July Seminar (Seattle)

[murray11]

Has anyone (who was on the wait list) received confirmation of their acceptance for the seminar? I haven't found out anything & was just wondering if the Seattle seminar is currently full.

[maynard]

I was on the waiting list, but received confirmation this morning. Good luck!

[BSpecs]

Has anyone started the reading? Im wondering how long it will take to get through the pre-reading / assignnments.

[thing]

I've done the case study 3 & 5, and the reading at least for 7. I feel like I'm missing the point, though, aside from making sure the laptop can actually handle Excel's solver.

[uoflcard]

Have worked through 3 & 5 (very much on the surface), written the "Letter" for #7, and am starting to look at Case 8. I do agree with others, though, in that I am not putting a lot of time into this - my main objective is really just to try and figure out all of the Exel things they could make us do, and make sure I can do them.

[Gal Friday]

I’m not going to Seattle, I just took it in Chicago, but my advice would be to allocate most of whatever time you spend working on this stuff before the seminar to the extended case study. I think it’s a good idea to have gone through the common core case studies (just so you aren’t totally clueless when you go over them during the seminar, and so you don’t look like a slacker for not having done the pre-work). But the common core case studies won’t have nearly as much relevance to your project as the extended case study. In all likelihood, your project will be based on whatever the extended case study covers. So that’s where you'll get the most out of spending your time.

[BSpecs]

I’m not going to Seattle, I just took it in Chicago, but my advice would be to allocate most of whatever time you spend working on this stuff before the seminar to the extended case study. I think it’s a good idea to have gone through the common core case studies (just so you aren’t totally clueless when you go over them during the seminar, and so you don’t look like a slacker for not having done the pre-work). But the common core case studies won’t have nearly as much relevance to your project as the extended case study. In all likelihood, your project will be based on whatever the extended case study covers. So that’s where you'll get the most out of spending your time.

Thanks for the insight. Any other suggestions? Im flying pretty blind here, so any advice on how to prepare would be appreciated.

[Boiler Fan]

I've finished the General Study Note, Communicating Results, and CS 3 and 5. I've read 7 and 8...written the 1st page of my 2 page "letter" for 7 and got the pivot table going for the CS8 analysis. Haven't done any writing on that though.

Based on Gal's remarks, I plan on starting on the advance reading for the extended case study this weekend. I'll finish up the writing assignments after I feel comfortable with the key stuff.

I'll be in the 64A session.

[Gal Friday]

Boiler Fan's plan sounds good. Don't stress out too much about preparing for this. Somebody said to me before the seminar that the faculty teaches you everything you need to know to pass during the seminar, and I'd say that's probably basically true. But I wouldn't have wanted to go without even having looked at any of the common core case studies. IMO, they're worth going through, just not stressing out over. If the extended case study is something completely foreign to you, spend time familiarizing yourself with it. And if you have a hard time with the ECS, don't be shy about asking the instructors questions once you get there. The first three days they will answer pretty much anything about the ECS. Tuesday night your group projects will be on the ECS, and you'll have lots of time Wednesday afternoon to fill in any holes if there are still things you don't understand. So don't feel like you have to understand every last detail of it before you get there. But do familiarize yourself with it.

[Squiggly]

I've finished the General Study Note, Communicating Results, and CS 3 and 5. I've read 7 and 8...written the 1st page of my 2 page "letter" for 7 and got the pivot table going for the CS8 analysis. Haven't done any writing on that though.

Based on Gal's remarks, I plan on starting on the advance reading for the extended case study this weekend. I'll finish up the writing assignments after I feel comfortable with the key stuff.

I'll be in the 64A session.

I'm in 64A too. So far I finished CS 3 & 5 (which are basic), I've read 7 and 8 and started to work on 7 (I don't get the purpose of this case study).

I think reviewing the sample project is a really good thing to do...it helped me out quite a bit.

The extended case study deals with the GMDB of a variable annuity. Because I'm taking 8V in November I found the information they provided for the VA to be very straight forward...and the articles to be very interesting. I'm looking forward to this seminar however I still have a long ways to go in preparation.

[thing]

Huh -- I'm in 64A as well. I'm beginning to sense a conspiracy...

[BSpecs]

Looks like Im all alone in C...

[uoflcard]

I'm also in 64C