Welcome

Ok folks, listen up. Since people often ask me "how many exams" I have left, I have created this handy pie chart for your reference and edification. Here is what I've done and what I still have to do to become an Associate of the Society of Actuaries (ASA): Green slices are completed, grey are pending results, and blue are yet to be accomplished. There's still a lot of blue.

The requirements include 5 Preliminary Exams (Exam P through Exam C), 5 Validation by Educational Experience (VEE) subjects (Microeconomics through Time Series Analysis), an 8 part professional development course called the Fundamentals of Actuarial Practice (FAP) that includes two high stakes assessments, and the Associateship Professionalism Course, which is a half day seminar where they tell us the legal and ethical responsibilities of being an actuary; once we are ASAs we can sign actuarial opinions, which is why they pay us the big bucks.

The preliminary exams that I still have ahead of me are only offered twice a year. They are difficult, with pass rates usually between 35-50%. So far I've completed two and have just taken a third (results available around July 11th, so stay tuned).

The VEE credits are given for topics that the Society of Actuaries feel are important to know but do not lend themselves well to a preliminary exam. So far I've completed two of the topics and am about to start studying for a test that will take care of the corporate finance requirement. People going through college now can get their VEEs through undergraduate courses, and the other methods I am using to fulfill the requirements are supposed to be equivalent to passing such a course. I hope to be finished with the VEE requirements by the end of the year.

The FAP modules are designed to take about a month each to complete and require submissions at the end of each module. At the end of module 5 there is a comprehensive Interim Assessment (IA). No one knows much about the IA because the folks that have taken it aren't allowed to talk about it; Erica thinks there is some sort of hazing involved. We have 30 days to complete the IA once we download it. At the end of module 8 there is a more comprehensive Final Assessment (FA), which is apparently a huge case study that requires us to analyze a situation and write some professional memos with supporting evidence for our positions. We have 96 hours to complete the FA once we download it, and we have to be supervised during that time to ensure no one provides outside assistance. To answer your question, I don't think my boss will follow me into the bathroom. I hope. The FAP replaced two preliminary exams and is supposed to be more applicable to day-to-day actuarial work than they were.

If all goes well (a significant assumption based on the pass rates for the preliminary exams) I could be an ASA by sometime in 2010. Then I'll start working toward FSA (Fellow of the Society of Actuaries) but since they keep changing the educational requirements, they do not appear in my handy pie chart, and I am not going to worry about exactly what's involved until I am getting ready to start that process...

The nice thing about this whole process is that it is well defined within the profession and each additional accomplishment generally is rewarded with raises and increased employment opportunities.

Watch for periodic handy pie chart updates as I make my way through the process.

—Jack

Labels: actuarial, exams, handy pie chart