CPCU 540 for the Finance Credit?

[OddSox]

*bump*

After (mistakenly) taking the NEAS online course for Economics, I'm looking for any alternative to NEAS for the other VEE credits. I'd like to echo the question above -- How is the CPCU exam compared to NEAS in terms of difficulty, and more importantly, time spent? Input from anyone whose taken this exam or any of the other CPCU exams would be very welcome.

[Islander]

I've never taken the NEAS VEE courses so I can't comment on that. I have taken and passed CPCU 540. The material is not difficult but there is quite a lot of it. Best bet is to get the package that includes the SMART Guide, Course Guide and CD-ROM.

With about 2-4 weeks of study, you should be able to pass the exam easily. My strategy is to start with the SMART Guide which has the "Cliff Notes" version of the Text. Read a chapter, try to answer the Course Guide questions then take the chapter questions on the CD-Rom. Move on to the next chapter and repeat. I rarely cracked open the textbook; only if I was interested in the subject or the SMART Guide was not making sense. Leave a few days prior to your exam to memorize and focus more on the CD-ROM questions. Make sure to take the full practice exam at the end of the course guide. It always feels like 4-5 questions are directly from this practice exam.

The exam is CBT and 3 hours long and I normally finish in a hour and a half. There are very simple math questions, normally ratio questions and some interest theory. Interest theory tables and formulas will be available electronically at the exam. The majority of the questions are short answer/essay. I think (hope) this will be good prep for the upper level CAS exams since they are all essay-style exams.

I've actually taken a couple of CPCUs and found that to pass the exams, you pretty much need to memorize the answers as written in the Guides and CD-ROM. There are no trick questions! The questions in the course guide and CD-ROM encompass 99% of the questions on the exam. There are no surprises. In addition the questions tend to be not as hard as the questions in the supplemental material, for example, instead of asking you to list all three general forms of business organizations, it only asks for two.

Anyway this is my 2 cents. Hope it helps.

[tommie frazier]

the cpcu exams in general are thought to not have any real trick questions-i have heard that too.

[ScubaChris]

I've heard from some of my coworkers they just cram for the two days before the exam. And that's what I plan on doing when I take 540 on the 22nd. I'll let you guys know how it goes.

[Islander]

I guess it is possible to pass with only 2 days of cramming just not highly probable. Good luck!

[knotted]

Islander,
Do you have any sense of how many hours of prep time you put into CPCU 540?

Thanks!

[tommie frazier]

people I know have put in roughly 40-60 hrs per cpcu exam, and most report back that it is superfluous, but they don't know how to prepare less out of fear of failing it.

[Islander]

I probably studied about 30-40 hours for it (2-3 hours for each chapter). There were two chapters on interest theory that took about 20 minutes to review.

Tommie pretty much hit it on the head. I am so geared toward actuarial exams that I probably overstudy but I definitely know I will pass.

Just make sure you practice the exam with the CD-ROM and answer exactly like the suggested answers. The exam is CBT so I'm sure there is an algorthim that looks for certain keywords.

[tommie frazier]

that fear was real. they just didn't want to be "that guy" who failed one of the easier exams. we never want to cede that ground to the underwriters who put the cpcu exams on par with our exams. never. and the person who screws that up will have to answer to all of us for it. OK?

[OddSox]

Thanks for the comments, everyone -- this gives me a much better idea of what I could expect with this exam. I'd pretty much rather do any other method than deal with NEAS again, so this looks like a good method.