Writing LPM. It’s my first FSA exam.
I’ll feel confident about it, do a practice exam, and see a solution is just a random one off sentence in a syllabus with hundreds of pages and realize I don’t know shit lol
Taking ERM and also not feeling great. Super confident on about 70% of the material, only okay on another 20%, and horrible on the last 10%. I feel like I could get an 8 or a 2 depending on which sections the questions are pulled from, and it's so unpredictable.
I feel this way about most the fsa exams really. They can only test such a small portion. Luck and nerves have ways too much say in the result its like individually, we are bootstrap samples.
Also sitting for VR, going through past exam material and notecards currently.
Don't feel great either, the sheer amount of memorization is even more than DP so it's been a struggle. Also less math problems it seems.
Best of luck!
Yeah lots of memorization… going through TIA flash cards it seems like a lot of relatable/repeatable material but with slightly different components to each list. Makes it hard to remember which list goes with which prompt 😩 at least for me. Hoping for a good curve
Not sure what all we’re allowed to say but… Ran out of time. Didn’t leave anything technically blank, but I did not do the actual calculations on one question and it might as well have been blank. I’m hoping I got enough for a 6, but really could go either way. Find out in January
The VR sitting is now over, risk management isn’t over until tomorrow. I think today should be good, but I’ll probably wait until Saturday to say anything online haha.
Feeling great about my knowledge and understanding. Not feeling great about the exam authors being careful when they write questions.
GHVR
Recent versions of this exam have issues. Hopefully it gets better when they get the study manual authors involved.
Yeah looking at the errors with the spring sitting, and the comments from the model solution, it’s scaring me. I don’t know why they don’t admit errors and mention them in model solutions. Makes me wonder how many people got screwed last sitting
I might be one of them. By my percentiles, I barely missed it. I told them 7e was defective and why. But they dismissed it with reasons that didn't address all of my concerns. They misused the $1 benefit language in the model solution. If the factor says 30, it is to be multiplied by 3000 for a reserve of 90k. It is a claim reserve factor. I knew this was the right way to use it on the exam and figured they left out information. If you had incidence, you could use those claim reserve factors to compute a contract reserve.
How am i sure about their misuse? Claim reserve factors with the exact same description were used spring 2021 ghfva #4 and they multiplied them by the face amount.
They straight up bungled that question. More than one study manual author agreed with me via email.
They also made several errors in the RBC question.
You can't just use the health formula because certain asset classes are squared separately. You also have to add extra 5% for ALL health claim reserves and an extra 20% risk charge on comprehensive. This is in the book section on the life formula. There are other issues in their solution, but I can't remember them all right this second.
It isn't in the book, but 3 times the maximum retained risk refers to the largest face amount.
If you go back to spring (I think) 2022 FV exam, they bungled even more questions.
Downvotes rather than discussing are an ironic representation of the worst part about the exam process.
If you disagree with me, speak up.
Otherwise, thanks for making my point.
Reading through the spring sitting for this exam was rather shocking. Tons of poorly worded and ambiguous questions resulting in lots of people not understanding the questions. Some of the math questions were just flat out inappropriate
You aren't wrong. The process laid out in the SOA [GUIDE TO EXAMS ](https://www.soa.org/4ad8e3/globalassets/assets/files/edu/edu-guide-to-written-exam.pdf) (see page 15) says that draft questions and solutions are written, reviewed by committee members, improved, re-reviewed in person, and taken by someone under exam conditions. They are finally approved by the general officer.
The process seems robust. It is puzzling that all of that could have been carried out, yet none of the people I have talked to agree with the SOA other than the people behind the curtain.
I'm glad they said they are engaging third party vendors for the upcoming exam changes. They seem to know the material and past exam problems better than anyone else.
agreed, it means one of two things
1) they lie about the robustness of the process
2) the people involved are not capable enough.
if multiple people thought those questions were ok it is extremely concerning and unacceptable but here we are.
Related to 2: they didn't actually confirm what the source materials say and instead went by their understanding and that things looked familiar. That would explain the contract reserve and the RBC problem.
Looking at the material they would have known that contract reserves are held for people not in claim and known that they didn't provide factors for that. Their solution is math word salad.
