SOA Education redesign & CAS

[Oblomov retired (student)]

The SOA has been busy redesigning their education system. Currently, exams 1, 2 and 4 are shared between CAS and SOA. On the SOA side, these exams will no longer exist starting spring next year.

Does the CAS have an “official” (instead of rumours on this board) statement about how these changes will affect the CAS education system? Specifically what the transition rules will be and how the CAS views the new SOA requirements for subjects that will be “Validated by Educational Experience”, i.e. mandatory college credits instead of parts of exams 2 and 4?

Edit: Fixed title, thank you Slim Shady

[spotted cow]

I have the same question. There is nothing on the CAS website at all that talks about the redesign approval or VEE.

Either:

1) They (CAS) are slow to put it on their website, or
2) They are thinking about not going along with it

Hopefully it's #2.

I guess we will see.

[Howard Mahler]

I believe that the CAS is "going along" with the SOA.
I believe the CAS will continue to have its own Part 3 Exam.

The CAS will continue to do its own thing beyond Part 4, but some of this will probably change somewhat at some point (2005 or 2006). I do not know any details.

Howard Mahler

[Bored]

I believe that the CAS is "going along" with the SOA.

Am I the only one disturbed by this? If the CAS is indeed going along with the SOA, don't they have a responsibility to tell students this? I, along with many people I know, are considering switching to the CAS in a large part because it will enable us to take Course 4 beyond just this November. Shouldn't the CAS let people know that the last time they are offering certain exams is this year (if they are indeed going along with the SOA exactly, down to the timeline)? What if a student had just passed Course 1? They will have to pass 2 and 4 this year or have to take a few college classes. It would probably help them to know as soon as possible that they're under this pressure.

Up until now, I was angered by the SOA's complete disregard for students (waiting until February to finalize changes when they were supposed to be done in December); now it seems as though the CAS has stepped it up a notch to be just as bad.

[Wigmeister General]

Don't you know that when the SOA sneezes the CAS catches a cold? Do you really think the SOA, CAS and AAA are three distinct organizations? Have you ever called them both up to see if the phone numbers really are distinct?

[Maine-iac]

Believe me. They are two separate organizations. This fact is the curse of my life.

[Bored]

Does anybody have any information on who to contact at the CAS to find out what's going on?

[Wigmeister General]

Originally Posted by Bored

Does anybody have any information on who to contact at the CAS to find out what's going on?

Phone: (703) 276-3100.
Fax: (703) 276-3108.

[Wigmeister General]

Originally Posted by Maine-iac

Believe me. They are two separate organizations. This fact is the curse of my life.

The SOA has you boonswoggled. It's only one organization.

[Pack Fan]

http://www.casact.org/admissions/reports/FETFRept.htm

After discussing the FETF recommendations, the Board and Executive Council authorized the following activities:


Creation of a Joint CAS/SOA Task Force on Preliminary Education to discuss the differences between the CAS and SOA proposals for the material currently covered on Exams 1-4 and develop final recommendations for joint vs. non-joint educational activity. This includes exploration of options for allowing candidates to demonstrate mastery of certain topics through means other than CAS or SOA administered exams. This task force expects to complete its work by year-end 2003, given the SOA Board's directive to implement new SOA preliminary exams by spring 2005.
Creation of a Computer-Based Testing Task Force to develop a proposal for implementing computer-based testing for at least one exam by spring 2005.
Creation of a Task Force on Study Materials charged initially to evaluate commercially-available study materials to see how those materials compare to the current syllabus material in terms of quality and efficiency and develop a proposal for future action regarding options for developing better study materials.
Creation of a Task Force on Modeling Workshop to develop and pilot a workshop along the lines proposed by the FETF to see whether this is a workable idea for future basic and/or continuing education.
The Admissions Committees need to determine how best to ensure that the CAS education process supports the CAS Centennial Goal and to review international developments in actuarial education, including the Actuarial Control Cycle. This may require establishment of additional task forces.

[/list]