how to pass without pricing experience?

[azn_to]

I will take exam DP-ILA in Nov 2008. I have a question for those who have taken it. Is it very hard to pass for people without any pricing experience? I've looked into the syllabus of CSP, it seems hard for people to understand without any valuation/financial reporting experience.

[wat?]

I will take exam DP-ILA in Nov 2008. I have a question for those who have taken it. Is it very hard to pass for people without any pricing experience? I've looked into the syllabus of CSP, it seems hard for people to understand without any valuation/financial reporting experience.

While you do have a point, there's not much you can do about it. If you want to get your FSA in the Individual Life & Annuities track, you'll have to learn about both design & pricing and valuation/financial reporting.

Also consider that there are individuals out there that take other specialized tracks than the work that they do so that they can broaden their knowledge base. One of my FSA's at my company took the investment track because she "wanted to learn something different than what she could on the job". :shrug:

[inexactuary]

There is some advantage to having pricing experience for DP, but I think it is much less than the advantage of having valuation/financial reporting experience on CSP. I'm glad that I have experience in both!

[cat20]

I was able to pass CSP without valuation experience. It wasn't easy, I spent a ton of hours studying. But I didn't like the material so I wanted to make sure that I didn't have to do it again if at all possible.