I tried to reply to a thread in CAS 9 and was unable to. I can’t start a new topic, either. It doesn’t seem appropriate to lock these down for over 3 weeks when we aren’t doing anything different than before the exam window opened. Here’s what I was going to post:
From VA’s post in the “Good Luck” thread:
After that time, I don’t see why topics on the syllabus can’t be discussed.
My understanding of what the CAS is asking is that specifics/details about what was asked on the Exam to not be posted.
That sounds to me like, you can ask anything you want, anyone can answer what you ask.
But don’t: ask what was on the exam, or post about what was or wasn’t on the exam, directly or by implication.
Hmmm. Not sure why my original paragraph is big and bolded.
Sorry for the abrupt closure. I had some business issues to address this morning, and it was more expedient to close all the upper Exam sections than trying to post a bunch of stuff.
I’ll be opening them up later today to allow posts in a designated thread.
Note that in the past, only one Exam was affected for a day, so it was far easier to monitor. Now, not only is there a broad range of Exams and over a longer time period, we’re also learning some of the (new) moderation capabilities on this platform. So some bumps are likely to be realized.
If you’re still studying for the CAS upper Exams, I’m not sure what value using the thread are given that no discussion of syllabus material aren’t allowed.
I’ve been a bit side-tracked with the holidays; but I’ll get things unlocked soon.
I also feel its unfair to lock the forums for those who haven’t sat for the exam yet. The forums are a very valuable resource leading up to the exam. Without it, there are limited outlets where we can ask question on last minute topics.
I’ve heard that people have contacted to the CAS regarding studying/collaborating during the testing window with other students that have not sat for the exam yet and the CAS stated it was allowed as long people who have sat for the exam don’t participate in the discussion and no questions from the actual exam are discussed.
The forums leaders need to reach out to the CAS regarding this and have a definite answer regarding what is allowed on forums during the testing window.
Yep. The moderators have had a meeting with the CAS folks. Once we get some form of “official” verbiage of their expectations, we’ll get things opened up in general.
In the meantime, I’ll get a few thread started for that purpose.
I hope the moderators take into account what works for students as well, and not just take CAS expectations as law. GoActuary isn’t a subsidiary of the CAS and isn’t beholden to any requirements they might like to impose. This is about goodwill and cordial relations and encouraging professional behavior, not policing.
I’ve seen multiple posts by moderators along the lines of “we don’t know who has taken exams already or not”. I would say that is largely irrelevant, unless the CAS is hiring you to seek out NDA violators. If the CAS has issues with a specific post, they could take it up then, rather than GoActuary proactively gagging everyone.
I mean. To be fair assuming the moderators are also actuaries they are beholden to the code of conduct and helping to make sure it is followed, and the code isn’t specifically isolated to CAS either.
Yeah, ignoring reasonable requests from the SOA/CAS Ed committees isn’t going to win you any points with the ABCD if someone from the committees gets miffed and refers you for code of conduct violations. (And willfully ignoring code of conduct violations by others is itself a violation of the code of conduct.)
We are beholden to the extent that we must act professionally and report apparent violations if we can’t resolve them with the other actuary. Actively acting to prevent the possibility of improper conduct or even the appearance of possible improper conduct against the code goes waaaay beyond that, IMO. That’s all I’m saying. Fortunately, next sitting only spans a week, so some of the issues we had this time won’t be as significant.