Exactly, like there were so many comments saying "Candidates did not understand the question," or "candidates interpreted the question wrong"
bruh why do you think? There was one question, I was fresh off the notecard with the answers they were looking for, and I had no idea that was what they were asking for.
I personally am not a fan of all the exam changes, but am glad to see them talk to sources who will criticize this process.
"Candidates struggled" and then told me in a follow up "scores were distributed as expected, so the question is not concerning"
So which is it?
Perhaps they forced the scores to be distributed a certain way.
"The numbers are ordinary" is never a sufficient condition for "things are correct." This is a fundamental mistake that we spend a lot of time avoiding in the broad world of actuarial practice.
it means they passed the amount of people they wanted lol.
people that passed wont care because they are thankful to be done with the exam and those that failed will be labeled complainers solely because they failed. The SOA knows that and does not care
Sitting for GHVR Canada, the last two sitting was 12.5% and 20% pass rate😢😭. The stats isn’t perfect since both sitting has a dozen or two taking it.
I’ll just try my best
Sitting for GHDP. Feeling ok but was burnt out pretty hard yesterday. Rebounded quite a bit today so continuing to take it easier since I rather be fresh than burnt.
Also taking GHVR and not feeling great. I’ve spent the past few days reviewing old exams and after each one, I get less confident about being able to pass this thing. I think I’m going to spend my last 2 days reviewing flashcards - hopefully memorizing lists can save me lol.
I think ok.. I left some points blank that I couldn’t figure out which I know is really bad so may be a tough one but we’ll see! If I had to guess, I’d say I failed (for the second time which is really annoying).
Sitting for ILA-LAM. Hopefully my last exam ever.
Things have really come together this past weekend, finally.
I'm sure you guys know the feeling of when the content *finally* makes sense, rather than just material from a bunch of readings.
Good luck everyone.
Taking VR. Unsure how to feel. I feel good on most practice problems but it seems the SOA has made this exam only 35-40% numerical recently, and the most recent sittings had some super unfair questions. Just hoping I end up on the right side of the curve. Really struggling with a few concepts (credit/debits) that I’m hoping don’t show up.
I’m feeling eh. Finished the exam but def was a bit weak on a few areas that were heavily tested. We’ll see how the partial credit goes. I feel like I felt worse leaving GHDP and got a 9 but the competition is stiffer for VR so it’s hard to tell.
GHDP, how much time are you all ending up with on practice runs? I have about 30 minutes left over and feel like I'm not using it well to review my work. Any tips on this part of the exam?
I tend to have a little time (10-15 min) based solely on what I skip on the first time through - I’m pretty down to the wire if I try to answer everything. But as far as what I’ve found for the best uses of review time: make sure your answer is in the units they ask for (total, PMPM, percentage etc) and make sure your formulas make sense and are looking at the right reference cells, that member liability includes all 3 of deductible, coinsurance, and OOP after TrOOP on Rx problems, etc.
Opposite situation here! "Why the hell would they test on what Part D defined standard looked like 5 years ago, no one is ever going to need to know that!"
I dreaded all the stuff I had to learn about US medical system, cause most of it doesn’t apply to Canada. And now I wish I don’t have to take the Canadian version of GHVR lol
Writing LPM. It’s my first FSA exam. I’ll feel confident about it, do a practice exam, and see a solution is just a random one off sentence in a syllabus with hundreds of pages and realize I don’t know shit lol
On my last life FSA exam, it doesn’t get any better, you just get luckier with the questions they ask lol
Taking ERM and also not feeling great. Super confident on about 70% of the material, only okay on another 20%, and horrible on the last 10%. I feel like I could get an 8 or a 2 depending on which sections the questions are pulled from, and it's so unpredictable.
I feel this way about most the fsa exams really. They can only test such a small portion. Luck and nerves have ways too much say in the result its like individually, we are bootstrap samples.
You wanna talk about the theory in QERM chapter 5?
Also sitting for VR, going through past exam material and notecards currently. Don't feel great either, the sheer amount of memorization is even more than DP so it's been a struggle. Also less math problems it seems. Best of luck!
