September 2020 Q10 (iv)

[CY Actuary]

The question is worth 4 marks and just asked for the additional information required, given the risk premium in part (iii), to determine the actual premium charged.

Someone would think they can easily get 3.5 out of 4 by outlining the points of the TCP RICE acronym but the solutions only award a maximum of 1 mark for these standard loadings.

How would we know what the examiners are looking for in this case? Should we always write down a lot more points than required in bookwork questions to make sure we get all marks available? The two marks not awarded for the standard loadings could be the difference between pass and fail for someone.

 

[Ian Senator]

Hi CY

You should always aim to write down a few more points (not lots) than required in any question, really, just in case some of the points you make early on don't score.

For this question, there are quite a few important things to consider beyond the 'standard loadings', as it's a large commercial risk. So in this instance, the examiners chose to give more credit to those things, and limit the marks available for the standard ones. Another reason they may have chosen to do this was because only 4 marks were available - if they didn't limit generic answers, pretty much everyone will have scored fully, and then it's harder for them to determine the better-performing candidates.

However, it's worth noting that the examiners don't always do this - there are past paper questions similar to this where no maximum was set for generic loadings. So it's tricky to give definitive advice.

This is discussed further in ASET (2019-2020 papers).

Ian

 

[CY Actuary]

Thank you Ian.

It's true that it doesn't always happen but I just found it a bit strange that they wouldn't give credit for valid answers. Even though they are generic points they still apply to the large commercial risk . I understand the point about the better-performing candidates but it I wouldn't have thought that it would be determined by a standard bookwork question, the extra points were still bookwork but some people wouldn't mention them if they think they're covered by the standard points.

 

[E123]

So people who gave 7 answers that are right based on the TCP RICE acronym would only have gotten 1 mark? So the examiners just decided that even though they gave valid answers to the question asked, they weren't the "right" valid answers? It being only worth 4 marks would surely be an indicator that the standard answers are exactly what's being asked - fair enough if it was worth 8 you might think you need more.
If it wasn't serious, it would actually be laughable. And the IFoA seem to not understand why people think the exams are a joke...

 

[Darren Michaels]

Yes thats correct if you look at the Examiners' Report it says maximum 1 mark for the standard loadings. There is another clue in the question that they were asking for more here because they ask you about the "actual premium charged", the standard loadings are only part of that as they help you determine the theoretical premium to charge without taking wider external things in to account, eg the u/w cycle.

 

[CY Actuary]

I still can't see why they wouldn't give points for valid answers though since they are part of that calculation. If they were asking for more then they should have awarded more points or worded the question more clearly. It's as if students have to pay for the fact that they have decided to put a bookmark question that everyone answered correctly and then a lot of people would have passed if they awarded the correct marks.