Wow, I didn’t realize (but did assume) that they explicitly stated that the exam format would be just like pen and paper for this sitting as well. Looks like some question writers clearly did not get this directive. Hopefully this is another item that is contemplated during the actual grading…not that we ll ever know though. I hope some people mentioned this in their surveys so they are aware.
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I found the spreadsheet table M useful, although it took me some time to figure out what I could and couldn’t do. I was able to copy snippets as needed.
It’s unclear to me why CAS wouldn’t have put that in the sample questions using the Pearson environment. They had the pdf version in it. Unless I missed it.
Also agree that some problems were too tedious to do in a reasonable time with pen and paper.
The problem with that is the Pearson spreadsheet software sucks (no Ctrl + D, no F4 to lock cells, making a mistake in the formula erases it completely, no F2, typing inside a cell randomly replaces some characters with numbers) which make these “spreadsheet” style questions much harder than they need to be.
Actually, if we all had a copy of Excel 365 on the exam day I don’t think I would be complaining about that problem. Overall, still a difficult problem but reasonable and within the realm of what’s on the syllabus. The environment made it much more difficult than it needed to be.
A chunk of that drop-off is probably people who had a spring exam available going after it instead of 8. Not all of it, but I’d have to dig out my exam stats file that I’ve compiled over the eyars to see how things compare for the other exams to put that drop in context.
I will say that the candidate pool for 8 has been stacking up for a while now, courtesy of pass rates in the 35% range vs. pass rates around 50% if not higher for 9. Meaning, there’s probably a ton of ACAS who are Exam 8 away from FCAS.
I definitely think the exams are much more difficult than they were even 5 years ago. It feels like they took a ramp up in 2017, then another ramp up in 2019.
Why? I don’t know. I have lots of thoughts, ranging from “failure to understand what Bloom’s Taxonomy is really intended to accomplish” to “misapplication of Bloom’s Taxonomy in a real-world test environment” to “self-reinforcing discussions about perceived difficulty that ratchet actual difficulty up over time” to “desire to prove to candidates that 3rd party materials shouldn’t be relied on, which increases question difficulty and relevance beyond what candidates have ever been expected to be responsible for.” Probably several other things I’ve said and discussed with co-workers over time. “Controlling supply to keep salaries high” I think is not an explicit focus, but it’s a side-effect of things. Given the demands for credentialed actuaries, I suspect the market can absorb quite a number of new ACAS/FCAS without impacting salaries - especially given the number of actuaries who will retire within the next 10-15 years. [That discussion withheld for a different thread.]
I have long said the CAS should just write a straight-up exam, no frills, no tricks, say “we’re going to pass the top ~40% of candidates regardless of actual scores” and see what happens. At least then, everyone knows what the expectation is going in but the CAS can get a clear view of how candidates perform on a “regular” exam and can evaluate whether it’s really necessary to increase exam difficulty to achieve whatever alleged purpose.
No, we won’t see it. No, the CAS will never listen to anyone who seriously critiques its exam process. Yes, it’s going to lead to problems down the road. No, I’m not inclined to be part of that solution whenever someone finally realizes what’s going on.
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I suspect I know the answer to this question, but is there any recourse for candidates who are upset that:
- the pages/tables provided during the exam were different than advertised; and
- some of the questions clearly would not have translated to a pen/paper environment?
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Even if CAS throws all these questions out (the NCCI table questions is one of few I feel comfortable on), I would not pass.
I’m really curious how people did on this test. Would love to see pre-curving score metrics (average, median, high, low, etc).
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I feel the same way. Normally I’m anxious to get results. This time I just want to see how poorly I did
I’m not even sure how to study for these exams any more. I was thinking back to this most recent sitting, and even if I studied for another 6 months and literally memorized the source material - I don’t think I would of improved my score more than 1-2 extra points.
Some of the questions were so out of left field and unlike anything else I had seen I’m kind of lost for how to improve. I feel like its fine to put in tricky questions as long as its not the majority of the exam and you have ample time to try to work them out.
If the pass mark is 37 points out of 53, then the exam should have roughly 37 points of straight forward questions so a “minimum qualified candidate” who knows the main material well should pass. This exam felt like it had maybe 10 points of straightforward material and 43 points of trick questions.
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In my mind this has to be addressed via the grading. I think they need to grade those questions a bit more leniently AND have an overall adjustment to the pass mark to recognize that people probably spent more time checking and 2nd guessing themselves here and could have utilized that time elsewhere. The problem is we ll never know if anything was done to account for this with the new black box process.
That’s where you had the post-exam survey period to respond. You could try e-mailing the CAS - likely acs@casact.org - as well with concerns.
More detailed discussion on this, off the CAS website: https://www.casact.org/exams-admissions/exam-results-summary-exam-statistics/candidate-feedback-and-grievances
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Well if it makes you feel any better it seemed like they graded exam nine more leniently last time because of a lot of similar issues.
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thank you for the info, I’ve sent an email
I feel the same way. It’s so frustrating after putting in over 1000 hours for this exam.
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Yeah I feel like my summer and fall were wasted. Since I get close to 0 study time, I spent all those hrs after work and weekends studying for this first attempt at this beast.
I do agree even if I had a few more months to study for this, I would have came out feeling similarly crushed given how unpredictable some of these questions were.
I literally said this to someone yesterday. 
When’s the expected result release date? will it come as a Christmas present or New year’s present
Spring sitting eve present, imo.
They keep taking longer to grade the exams and blame the new format
I expect before Christmas. I think in 2019, the result came out on the 1st or 2nd Sunday of December.