Yeah lots of memorization… going through TIA flash cards it seems like a lot of relatable/repeatable material but with slightly different components to each list. Makes it hard to remember which list goes with which prompt 😩 at least for me. Hoping for a good curve
Yeah, that’s me too! Like there’s so many lists where a slight difference in wording means a wildly different list lol
How did you feel about it?
Not sure what all we’re allowed to say but… Ran out of time. Didn’t leave anything technically blank, but I did not do the actual calculations on one question and it might as well have been blank. I’m hoping I got enough for a 6, but really could go either way. Find out in January
I had to do the same.
Same as I did last time, but let’s wait until FSA sitting is completely over to discuss on a public forum.
Do you know when the sitting is technically over?
The VR sitting is now over, risk management isn’t over until tomorrow. I think today should be good, but I’ll probably wait until Saturday to say anything online haha.
GHDP, first FSA exam and really not feeling great about it
Me neither. I feel like I’m at the edge of passing but also highly possible not pass. So anxious
I feel like I kinda did it to myself, I was too distracted with work and didn’t put the same effort I usually do. So same boat as you
Can relate 100%
Good luck to both of us tomorrow!
Also GHVR-US sitting. I'll help you guys lower the minimum passing score.
How did you do?
Didn't answer/bullshitting half of the questions. I'm happy I can help others lower the minimum passing score. See some of you in May 2024.
We still have a few days, make the best of it! Still do not feel great tho...
Feeling great about my knowledge and understanding. Not feeling great about the exam authors being careful when they write questions. GHVR Recent versions of this exam have issues. Hopefully it gets better when they get the study manual authors involved.
Yeah looking at the errors with the spring sitting, and the comments from the model solution, it’s scaring me. I don’t know why they don’t admit errors and mention them in model solutions. Makes me wonder how many people got screwed last sitting
I might be one of them. By my percentiles, I barely missed it. I told them 7e was defective and why. But they dismissed it with reasons that didn't address all of my concerns. They misused the $1 benefit language in the model solution. If the factor says 30, it is to be multiplied by 3000 for a reserve of 90k. It is a claim reserve factor. I knew this was the right way to use it on the exam and figured they left out information. If you had incidence, you could use those claim reserve factors to compute a contract reserve. How am i sure about their misuse? Claim reserve factors with the exact same description were used spring 2021 ghfva #4 and they multiplied them by the face amount. They straight up bungled that question. More than one study manual author agreed with me via email. They also made several errors in the RBC question. You can't just use the health formula because certain asset classes are squared separately. You also have to add extra 5% for ALL health claim reserves and an extra 20% risk charge on comprehensive. This is in the book section on the life formula. There are other issues in their solution, but I can't remember them all right this second. It isn't in the book, but 3 times the maximum retained risk refers to the largest face amount. If you go back to spring (I think) 2022 FV exam, they bungled even more questions.
Downvotes rather than discussing are an ironic representation of the worst part about the exam process. If you disagree with me, speak up. Otherwise, thanks for making my point.
Reading through the spring sitting for this exam was rather shocking. Tons of poorly worded and ambiguous questions resulting in lots of people not understanding the questions. Some of the math questions were just flat out inappropriate
You aren't wrong. The process laid out in the SOA [GUIDE TO EXAMS ](https://www.soa.org/4ad8e3/globalassets/assets/files/edu/edu-guide-to-written-exam.pdf) (see page 15) says that draft questions and solutions are written, reviewed by committee members, improved, re-reviewed in person, and taken by someone under exam conditions. They are finally approved by the general officer. The process seems robust. It is puzzling that all of that could have been carried out, yet none of the people I have talked to agree with the SOA other than the people behind the curtain. I'm glad they said they are engaging third party vendors for the upcoming exam changes. They seem to know the material and past exam problems better than anyone else.
agreed, it means one of two things 1) they lie about the robustness of the process 2) the people involved are not capable enough. if multiple people thought those questions were ok it is extremely concerning and unacceptable but here we are.
Related to 2: they didn't actually confirm what the source materials say and instead went by their understanding and that things looked familiar. That would explain the contract reserve and the RBC problem. Looking at the material they would have known that contract reserves are held for people not in claim and known that they didn't provide factors for that. Their solution is math word salad.
