These responses are ridiculous. I agree with the point on the CAS making a top-down decision, but I’ve never seen them act differently. While in theory, they should consult us on these matters, I wouldn’t hold my breath expecting it. Not worth the energy trying to fight them on this, they’ve already made it clear from their actions that their goal is to make it even more difficult for us to get through the exam process than it was for them.
But as for the rest…
“Risking your life” are you for real? For those that have additional health conditions, I understand the risks and honestly don’t sit for the exam if you genuinely feel your life is in danger by doing so. The vaccine is coming and you’ll get a chance to take it next year. And if you are seriously claiming your employer will fire you if you don’t take the exam now, then please PM me the name of your company, and I will assist you in helping you get a better job because that is BS, and I cannot imagine any even half remotely decent employer would do that. I for one do not believe any company would do that during a pandemic, but I could be mistaken. I get the anxiety, I am not under 30 and am concerned too but if it’s too much for you, don’t sit. You’ll get another chance.
This whole demanding a remote option is perhaps the most entitled one. If they haven’t offered it to the people who already sat, why do you feel and demand they should offer it to you? This is just mind-boggling. And before people try the “states closing down argument”, IL is the only state I’ve heard this supposedly happen (and the CAS is already working on contingency plans for them). No other state has gone into lockdown and closing, so please stop spreading that it’s happening all over the country because there is no evidence of that. If I am mistaken, please tell me which state you’re in and the state-wide lockdown that was issued if that is indeed the case because I have not seen that anywhere. Or demanding the whole sitting to be cancelled because some people had to travel?
The point that I’d like to bring up which IMO is truly the biggest issue with the whole thing, is the fact that people taking exams at the end of the window (likely the OP plus a few other loud folk), are going to have a MAJOR advantage (basically a free pass if they’ve done a decent job preparing on their own). Despite what the CAS may claim with the NDA and Code of Conduct, people are going to talk. The people taking exams at the end window, especially who work at larger companies are going to share about the exams, and those at the end will have unfair advantage. It happened on the TBE 5 sitting, it happened on the non-proctored online courses, and I guarantee it’ll happen this time. If you seriously think people will not reveal anything, then I don’t know what kind of a rock you’re living under. I think of it akin to interview candidates at companies. If an actuary interviewing the candidate at the prospective employer knows an actuary at the candidate’s prior workplace, you can bet they will contact them and ask about them. That is 100% an unethical & unprofessional thing to do without the candidate’s permission, but I guarantee it happens all the time.
This is why it is gravely concerning that because people taking it at the end will cheat (you can define that however you wish), they will score better. And then the CAS will likely raise the passmark or grade harsher since they can’t let 70% of people pass again (remember TBE spring 2018 sitting where they passed 70% and then screwed us with super low pass rates in the fall). The only workaround I can think of is to give different exams (it’s been over a year since last fall, I would think they have at least 2 tests worth of questions developed) to the people taking it later in the window, but I suspect given the pandemic that may not be done. I’d hope that it would taken into consideration when grading (e.g. they can release a distribution of scores by day), but I doubt they can/will adjust people’s individual exams from this, and those who took it earlier may end up getting screwed. If there is a failure on the CAS for exams, it’s this.