but I've seen a few trickier ones.

[rekrap]

Think of the development of the exams in terms of Blooms Taxonomy (http://www.clt.cornell.edu/campus/teach/faculty/Materials/BloomsTaxonomy.pdf):

Prelim exams: know and apply formulas and concepts
Memorize formulas and get used to working with them

C5/6 and modules: know, comprehend and apply formulas and lists (and perhaps analyze some situations)
Memorize formulas and lists, understand how some lists relate/differ

C8/CSP/DP: know, comprehend, apply, analyze and evaluate
Memorize formulas and lists, understand how they interact, and be prepared to make recommendations or critiques of the situations presented either in the individual problem or the case study questions.

[clip77]

i'm new here to big exams too, just 'graduated' from FAP. Just want to know if people who passed had read all the SOA notes. some of them are horrible. I'm struggling. What do you focus on when you read?

i'm spending time on understanding things...for example, the JP morgan guide to credit derivative notes, i'm spending way too much time trying to understand what they are talking about, i'm very behind. I wonder if it is the right approach.

[carzymathematician]

i'm new here to big exams too, just 'graduated' from FAP. Just want to know if people who passed had read all the SOA notes. some of them are horrible. I'm struggling. What do you focus on when you read?

i'm spending time on understanding things...for example, the JP morgan guide to credit derivative notes, i'm spending way too much time trying to understand what they are talking about, i'm very behind. I wonder if it is the right approach.

U are right, they are difficult to read! However, I usually find it easier to go through the study manual at the same time that I'm reading the text/SN.

[campbell]

It's a good idea to have the manual at the same time you're reading the actual study note, especially if you're not getting what's going on in the study note.

Some of the concepts, most especially credit derivatives, can be confusing the first time you run into them.

[TiderInsider]

i'm new here to big exams too, just 'graduated' from FAP. Just want to know if people who passed had read all the SOA notes. some of them are horrible. I'm struggling. What do you focus on when you read?

i'm spending time on understanding things...for example, the JP morgan guide to credit derivative notes, i'm spending way too much time trying to understand what they are talking about, i'm very behind. I wonder if it is the right approach.If the study note is hard to understand try and think about some of the main points. If nothing else, go through and write down all the section headings (i.e. make a high level outline). What is the point of the study note? How does if fit in with the learning objectives? After you've thought about this, then read through the study manual. My goal is not have any mindless reading (that's what I have Harry Potter for). I want to always have in mind what the purpose of the reading is and how an examiner might test something from this reading.*

*This is my first essay exam too, so I'll have to wait until December to let you know how this works out.