CAS Articles

[GA Peach]

I guess this topic would apply to all CAS exams. I'm studying for Exam 5 and noticed an article was different from what I printed from the previous sitting. So, I e-mailed CAS and asked them to confirm that the article was only changed in the formatting and not the content since there wasn't a "New" by the article on their website. (BTW, the article is Boor, J.A., "The Complement of Credibility" in case anyone's wondering.) This is the CAS's reply:

"It is my understanding that much of the article is the same. The CAS Forum, in which the original article appeared, is a non-juried publication. Subsequent to its publication in the Forum, the article went through a peer review in order to be published in the Proceedings. I am sure that the review process produced some changes to the paper. I do not know the exact changes that were made. The Proceedings version will be used for the 2003 exam."

I'm not real comfortable with this reply because this just means that if you study for an exam in a prior sitting, CAS has the right to change the article without notification - right? Geessss!! My guess is that the article didn't change enough to make it considered "New" but still...

Is this just common knowledge out there or am I missing something?

[Bullfrog1220]

I'm glad you pointed that out. I've been working with a copy from our company's file, so I never even looked at the articles available at the CAS website. It kind of looks like they just cleaned it up a little. My copy is a little faded, so I had some trouble reading some of the smaller letters.

I looked at the newer one really quickly, and there don't appear to be any major changes. If there were, they should at least update the publication date on the syllabus to 2003.

I hope there aren't any more articles like this. We have enough material to cover without there being multiple versions of these articles.

[Ginda Fisher]

I will ask the syllabus committee to look into this. This is similar to a new edition of a textbook, and when that happens, we usually either say "N", or else say "you can study from either version". I think you deserve to get one or the other of these comments.

Ginda Fisher
member of the CAS Syllabus Committee

[GA Peach]

Thank you Ginda!

[joeorez]

I agree the system is not perfect. But it seems to me you should always study the version that the current Syllabus says to study.

If there is a difference in the content of the two editions that is tested on th exam, then the person who studied the edition that the Syllabus said to study has to be in a stronger position than the person who studied a different edition.

[jared]

Another example of the system not being perfect. The Tiller study note references pages from an older edition of the Foundations book. The study note also indicates that the candidate is not responsible for certain pages of the text. Shouldn't the syllabus say that?

[moj]

Back when I took exams we had to walk 10 miles each way to the exam center .... and we didn't have shoes.

You had exam centers?