Reply To: CAS Leadership and the Failure of 2020 Exams

[Michael Scott]

The cheating isn’t purely from stashing notes. First off, you greatly simplify what can be gained from looking at notes, but even assuming everything were true as you claim and that it doesn’t help on the exams… The main issue with this setup especially having a window of 1.5 months (assuming dec 31 cutoff but it sounds like this will go into January now), it’s the fact that people who take the test later will GAIN INSIDE INFO on what the actual questions are. Are you seriously saying knowing what the questions are and how to prepare is NOT going to help someone’s score? This is precisely the cheating that people are worried about, not merely looking at a note card to get a peek at a formula. We know there’s an NDA, but again like I mentioned in my earlier post, just like in a job interview for a prospective candidate. If an actuary knows another actuary at the candidate’s company, you can bet they’ll ask about them even though it’s extremely unprofessional to do so. I for one, wish the NDA and fears of cheating are enough to stop people from talking, but I seriously doubt that happens, especially at larger companies. This is precisely the issue with what people are concerned about, not that they stashed a hidden notecard. I really wish the CAS will adjust the grading to account for this, but I have my doubts on that one…