Archive

Archive for June, 2013

What’s next? (or, MLC’s last fully multiple choice sitting)

June 14th, 2013

If you have just passed the FM exam this week, then you have some deciding to do about what exam to take next if you have now passed both FM and P.

If you have an adequate amount of study time, I would suggest trying to attack MLC next. At this moment the seminar is very well tuned in to what the expectations are for candidates, and MLC is changing formats after the next sitting (November). It will become 40% multiple choice, and 60% essay. Nobody really knows what this means yet. The last time the SOA made a change to MLC, it took most of a year to determine what it was they really wanted people to be able to do. For example, the pass mark on Spring 2012 MLC was nearly historically low, and even so the pass rate was lower than average. Also, this time the change is to add written questions, which for most candidates is probably something they will want to avoid.

Another consideration is that if you don’t have a job yet, and/or you don’t know whether you will go SOA or CAS, then you may especially want to knock out MLC now. If you pass MLC in November and then decide to do CAS later, then you will avoid two exams, the new 3LC and 3ST.

What the best choice for you is depends on how much time you will have to prepare before November. We suggest 4 months to prepare for MLC, and that would be if you weren’t working too hard to spend multiple hours per day studying.
If you have a history of needing multiple attempts to pass exams, or if you don’t think you will have an over-abundance of time to prepare, then you should take MFE next and maybe C after that while you wait for MLC to settle down next year. It would be unfortunate to prepare for one kind of exam in the Fall, and then for a different kind of exam for a retake. Also, if you are trying to get a third exam in before finding a job, then the fact that MFE is offered more often, and that you aren’t in such a hurry to pass all 5 exams and finish your ASA might make MFE more attractive.

That said, most of the individuals who did well in our seminar this last sitting reported very high exam scores, so there is every possibility that you will be able to be successful in the fall, and that way get MLC out of the way without having to deal with the new written problems.

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Answer choices for Sample Exam #3 updated to match Solutions

June 4th, 2013

The answer choices in the CBT and the file fm_se3_answers.pdf have been updated to match the correct choices that are reflected in the video solutions and in the fm_se3_solutions.pdf file.

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Sample Exam #3 video solutions are complete

June 3rd, 2013

All of the video solutions for the NEW sample exam 3 are posted to the site.

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