Article with Helpful tips on passing Health FSA exams!! Does this enrage anyone else?

[stg]

http://www.soa.org/library/newslette...2011-iss66.pdf
(The article starts on page 12 of the pdf, or page 19 of the publication itself)

This is an article written by two graders. It gives tips like "As exam question writers, we do not get those exam flash card and study manuals (as they are not part of the syllabus). We actually read the material." If that's the case, then STOP INCLUDING QUESTIONS THAT TEST ROTE MEMORIZATION OF OBSCURE LISTS (not sorry for caps).

Some more gems:
"4. When reading the material, try to predict the cognitive questions."

and then be disappointed when there are no cognitive questions.

"10. Read and contemplate the case study before the test."

and then be disappointed when the only case study questions are tangentially related to the case study.


It really bothers me that the article takes the position that we should be studying for an exam as it should be written rather than as it's written in reality. And in reality, it's an exam that tests rote memorization, because doing anything else would be asking too much of the exam graders.

[limabeanactuary]

Maybe here's a more helpful article:
http://www.soa.org/library/newslette...-campbell.aspx

and this video was ostensibly for AFE students, but it's for any of the FSA exams, really:
flash: http://www.theinfiniteactuary.com/pa...17&lesson=8491

quicktime: http://www.theinfiniteactuary.com/pa...17&lesson=8491

windows media: http://www.theinfiniteactuary.com/pa...17&lesson=8491

(I may be biased about it possibly being more helpful -- and I talk about the exams as they are, not how I'd like them to be.)

And I understand your rage. The best I can tell you is to deal with the exams as they are... and then volunteer for the exam committee once you're an FSA!

[DoctorNo]

I agree - I found that article disappointing, particularly considering what passed for an exam in CSP-GH this past April.

[ladeedah]

Wow. That's about all I have to say. And I agree that the article is a bit idealistic about how the exam is written in a perfect world.

[ladeedah]

I just looked more closely at the authors' pictures and realized that I met one of them at the Health meeting last week. I wanted to pick her brain about the exam, but didn't know that I would do it in a non-judgmental PC way so I refrained.

[bfore13]

I've always read the source material but at 2700+ pages, I'd have to read it several times to truly understand it enough to go through an outline and jog my memory of the details. They believe we should move away from flash cards as study resources but with 35% more material I think this is counterintuitive. The material is so vast and varied that you need to be able to pare it down in the last few months and that's where IMO flashcards (either purchased or self-made) provide the best resource. Even if it means having 700-800 cards.

I agree with them that understanding the material is key. But as the material continues to bloat in size, with more and more filler material being added, it becomes more difficult and more time consuming to gain that understanding for a significant portion of the material. What's frustrating is that some topics are covered by multiple sources and some of them aren't 100% consistent. The flashcards, MATE especially, do a great job of integrating different sources.

"... a student would be foolish to expect that memorizing fragmented lists is the only way to pass. It may have happened in the past, but it is a whole new world."

I think the authors need to consider how this "whole new world" came about. There didn't seem to be as many issues with the old course 8s or the early CSP/DP exams. There are several major topics that could be the cornerstone of each Exam with other lesser topics thrown in where, with smart and coherent questions, they could determine which candidates do/don't have an understanding of the Learning Objectives. But I guess it's our fault for not being able to listen to a SOA Meeting CE session while we flip though the Powerpoint slides and determine that the Reinsurance Score Sheet discussed on slides X & Y would be a "really smart question."

[bfore13]

Oh and the award goes to #6:

"A 10-point question means that the people who wrote the exam question thought it would take you 30 minutes to answer the question well."

We get this concept, we're pretty decent in math. The problem is when the 10 pt question that's mostly calculations really takes 50 minutes, etc. which happened in 2010 and you walk out of both sessions thinking "if only I had an extra 30 mins for each session."

[campbell]

Originally Posted by bfore13

Oh and the award goes to #6:

"A 10-point question means that the people who wrote the exam question thought it would take you 30 minutes to answer the question well."

We get this concept, we're pretty decent in math. The problem is when the 10 pt question that's mostly calculations really takes 50 minutes, etc. which happened in 2010 and you walk out of both sessions thinking "if only I had an extra 30 mins for each session."

Right, but there's this thing called "partial credit".

The name of the game is to maximize your score. So you stop when you hit your time limit and move on to a different problem. When you finish all the other problems, then you can go back to the problem you didn't finish.

One of the things I have a difficult time getting people to do is giving up on a problem, especially when they know how to do it, but it's taking them way too long to finish. You have to be strategic in your time management on FSA exams in a way very different from the prelims.

For one, getting entirely precise & accurate numerical answers do not get you much on FSA exams. So don't waste your time checking your arithmetic, or even your algebra. You've got to keep chugging. You generally get the most points just from the set up of the problem, and not from the actual numerical solution.

[Bison]

I just wanted to take a moment to thank Kristi and Andie for writing this (as well as MPC for the article she linked to from a little while back, which was a big help to me for this last sitting.)

While I think we'll all agree that improvements could be made in the FSA-level exam process, I certainly appreciate any insight that those "in the know" share.

[Carlito]

I do appreciate the efforts of the exam committee to test higher cognitive learning of the candidates. However it does require a lot of time. Like when you read one chapter of a syllabus material, you have to spend about the same time thinking about the implications what you've read, how it relates to the specific learning objectives, how to apply it given a situation.

The problem is, 400 hours of studying per season is barely enough for you to just understand the material at a basic level. It does not include the reflection you need to develop a higher cognitive understanding of the material.

I reckon a student would need about 800 hours per season to be able to meet the demands of the exam committee. Considering other demands such as work and personal life, I think it's more more reasonable now to set a 10-month rather than 5-month study period per exam.