My main focus is Exam 8 this fall but hoping to get an early start at this.
Any seminar/manual recommendation for this?
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I’m in for this sitting unfortunately. I used RF exclusively last time and I plan to use it again along with CC most likely.
I recommend cc. Tia is eh for this one.
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I second this. I purchased TIA for my second attempt and was very disappointed. CC + RF worked well for me.
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From what I hear so far, TIA isn’t that good for exam 7 and 9.
CC is great. I used that + source + cookbook.
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Are the source papers easy read?
I thought about CC
Some are better than others. Most are okay.
Kreps is not a terrible read, but it is hard to understand and also very unclear what is testable in it.
BKM is fine, but way too wordy. You can get lost in it.
The robbin and feldblum papers are probably not worth reading.
I thought I’d take the break between exams to try to zero in on a few deficiencies in my Exam 9 knowledge, so I’m hoping someone can help explain about whether or not alphas should be used in a problem.
Going through section 9.1 of BKM (10th edition), it works out the expected return-beta relationship:
E(r) = rf + B x [E(rm)-rf]
There is no alpha here. This made sense to me because I thought alpha was always zero under CAPM, because the assumptions of rational mean-variance optimizers with identical input lists doesn’t allow for mispricings to exist.
Then the next page talks about the security market line, and how a stock that is above the line has a positive alpha. But according to CAPM’s expected-return beta formula, that can never happen.
And then, at the end of 9.1, it states that the excess return on any stack is R = alpha + Beta*Rm + e, and E(R) = alpha + Beta*Rm
So, when do I assume alpha is zero, and when do I need to include it? I think I must be missing something conceptually.
joining this thread for my last exam! let’s gooooo
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I’m sure this was asked multiple times by exam takers before but I’m going to ask anyways. Is it a common consensus that Exam 9 is the easiest out of the 3 upper?
And is 3-4 months enough for an average actuary to have a good shot of passing this?
Thanks.
it’s rare to find people who got stuck on 9 and couldn’t get FCAS because of it and it has the highest passing rate.
I found the other two easier. Took me three attempts to pass. Exam nine while it has the easiest material has the hardesr questions in my opinion and the most competition.
I got a 5, 5, and 7.
can you describe what concepts you found the most challenging?
While BKM isn’t hard they make the questions very challenging. It’s not simply mastering the material.
Kreps is annoying. Mango you should look at the last released exam. Not too mention the various questions that have arguably not been on the syllabus in the past.
Section C and D they test in ways you would not expect.
I’m going through the Robbin IRR paper and I decided to try to recreate some of the exhibits to make sure I was understanding it. In Exhibit 2, the pattern of incurred loss in years 1-4 is 72, 0, 0, 0, which is what I would expect. In Exhibit 3, however, the pattern is 68, 3, 1, 0. Does anyone know what the reason for this difference is? From reading the paper, I thought the only difference between the exhibits was going to be whether reserves were discounted.
Do I really want to sit for this exam in [choose month in Spring, 2022 when this will be given]? No, no I don’t - because I hate the CAS.
But to stick a finger in the eye of a few people in a few places, … yeah, yeah I might. Even if I’m getting too old for this shit.
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Alright, I guess I should start focusing on this exam now. I’ll probably start slowly rereading the source over the next few weeks. Not going to go out of my way to study too intensely this early. Not sure where I should start though. Does anyone know where to get the breakdown of your score? I’ll probably start with the section that I did poorest on.
I’m planning to start lightly studying in December until results for this sitting. Then come January really hit the ground running on the material.
checking in for the spring as well, after being mauled by 8
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