Given how “different” the exam questions felt for Exam 8, I am concerned about how effective these study guides/manuals will be.
I also don’t want to take this exam twice.
I am definitely concerned about a Mack '94 MSE question showing up now that the calculations are a little easier(?) to manage in a spreadsheet.
Yup and any calculation involving matrices.
Which section are you in?
Still in A.2. working through the Mack '94 and Venter cookbook recipes right now.
Are you more of “go through one really thorough run and jump to practice exams?”
First pass through I try to get a firm understanding of the concepts and the process for answering “standard” questions (usually 2 months). Second pass through I use my notes and problem “templates” to start answering questions (1 month). Third pass is practice exams no notes (1 month).
I thought the same. Which calculations involving this can show up?
Off the top of my head, I’m thinking significant diagonal test from Venter, the solution matrix from Shapland when solving for GLM parameters, and the design matrix from Taylor for CL & Cross Classified models. I’m sure there’s a couple more that I am missing.
marshall
I’m only about half way through section A so hopefully my opinion changes as I get further into the material, but I’m currently let down by TIA. This seems like such an inferior product compared to the material for the other FCAS exams. Maybe it’s just the papers and it will be better as I go along.
What in particular is not meeting your expectations?
As someone who used TIA for all CAS exams. This is by far the most inferior product that exists on TIA for CAS (at least at the time I used the materials).
Reasons why: 1) Instructor was non-responsive, 2) Mistakes in his manual, 3) No updates, 4) Missing key information that other manuals include.
With that said you can still pass with just TIA on exam 7 but it is much harder.
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Not all the practice problems are in excel format but this sitting will be the 4th CBT exam sitting. How is this an issue for a product that costs $1000? The manual chapters and the chapters that appear in the videos are in a different order. Usually learning the material in a certain order is helpful, but why is this changed around? Not all of the sections in the manual even have the practice problems at the end of the section, but some do which I guess is good. The manual just seems to be a shortened version of the source without any additional details, context, or examples. Maybe my opinion will change as I go further through the manual and maybe my expectations were unfairly high based on how much I liked TIA for 8 and 9, and maybe this material is so inherently different from exam 8/9 material that what I want out of the study material isn’t reasonable, but as of now I am wishing I chose a different study aid. I will also come back and edit this post if I end up changing my mind in case other people are reading this in the future to decide which material to use.
I think the real issue is that this is much more of a side job for the person who does Exam 7. He doesn’t have the time to fix things. The forums were really an indicator of this. Everyone asking him questions and no responses until two years later.
TIA for exam 7 hasn’t been great for a long time now. I heard it improved, but it sounds like it still has problems. When some of the other vendors started writing Exam 7 manuals, it was quite the relief.
I know there have been gripes about some of the limited functions of CBT, but I just learned that the sumsq() function works. No more calculating r^2 + r^2 + r^2.
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I just learned an Excel function! Thanks!
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Trying to plan ahead a little bit - any recommendations on how much time should be spent on Brehm? I’ve allocated a week to get through all of the RF/CF videos and cookbook examples - as well as some supplementary work reading the actual paper. Does this seem like enough for a first pass through the material?
I liked the cookbook. I didn’t use crystal clear for seven but it was very helpful for nine.
Might be worthwhile to look into other resources. I also found studying with a group helped a lot.
Unfortunately no CC for 7. Crystal’s got no luv for reserving. 
I’m officially bailing on this one. Too far behind from work and illness to meaningfully catch up. Also with baby due date crossing the exam window, a big enough chance that it’d be wasted extra effort to do so at this point. Good luck everyone! Still plan to see the 8 ppl in the fall.