If the SOA recognizes college courses for credit, will this mean the CAS will have to recognize the same courses for the exams they are currently relying on the SOA like FM and IFM?
I think it’d be a big open question for the CAS and CAS leadership. Would need to weigh up the option of still recognizing early SOA exams or creating CAS-specific early exams.
Theoretically they could say that a college course won’t work and you still will need to take the SOA exam even if the SOA says they don’t need to take an exam.
However, this will probably create a lot of confusion. Especially since most candidates taking their first exam or two may not know the differences between the SOA and the CAS.
I think it would be a bad idea if the CAS forces students to choose which exams they take for the first few exams.
This will potentially lead to the CAS having less candidates. I think the CAS will be forced into following whatever the SOA does here.
Yeah that’s my hunch as well. There’s a big cost of not recognizing early SOA credit as early actuaries often first learn of the field through an SOA lens so the cost to switch to CAS moves from 0-1 exam wasted to possibly a few wasted which may have a material impact. Alas there’s only 3 exam overlap and the SOA has said P wouldn’t be part of the college credit so worst case only FM (arguably the easiest exam already) and MFE would be devalued a bit. More people to suffer through MASI 
If I were a CASer (I’m not) this is certainly what I would push for. If the students have the requisite coursework to meet the SOA requirements and the coursework is equally as rigorous as the exams (the SOA’s claim) then the students will have no trouble passing the exams.
So what happens then when student abc thinks they have credit and then they continue taking exams and think they have an ACAS until they find out the CAS doesn’t accept their college credit like the SOA does. It would create a lot of challenging situations.
If a student does know there is a difference, they would also be more inclined to go the SOA route because they already have credit.
If not, the CAS will get the cream of the crop, the SOA will get the leftovers, and the CAS will make the SOA look really silly in the process.
I think the CAS needs to worry about getting any crop.
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CAS will need to educate students on this. Make them sign a disclaimer every time they register for a CAS exam. Reach out to the students who register for the CAS exams who don’t have exam credit for the earlier earlier exams.
In my opinion, the CAS is really bad at the PR game. From what I have seen in the metro area most candidates learn about the actuarial field because of the SOA.
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This would be an easy thing to parse out to volunteers. A few hours a few times a year. No need to travel. Most CAS members will have unlimited long-distance calling.
If only the CAS has a mechanism by which a candidate can see what they have credit for (which is usually the case for attending the Course on Professionalism) . . .
BUT wAIT! They do!!
Yes, they took it down so people wouldn’t find out they passed MASI a day early lol.
Why do this? The CAS doesn’t require candidates to take the Exams in any particular order.
And I think there is something for “personal responsibility” when someone is pursuing a designation. The CAS just has to make it transparent of what a candidate has credit for and make it easily accessible to the candidate.
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And yet candidates don’t even know about the verify candidate’s exam status webpage.
I think most come to know about it when they’re looking to sign up for the CoP.
That’s fair. But if someone finds out about it even a few exams in that would not be optimal.
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We’re a larger org, for starters. More dues/revenues, etc.
Anyway, CAS has a variety of issues, but I will leave that to CAS members to point out. Or CAS candidates.
Yeah, you certainly wouldn’t have to. I know there’s not a required order. But if it appears that a candidate is going for all the intermediate exams and none of the early exams then it seems likely that they might not realize they don’t have credit for the preliminary exams.
Better yet, send them a progress report periodically (once or twice a year?) showing each and every requirement for ACAS and FCAS and mark off which ones they have credit for and then they can see that they don’t have credit for the early exams.
Then they really have no one to blame but themselves.
I’m all for personal responsibility, but the issue was raised that the poor students would be confused. There are ways the CAS could minimize the confusion without lowering standards to SOA-levels.