IFOA Actuarial Exams: This is all you need to know

There are many questions on how the IFoA Actuarial exams are being conducted under new course. This article will help you to clear all of your doubts and will tell exactly on how the examinations will be conducted, how will marks be allocated, what will be the fees structure, etc.

If you found anything missing or you have any questions, do let me know as it might be a doubt of many and clearing it will be essential. Connect with me on LinkedIn.

Let’s Start

Reading time under IFOA Actuarial exams?

15 minute reading time will be in total, there won’t be any specific reading time for any technical paper.

The only exception is Paper 2 of CP1, which retains a dedicated 45 minutes of planning time, followed by a 2hours and 30minutes examination.

Do I have to attempt both papers at the same sitting?

Yes, you will have to sit both papers at the same time. You should view this as an examination with two elements of assessment.

Do I have to pass both papers at the same sitting?

The papers CS1, CS2 , CM1 and CM2 will be weighted.  Paper A, the 3 hours and 15 minutes paper will be weighted at70% and the Problem-based Assessment, Paper B, at 30%. The outcome will be a single mark (either PASS or FAIL). The marks for the two papers will be added together and a single result will be shown.

There is no requirement to achieve a pass in both papers. It means that if you are able to score passing marks in Part A and score 0 in Part B you will still consider as pass.

‘R’ coding? How to do it?

IFoA Actuarial exams now consist of Excel and R learning. We recommend that those sitting the papers requiring ‘R’ (CS1and CS2) familiarise themselves with ‘R’. There are lots of free resources available to help you with and IFOA is also going to provide ‘R’ guide detailing the packages that you will need. Same thing goes for Excel

Some of the free resources are: Tutorialspoint, Datacamp

In the case of CS and CM subjects, will there be a separate pass mark for each part?

There will not be a separate pass mark for each paper. The elements of the assessment will be marked and the two marks aggregated with a 70:30 split between the theory paper and the Problem-based Assessment. A final single mark will then be calculated for each of the CS and CM subjects.

The Chief Examiner will set the pass mark for each subject each of the IFOA Actuarial Exam

Which papers can Non- Members take?

Students wishing to take a non-member exam from under 2019 new curriculum can take either the CM1 or CS1 exam.

Fees under new curriculum?

These are just approximate figures, visit IFOA website for exact figures.

References: https://www.actuaries.org.uk/studying/curriculum-2019

About the Author

Arpit Surana

Writer | Actuarial Aspirant | Member of The Actuarial Club & Insurolgy | An enthusiastic and passionate person pursuing actuarial science who always looks forward to learning and developing new skills.

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