NEAS v CAS Exam

[Queen02]

Hey Stats Takers,

I took the NEAS courses for the Econ and Finance courses but I questioned the HUGE volume of work required for Econ since it was set up as 2 full courses and I ended up having to read a full textbook for Macro.

For Stats I noticed NEAS also has 2 courses for TS and Reg...any ideas amongst those of you who have just taken them which seems the best approach? Certainly the pass rate seems less for the CAS exam but it appears it may be less volume of work.

Any comments would be useful.

[NewTubaBoy]

NEAS is easy. Volume is not large (for the Stat class) at least compared to what I personally would have done for myself to pass the CAS test. Also, if you do the work you're pretty much guaranteed a pass. Do what you want, but personally I think it's not work it to take the CAS test.

[zuddenly]

i agree, NEAS was super easy... almost a joke. you're guaranteed to pass, so don't bother with the CAS exam... just my 2 cents

[_BullDog_]

Read through some of the threads dealing with th eproject associated with NEAS. I would consider the Actex course. I found it to be fairly easy.

[NewTubaBoy]

Honestly, 90% of the problems with the project had to do with the fact that it was new. The thing was easy when you realized that you could do your own project. As long as you don't get boggled down in the details you're fine. Plus, they're not really sticklers about grading. If you do the work then you're fine. Take Actex if you want. Most people say it's more work though.

However, if you need both credits Actex may be the better way to go. I like that NEAS separates it out becuase I only needed the time series part of it. However, if you need both the time series and regression one class is always better than two.

[Bühlmann]

To me, the CAS exam is a risk. You could honestly fail the exam having done the work. With NEAS, if you fail, you simply didn't do the work.

[Queen02]

Thanks. Yes it was nice not to have the SOA/CAS curve-grading garbage of getting 70% of questions right and still failing an exam. It was warm and fozzy feeling to get the NEAS passes for earning them.

[Phoebus]

I just took the CAS exam and I only did so because I was footing the bill for it at the time and was pretty confident I could pass. I knew the material pretty well and passed, but I eventually decided the extra effort wasn't worth it for a dumb VEE (other than the fact it was $180 vs $295+$245 for NEAS). It's just a good ol' expected value problem. If exams are a breeze for you, go with CAS. If you think you might fail, and especially if you don't have to pay for it, go with NEAS.

[StudyStrongSU]

One thing that is good about the NEAS is that all the material is out there right now. You can start the reading and do the HW even before the class has officially started. I wanted to start everything in January as the class ran from jan-mar, but i did not get started until late February. I got all the HW done in the last 2 weeks and the final was easy. The project was a little hard geting started, but as NewTubaBoy said once you realize that you can do pretty much what ever topic you want, it went pretty quick. All in all, I spent approximately 1 month for the entire Regression class.

PS. if you register for regression they sent you Mahler note for free.