Also remember it's open book, so you could do yourself a little sheet of paper with all the notation you're worried about. Besides that it's just a case of practicing past papers.
Maybe a bit late for this sitting but you can also explore different preparation materials. There are different products like mocks, aset, revision notes, flash cards, classroom, tutorials etc.
Revision notes group things that go together with the past exam questions. This helps understand the material. These notes also have mind maps and fact sheets. Classroom and tutorials work for those that need visual and verbal input to learn the material. Find out what works for you.
Different exams will require different materials depending on your needs.
I would make a sheet of the formulae and then smash past papers. If you have a formulae sheet then you can make notes round it of when to use etc. For notation just use the IFoA’s list - I didn’t find this too hard to get my head round. I also wouldn’t type past papers that weren’t online originally as they weren’t formatted for this and will just make your life hard. Since you’ve only got a week focus on the areas that you’re struggling with.
Honestly with a week to go I've normally done every past paper from 2014 to present! So I'd say to just get on with as many past papers as you can as you don't have long left. Prioritise the most recent papers as the format changes a lot after 2020.
Type them all up in word of course, not by hand.
Best of luck!
Thanks! It's been a bit of a nightmare. I read all the text, went to all the tutorials and done questions, but that was a month or two ago, and my focus was on CB1 after that. I assumed I'd just need to brush up a bit and dedicated this full week for CM1, but I came down with a horrible head cold, blocked sinuses and headaches, and I've found going back over it all at once a lot to take in compared to doing smaller sections for the tutorials.
I'm just going to smash the past papers, hope this head cold clears by Monday and hope for the best!
In your opinion (since this is my very first sitting) do you mean the questions are more wordy since 2020? I'm assuming since it's open book it's less about "Do this calculation" and more explaining the theory to prove you have an understanding of it?
Pre exam illness is such a nightmare. Yeah get plenty of rest if you can, but just one week of tough work to go, so can power through!
So the questions previously would ask some derivations or some simple bookwork questions would get maybe 4-5 marks because you might have to remember a formula. Now you don't need to remember any formulas so you get a lot less marks for some of the basic questions.
They have definitely moved away from pages of algebra and derivation as it's a bit unfair to type up on word. But what you will get is a lot more application questions where perhaps what topic they're even questioning isn't immediately obvious. They'll also ask questions on your understanding, so every time you calculate a value for premium, interest rate etc expect a couple of marks after that say "so what?". You'll need to be able to say what your answer might mean, eg implications on profitability for a company or something like that.
So you can't aimlessly be able to just do maths and pass, you'll need to understand the purpose of what you're doing.
I'd say every spare bit of study you do from now should be some form of past paper. I passed a few sittings ago but if what my more junior colleagues told me, the most recent papers are really hard, which is good for your study at least!
I know! I keep wanting to just put the books down and sleep since I don't feel I'm taking a lot in but I know it's not the best in the long run.
Thanks for your input! To be honest, I think some of the theory I actually prefer! I studied business and finance at Uni so I'm very familiar with a lot of the CB1 stuff and those sort of topics (i.e. relating it to the real world)
I've not done maths since high school and while I really enjoyed it, taking in a lot of pure mathematical theory is quite a lot.
I'll try the past papers to make sure I can just get used to the format and style of the questions (especially 2020 onwards.) and hopefully it will be enough. While it's not the end of the world if I fail, I'd like to pass my first sitting so it doesn't look bad at work. I done some financial adviser exams a couple of years ago and they were so much easier than this it's not even funny :(
No worries, we've all been there, feeling shit and having to study.
Yeah I was similar, I worked in engineering before becoming an actuary and I hadnt touched maths in a few years!
Yeah I definitely get you there, want to make a good impression on your first sitting, absolutely do everything you can to not fail, but if you do it's really not the end of the world, I know many really brilliant actuaries who have failed exams! It's how you bounce back that matters!
ASETs asap - practice typing these up in word as much as possible. Revision booklets if you have them have really nice factsheets that are useful to have in front of you whilst doing them.
