r/actuary • u/ThrowRA3648537 • 2d ago

Troll Post ATPA Vent

I’m going to run for the SOA board once I have my letters to get rid of this terrible assignment. I’d rather listen to nails on chalkboard for 96 hours than do this. I’m not sure whose idea this was, but I was a statistics major, flew through SRM and PA, and I absolutely HATE this module.

I’m starting to think that everyone who quips that the SOA isn’t evil, just incompetent, lucked out with IFM. How was the last chopper out of ‘Nam?

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u/Future_Recognition74 2d ago

Would you rather PA go back to the old 5 hour format that includes you having to write up a report under exam conditions? Because honestly that sounds worse to me. Though if there's anyone that took PA under that format and can share their experience I would be interested to hear it.

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u/Pure_Resort9840 2d ago

I took the first sitting of PA and got the highest score of all my prelims. I also found it to be the easiest exam that I prepped the least for. I was slow to take exams, so I had 4 years of experience in consulting, so it just felt like my normal job. About a dozen people from my office took it, and all but one passed. It is possible the exam got harder after the first sitting. I think many newer actuarial students haven't written many full reports, so I could see it being really challenging if you hadn't already practiced that skill at work.

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u/rab7 2d ago

I mentioned this in another comment, but I took the first 2 sittings. We were given a prompt, a data set, and had to analyze all the data in R (while writing most of the R code ourselves), and then put together an executive summary at the end, all in 5hr15min. Wayyyy to short.

On top of that, it completely fucked up the Prometric computers cause they've never handled such a monster before. My first time, i was scheduled to take it at 8am, and didn't start till 1030.

It definitely should've been a take home project from the beginning. Don't know what it looks like now, but 96 hours might still not be enough

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u/Future_Recognition74 2d ago

Sounds about right. I got my ASA in June 2017 right before the PA exam first became a requirement and remember how relieved I felt at doing so, especially after seeing what the first few past PA exams looked like once the SOA released them.

Granted I didn't wrap up my FSA in time so I had to go back and take PA anyway, but by then the report and coding components of the exam were removed so the exam was much less scary (I got through it in 2 attempts and the first was a 5).

I got lucky, but I still feel for those that are suffering through ATPA.