There's no exemption possible for CA3 unless you go on their accredited Uni courses. I think CA3 is much easier there because you get to choose your topic in advance from a list and have weeks, months to prepare.
I don't think the Institute are examining people on the same basis, since the rest of us are lumped with whatever topic they throw at us on the day and have to produce a written document and presentation on that day. This means a highly time pressured environment, having to weed out all the red herrings they inject into the questions and so on.
It's little wonder therefore how low the pass rates for CA3 are compared to on a Uni course when this is the case.
Doing CA3 via the Institute increases anxiety, stress and so on compared to the Uni option. There appears to be no equivalence in the competence being tested.
I think the IFoA should immediately either scrap CA3 from their University courses or provide an uplift to the CA3 marks / reduce the pass marks for those who've had to do CA3 directly with them. Alternatively the IFoA should completely scrap CA3 for reasons of complying with the Equality Act since they don't require CA3 from anyone who's qualified from a foreign actuarial society to confer FIA on them when they come to the UK.
Last edited by a moderator: Apr 24, 2017