I would like to express my concern regarding the degree of difficulty for the fall 2019 sitting of this exam and also the relationship of the exam to the source material.
I feel that the questions were sometimes asked in a way that was arguably too different from the way that the concepts are presented in Werner and Modlin. Once I review the solutions to these questions, I understand and even appreciate the new way of looking at the topic, however I don’t feel that the exam was an appropriate place to introduce new “twists” on tested concepts.
For instance, in the text and all prior exams and practice exams that I took, Hawayne’s method had three territories, one base and two to use for the compliment. Each territory had two sub categories. Then in the exam itself, the Harwayne question had TWO territories and FOUR subcategories within each territory.
I’m torn about this as of course we should all understand how to modify calculations for any number of territories and subcategories, however unfortunately I don’t feel that this was covered thoroughly enough in the Werner and Modlin source material.
This is not the only example of this problem.
Now the CAS has announced that it will no longer be publishing exams that are given. The problem is that if the exams are going to be asking questions in a very different way from how the topics are presented in Werner and Modlin, then they should be publishing the exams so that either study material creators can modify their materials or students can at least have more practice material that will actually be applicable to the material that will be in the exam.
Either that or I feel that the exams should more closely represent the source material. Harwayne’s method isn’t thoroughly covered in Werner and Modlin. It’s covered but not in great depth and I feel that this question was one that one would not be able to answer correctly if their understanding of Harwayne’s method did not extend beyond the scope of the source material.
Either source material needs to change to better match the exams or the exams need to better match the source material.