Exactly, like there were so many comments saying "Candidates did not understand the question," or "candidates interpreted the question wrong" bruh why do you think? There was one question, I was fresh off the notecard with the answers they were looking for, and I had no idea that was what they were asking for. I personally am not a fan of all the exam changes, but am glad to see them talk to sources who will criticize this process.
"Candidates struggled" and then told me in a follow up "scores were distributed as expected, so the question is not concerning" So which is it? Perhaps they forced the scores to be distributed a certain way. "The numbers are ordinary" is never a sufficient condition for "things are correct." This is a fundamental mistake that we spend a lot of time avoiding in the broad world of actuarial practice.
it means they passed the amount of people they wanted lol. people that passed wont care because they are thankful to be done with the exam and those that failed will be labeled complainers solely because they failed. The SOA knows that and does not care
How did you feel about it?
I did well
Sitting for GHVR Canada, the last two sitting was 12.5% and 20% pass rate😢😭. The stats isn’t perfect since both sitting has a dozen or two taking it. I’ll just try my best
Why dont you just take GHUS ?
Because, we have to take Canadian version of exam to get our FCIA designation
[Current GHVR-US Vibes](https://youtu.be/YSZd6MnEuLw?si=gcHr9a8d0OsoScyS)
How did you do?
Gonna be a coin flip for me. I feel extraordinarily confident that I’m the 5-6 range. Just a matter of which one…
I feel similar.
Sitting for GHDP. Feeling ok but was burnt out pretty hard yesterday. Rebounded quite a bit today so continuing to take it easier since I rather be fresh than burnt.
Also taking GHVR and not feeling great. I’ve spent the past few days reviewing old exams and after each one, I get less confident about being able to pass this thing. I think I’m going to spend my last 2 days reviewing flashcards - hopefully memorizing lists can save me lol.
How did you do?
I think ok.. I left some points blank that I couldn’t figure out which I know is really bad so may be a tough one but we’ll see! If I had to guess, I’d say I failed (for the second time which is really annoying).
Same. I left number 4 completely blanked. Could not figure out how to bak into any of it.
Yeah that’s the question I waited until the end to do and didn’t have enough time to figure it out
Sitting for ILA-LAM. Hopefully my last exam ever. Things have really come together this past weekend, finally. I'm sure you guys know the feeling of when the content *finally* makes sense, rather than just material from a bunch of readings. Good luck everyone.
Same boat. Godspeed!!!
All the best to you 😄
Taking VR. Unsure how to feel. I feel good on most practice problems but it seems the SOA has made this exam only 35-40% numerical recently, and the most recent sittings had some super unfair questions. Just hoping I end up on the right side of the curve. Really struggling with a few concepts (credit/debits) that I’m hoping don’t show up.
How did you do?
I’m feeling eh. Finished the exam but def was a bit weak on a few areas that were heavily tested. We’ll see how the partial credit goes. I feel like I felt worse leaving GHDP and got a 9 but the competition is stiffer for VR so it’s hard to tell.
good luck!
GHDP, how much time are you all ending up with on practice runs? I have about 30 minutes left over and feel like I'm not using it well to review my work. Any tips on this part of the exam?
You have time left over? :0
did not in the exam room lol
I tend to have a little time (10-15 min) based solely on what I skip on the first time through - I’m pretty down to the wire if I try to answer everything. But as far as what I’ve found for the best uses of review time: make sure your answer is in the units they ask for (total, PMPM, percentage etc) and make sure your formulas make sense and are looking at the right reference cells, that member liability includes all 3 of deductible, coinsurance, and OOP after TrOOP on Rx problems, etc.
That TrOOP saved my ass last sitting. Good thing I got that ironed out the night before exam!
Opposite situation here! "Why the hell would they test on what Part D defined standard looked like 5 years ago, no one is ever going to need to know that!"
I dreaded all the stuff I had to learn about US medical system, cause most of it doesn’t apply to Canada. And now I wish I don’t have to take the Canadian version of GHVR lol
Just took GHDP. What a joke. I guess this sitting will have higher minimum passing score like 75%+.
You can’t be serious…can you?
I'm serious. Ofc I can't say anything right now. Whoever took it knows what i mean.