So, now I am a Fellow of the Casualty Actuarial Society. Quite an exclusive club; there are only about 3300 members throughout the U.S. and Canadia. There are probably that many lawyers and dentists combined just in the greater Hartford area.
It was a long struggle. Over 5 and a half years of studying and test taking. The demand for actuaries is high, the competition is intense, and the rewards are worth it.
And yet, the examination process leaves much to be desired. I wondered many, many times if the material over which I was racking my brain had any practical application in my own day-to-day work. You study and study and memorize and study some more. You learn every single nuance of every paragraph of every paper on the syllabus. Even if you know you could not be any more prepared, you take the exam and walk out of the room not feeling totally confident that you passed. That never happens in college, right? You study and prepare for the final, walk into the room very confident, finish the exam in half the time, and know you got at least a B+. Not so with actuarial exams.
And if you don't like your results (read when you fail) you can't see your graded exam. One can appeal, but getting a re-grade is very difficult. And how can you appeal that your exam should be re-graded if you can't even see what you wrote to use to defend your position. It's not like you can remember what you wrote down on any particular problem two months later.
I could go on and on about how I feel that the examination system can and should be improved, but I'll stop here. I should say that those who create an exam and those who grade them do so on their own time -- all volunteer work, so it is expected that there should be some weaknesses with the system.
Anyway, I am very relieved that it is all over.
2 comments:
A Ben and Jerry's delivery truck loaded with quarts of Phish Food leaves Burlington, Vermont at 9:30 am traveling south-southwest at 55 miles-per-hour with a 4 knots-per-hour head wind.
At 9:45 am a Breyer's truck filled with Plain Vanilla half-gallons leaves Philadelphia traveling north-northeast at 55 miles per hour with an undetermined head wind.
When these two trucks collide, how much medical insurance does each driver receive if both have full coverage? If one of the drivers is not listed under his legal name and his data has been misfiled reminiscent of the Argentinian mail system?
Seems you missed a question, Professor.
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