To Arlie Proctor and CAS exam committee- Exam 7C

[Darkness Falls]

As for the complaints of the CAS vs. the FCIA actuaries, I believe his problem is still with the chosen passmark which led to the 26.25%

[7C_Actuary]

Thanks darkness_falls but Phil is right.

The expression I used "on the verge of cultural racism" was too strong and thrown out of anger and does not represent in any way what I feel. It was more of a scream for justice between the countries that went out all wrong. Therefore, I formally apologize for using such an expression.

As you said though, and as I stated in my last post I still believe :

"I am also very pleased to hear they put a higher bar for exam 7C than for exam 7US. This, IMHO, should be considered more deeply by the CAS in the future" so that it becomes fair between the 2 countries. This statement also applies for the CIA, if they are the reason they put the bar higher.

Once again, I am very sorry, anger is not the way to solve anything and I am well aware of that.

That said, hope everyone is ready for exam 7C 2009 because I AM READY NOW!!! (Victory Roar!!) Hahaha!!

[Requiem]

Originally Posted by 7C_Actuary

That said, hope everyone is ready for exam 7C 2009 because I AM READY NOW!!! (Victory Roar!!) Hahaha!!

LOL

[tommie frazier]

Good luck next time _7C. I read the bit on racism and thought it a bit harsh, esp since the committee is chock full of canadianers. glad to see you've pulled back on that. I don't discount your frustration-the process can be v frustrating. I do trust that the committee, as evil as they may seem, tries to interpret all they can in the candidate's favor. (or "favour", in this case.)

Originally Posted by 7C_Actuary

Thanks darkness_falls but Phil is right.

The expression I used "on the verge of cultural racism" was too strong and thrown out of anger and does not represent in any way what I feel. It was more of a scream for justice between the countries that went out all wrong. Therefore, I formally apologize for using such an expression.

As you said though, and as I stated in my last post I still believe :

"I am also very pleased to hear they put a higher bar for exam 7C than for exam 7US. This, IMHO, should be considered more deeply by the CAS in the future" so that it becomes fair between the 2 countries. This statement also applies for the CIA, if they are the reason they put the bar higher.

Once again, I am very sorry, anger is not the way to solve anything and I am well aware of that.

That said, hope everyone is ready for exam 7C 2009 because I AM READY NOW!!! (Victory Roar!!) Hahaha!!

You are missing the fact that your own country set those standards.

[Hit]

Originally Posted by Phil de cube

You are missing the fact that your own country set those standards.

So?

[great3981]

Those following this thread may be interested in Arlie's article in Future Fellows.

Writing an Appeal

[Arlie_Proctor]

Gandalf:

Originally Posted by Gandalf

An interesting question about the best use of scarce volunteer resources:



Suppose some of 7C_Actuary's appeals were of that sort: valid alternative answers, but not answers he gave.

In that case, should the graders spend the time to see if some other candidate, who didn't appeal, gave that that answer?

For "they should": if the answer is valid, then anyone who gave it should get credit for it.

For "they should not": this is different from "if anyone gets credit for an answer, all should get credit for that answer". In this case, with no appeal from anyone who claimed to have interpreted the question in the way that justifies the alternative answer, credit for the alternative interpretation is unnecessary. Put that way, it's not just a resource question. No credit might be the best decision even if they knew there were others who gave that answer.

If a candidate appeals and provides a response with backup that should have been considered valid in the grading, but was not given credit, then all candidate papers who might benefit are regraded. That is a fairly rare occurrence, but I have seen it happen and was able to make a call to a candidate who did not appeal to say, "Surprise, you now pass as a result of someone else's appeal." Curiously enough, that was the case in 2006 for 7C.

It is fairly rare that a candidate provides a truly novel and valid approach to a problem that the graders fail to recognize during the grading. The vast majority of appeals are slight restatements of answers that were already marked for full credit.