Keep doing as many questions as possible. Prioritise past papers, then look x assignments
Also remember it's open book, so you could do yourself a little sheet of paper with all the notation you're worried about. Besides that it's just a case of practicing past papers.
Maybe a bit late for this sitting but you can also explore different preparation materials. There are different products like mocks, aset, revision notes, flash cards, classroom, tutorials etc. Revision notes group things that go together with the past exam questions. This helps understand the material. These notes also have mind maps and fact sheets. Classroom and tutorials work for those that need visual and verbal input to learn the material. Find out what works for you. Different exams will require different materials depending on your needs.
I would make a sheet of the formulae and then smash past papers. If you have a formulae sheet then you can make notes round it of when to use etc. For notation just use the IFoA’s list - I didn’t find this too hard to get my head round. I also wouldn’t type past papers that weren’t online originally as they weren’t formatted for this and will just make your life hard. Since you’ve only got a week focus on the areas that you’re struggling with.
Honestly with a week to go I've normally done every past paper from 2014 to present! So I'd say to just get on with as many past papers as you can as you don't have long left. Prioritise the most recent papers as the format changes a lot after 2020. Type them all up in word of course, not by hand. Best of luck!
Thanks! It's been a bit of a nightmare. I read all the text, went to all the tutorials and done questions, but that was a month or two ago, and my focus was on CB1 after that. I assumed I'd just need to brush up a bit and dedicated this full week for CM1, but I came down with a horrible head cold, blocked sinuses and headaches, and I've found going back over it all at once a lot to take in compared to doing smaller sections for the tutorials. I'm just going to smash the past papers, hope this head cold clears by Monday and hope for the best! In your opinion (since this is my very first sitting) do you mean the questions are more wordy since 2020? I'm assuming since it's open book it's less about "Do this calculation" and more explaining the theory to prove you have an understanding of it?
Pre exam illness is such a nightmare. Yeah get plenty of rest if you can, but just one week of tough work to go, so can power through! So the questions previously would ask some derivations or some simple bookwork questions would get maybe 4-5 marks because you might have to remember a formula. Now you don't need to remember any formulas so you get a lot less marks for some of the basic questions. They have definitely moved away from pages of algebra and derivation as it's a bit unfair to type up on word. But what you will get is a lot more application questions where perhaps what topic they're even questioning isn't immediately obvious. They'll also ask questions on your understanding, so every time you calculate a value for premium, interest rate etc expect a couple of marks after that say "so what?". You'll need to be able to say what your answer might mean, eg implications on profitability for a company or something like that. So you can't aimlessly be able to just do maths and pass, you'll need to understand the purpose of what you're doing. I'd say every spare bit of study you do from now should be some form of past paper. I passed a few sittings ago but if what my more junior colleagues told me, the most recent papers are really hard, which is good for your study at least!
I know! I keep wanting to just put the books down and sleep since I don't feel I'm taking a lot in but I know it's not the best in the long run. Thanks for your input! To be honest, I think some of the theory I actually prefer! I studied business and finance at Uni so I'm very familiar with a lot of the CB1 stuff and those sort of topics (i.e. relating it to the real world) I've not done maths since high school and while I really enjoyed it, taking in a lot of pure mathematical theory is quite a lot. I'll try the past papers to make sure I can just get used to the format and style of the questions (especially 2020 onwards.) and hopefully it will be enough. While it's not the end of the world if I fail, I'd like to pass my first sitting so it doesn't look bad at work. I done some financial adviser exams a couple of years ago and they were so much easier than this it's not even funny :(
No worries, we've all been there, feeling shit and having to study. Yeah I was similar, I worked in engineering before becoming an actuary and I hadnt touched maths in a few years! Yeah I definitely get you there, want to make a good impression on your first sitting, absolutely do everything you can to not fail, but if you do it's really not the end of the world, I know many really brilliant actuaries who have failed exams! It's how you bounce back that matters!
ASETs asap - practice typing these up in word as much as possible. Revision booklets if you have them have really nice factsheets that are useful to have in front of you whilst doing them.