More changes are a coming.
1 Like
My exam’s grading chair had no idea. It’s hard enough to get volunteers as it is, I imagine these changes will just have the current volunteers doing even more.
I think it’s good to try to change things to make the profession better, I just wish they wouldn’t change things every year.
2 Likes
Yo why does everything hanging on the wall of SOA president’s home office wall look crooked?
Clearly no attention to detail
1 Like
I sent in questions re: logistics of this change
I’m assuming they are using paid staff/contractors for a lot of this (as the IFoA does).
I’m concerned about quality control of the process. the IFoA, I understand, is having issues itself …
2 Likes
I am not sharing the generic emails I’m getting back from the SOA right now.
This is an email I just wrote:
Look, I have volunteered in the FSA program in the past, and I know people involved in the IFoA and CAS, both of which have had quality control problems. In the past, the SOA has had issues with its own exam processes.
I am concerned with oversight, quality control, and actual ability to execute on this program.
My understanding has been that there has been a strain on volunteer sourcing for the FSA exams, and I know there have been problems with the modules (whether ASA or FSA). If you’re going to make these changes, there are credibility issues (and I don’t mean the actuarial kind).
So simply “assuring” people that it will work is not good enough. Those of us who are members, and definitely the candidates, will want to know how operationally this will work.
-mpc
2 Likes
Whups. Look like they over-booked or something.
I just got a cancellation on one of their townhalls and I guess they rescheduled a bunch of things.
I’m totally sure they’ll be able to handle higher frequency of exams, increasing exam feedback, higher-quality syllabus materials, etc. etc.
1 Like
Also got a cancellation email.
1 Like
Flashback to when they used to release exam results at Friday at 3pm, then turn the lights off and go home while the website went immediately offline.
1 Like
Email sent:
I just got the notice that the August 14 session was canceled. That was on a day & time convenient to me.
To be sure, there are multiple sessions yet to come, but I’m not seeing that recordings of any of the prior sessions are getting posted (maybe there is a delay – I understand).
That said, you understand how some members may be concerned about the SOA’s capacity to execute on a new strategy to increase frequency of FSA exams, provide more feedback to those who fail exams, develop better syllabus materials, etc.
I have seen the amount of work that goes into some of this, as well as how things can go wrong. Many other members may not have direct experience on the volunteer side, but I’m not exactly expecting them to step up to volunteer (and I’m not able to do much myself right now due to health/family issues). We’re going to be expecting that you’re going to have to expand staff or contractors. Would you like to share any information on that front on how you’re going to execute?
I will attempt to sign up for another session, but who knows if I will be able to.
Thanks,
-mpc
1 Like
Okay, I was on the webcast today, though I had to leave a little early.
I was correct in my surmise that there will be some staff increases to support this, as well as spending on outside vendors/consultants for the curriculum part [not all of it, to be sure.] I didn’t hear specific numbers, but we can keep an eye on that.
Some of the details haven’t been finalized yet, which I’m not exactly thrilled about, but fair enough.
I forgot to mention, my otter did follow me to the meeting so I have a rough transcript… give me a little bit to make a little clean up on this. I need to identify the speakers (and I needed to do a little editing, but it’s still rough, and it didn’t screenshoot every slide – they were recording the session, fwiw. I assume one of the townhall recordings will get posted.)
2 Likes
It’s easy to have grandiose ideas, implementing them is always the hard part. Especially when decision makers don’t have to implement their decisions.
2 Likes
Look, they did mention in some of the operational ways the exam committees (in specific, the curricular committees) were going to make it work.
Not sure about the exam/grading side, though.
Transcript:
SOA Town Hall Aug. 9 for Candidates and Members_otter_ai.pdf (1.5 MB)
I was wrong - it does look like most of the slides were captured
Sorry, not sorry – this is what these transcripts look like. I did very little editing, other than make sure the speakers were identified, and put the summary in. I also fixed a couple mis-transcriptions, but not many.
Thank you for this. Agree this all sounds great in principle, but still skeptical on how they’re going to pull it off. Being in the pension world, this response from Stuart Klugman bothers me and makes me less optimistic that it’ll be implemented correctly:
So let me start with the EA. So that’s another one like the CRA that’s with our curriculum committees right now, to figure out how the EA exams will be incorporated into this new structure. This is another set of exams of course, that the SOA does not have control over. So how the curriculum for the exams, the oasis, pass marks, all done by the Joint Board. So that’s external to us, but they do have to figure out how that will fit in, in this new program, so they’re well aware and this has happened before every time we do a change to the FSA that we have to figure out the best way to treat the EA exams as part of that process.
They already have the clear and obvious solution in the proposed structure. They’re taking out US and Canada detailed regulations from the FSA in the other tracks and making them certificates. That’s exactly what the EA exams are. The SOA can’t offer a certificate because it’s not their exams. But it’s the exact comparable. How should the SOA incorporate the EA exams in their FSA exams? The obvious answer is - it shouldn’t consider it at all. Offer a certificate for Canadian pension regulation but nothing for the US, and keep this material out of the FSA courses.