Education Redesign: The new system is failing!

[bdschobel]

...and much easier to learn! And provide value to your employer.

Bruce

[JMO]

Originally Posted by urysohn

Just a reminder that you are ethically obligated to turn those people in to the ABCD. ASOP-something-or-other. The Snitch Rule. There was a nice writeup of it just within the past month or two in Contingencies.

If you have names, dates, places, send this information to the ABCD. They will investigate. If you are willing to let your real name be used by the ABCD, it will make the investigation much easier, and the ABCD is NOT going to tell the world who filed a complaint.

Do it!

[bdschobel]

Technical clarification: The ABCD deals with members only, and FAP-level candidates are not members. Cheating by non-members should be reported to the SOA directly.

Bruce

[Surfohio]

Originally Posted by bdschobel

Technical clarification: The ABCD deals with members only, and FAP-level candidates are generally not members. Cheating by non-members should be reported to the SOA directly.

Bruce

IFYP

[JMO]

Originally Posted by bdschobel

Technical clarification: The ABCD deals with members only, and FAP-level candidates are not members. Cheating by non-members should be reported to the SOA directly.

Bruce

It might be good to reassure "whistle blowers" as to how much confidentiality can be provided by the SOA. I have seen what the ABCD offers, and can only assume the SOA will treat reports similarly.

[yanz]

Originally Posted by WinnieThePooh

When comparing the current FAP system with the previous system (2000-2005 or pre 2000) it is easier to cheat.

I think Bruce's point is that while it may be easier to cheat in this exam system, A. it's not impossible to cheat in other systems, and [more importantly] B. it's highly improbable (if not impossible) for a candidate to get through the entire exam system by cheating (ie, cheating every step along the way and not learning anything). I definitely agree here.

I know a lot of people who cheated in college by using solutions and papers written in previous semesters and many weren't caught. However, I don't know of anyone who managed to graduate by cheating their way through every single class. Many classes (just like most of the exams) you just can't cheat through...

[PAK]

Originally Posted by sweetie

...However, as time goes by, I think that this education system is failing since it’s too easy to cheat. I have seen a lot of people having exercise solutions from previous FAP takers no matter how much the FAP mentions about the ethics of actuaries. My friends from other countries told me that I would be naïve to think that people would not cheat. They even told me that if the solutions are available, who would be stupid enough not to take advantages of it? I had to bitterly agree with them. It’s just not fair!

I also found the same situation around me. A lot of my co-workers obtained the End of Module Exercise Solutions and the FA Solutions. They just re-phrased the solutions to be their owns, sent them out and got a pass. It is very unfair for those people who put very serious efforts on the exercises and the FA. In long run, this situation will probably erode the reputation of the SOA exam system.

My recommendations to SOA are as follows:

1. Develop a exercise/FA tracking system (such as detecting any matches on the wordings/calculated numbers between the submitted one and the solution or randomly sampling and checking the exercise/FA closely by an individual).

2. Establish a specific communication system to report the cheating.

3. Periodically (e.g. monthly) check on the trends on the numbers of the reported/catched cheating, see whether any increasing trend is developing and take action once this happens.

4. Enhance the education on ethics through adding additional module in the FAP (We can use the CFA exam materials on ethics as an example.).

5. Clearly define the consequence of the cheating if one is catched.

6. Periodically (e.g. quarterly) change the contents of the exercises/FA (e.g. changing the given numbers or the wordings in the exercises/FA) (The other suggestion is that the SOA can post all the solutions and the questions of the exercises/FAs in the FAP website as a guideline and create a new set of exercises/FAs which solutions will not be provided.)

I understand the above-mentioned suggestions may require a lot of human resources but I strongly believe that the SOA can create a schedule to implement them. The faster the SOA can implement it, the better the FAP educational system will be developed.

I hope my suggestions be helpful.

This is the "Monitor Results" phrase in the FAP Control Cycle.

[anywhereman_nyc]

Originally Posted by PAK

I ...My recommendations to SOA are as follows:

1. Develop a exercise/FA tracking system (such as detecting any matches on the wordings/calculated numbers between the submitted one and the solution or randomly sampling and checking the exercise/FA closely by an individual).

2. Establish a specific communication system to report the cheating.

3. Periodically (e.g. monthly) check on the trends on the numbers of the reported/catched cheating, see whether any increasing trend is developing and take action once this happens.

4. Enhance the education on ethics through adding additional module in the FAP (We can use the CFA exam materials on ethics as an example.).

5. Clearly define the consequence of the cheating if one is catched.

6. Periodically (e.g. quarterly) change the contents of the exercises/FA (e.g. changing the given numbers or the wordings in the exercises/FA)

I understand the above-mentioned suggestions may require a lot of human resources but I strongly believe that the SOA can create a schedule to implement them. The faster the SOA can implement it, the better the FAP educational system will be developed.
...
This is the "Monitor Results" phrase in the FAP Control Cycle.

PAK, I completely agree with your suggestions.

[no driver]

Originally Posted by yanz

I think Bruce's point is that while it may be easier to cheat in this exam system, A. it's not impossible to cheat in other systems, and [more importantly] B. it's highly improbable (if not impossible) for a candidate to get through the entire exam system by cheating (ie, cheating every step along the way and not learning anything). I definitely agree here.

I know a lot of people who cheated in college by using solutions and papers written in previous semesters and many weren't caught. However, I don't know of anyone who managed to graduate by cheating their way through every single class. Many classes (just like most of the exams) you just can't cheat through...

I would guess that it would be significantly harder to cheat in a proctored exam than it would be for an EOM exercise (can't really say as I've not gotten to the FAP yet and haven't put a lot of thought into cheating in general). I guess my biggest concern is that the FAP is the last major hurtle you have to get past in order to get your credentials. I understand that passing the other preliminary exams is no small matter, but having the last step in achieving a professional designation so open for abuse seems to send the wrong message.

I'm a bit concerned that Bruce's response seems to be so laizzes faire. I am going to eventually earn my ASA and I don't want my designation cheapened by people who obtained it unethically.

It's not like ASA is an unimportant designation. In my understanding it opens the door for MAAA and the ability to sign off on your work. The last thing we need as a profession is a group of under prepared, ethically compromised, but credentialed actuaries running around doing shoddy work—or worse.

But maybe I'm being too idealistic?

[Gary]

Originally Posted by PAK

I also found the same situation around me. A lot of my co-workers obtained the End of Module Exercise Solutions and the FA Solutions. They just re-phrased the solutions to be their owns, sent them out and got a pass. It is very unfair for those people who put very serious efforts on the exercises and the FA. In long run, this situation will probably erode the reputation of the SOA exam system.

This is really the biggest problem. For FA exam, it might be the difference of "4 days to write reports" v.s. "2 days to write reports".