Hello, I am finding my speed of writing not good enough to cover the entire exam paper for ST series. This was not an issue in CT series as those were not wordy. Due to this, I am unable to produce answers in the exam hall even though I know them. Also my writing speed seems to reduce under exam conditions due to stress. Can anyone suggest how I can improve ? I am aware this may not be a proper question to post in this forum, but thought of getting some tips from those who faced similar challenges and overcome them?
This a great question for the Forum and if anyone has any tips on exam writing then please add to this thread. My own advice is to try to write the minimum amount required to score the marks. Use bullet points. Keep your answers short and concise - cut out the waffle. Make sure that if you are asked for a list, then that is all you give. Try lots of papers under exam conditions and time constraints. Hopefully that will reduce the stress on the day as you'll be used to writing your answers out for real. Get some of these attempts marked (eg the ActEd mocks) to get some feedback on whether you're writing too much. Make sure you know the Core Reading really well, so that you can answer bookwork questions quickly without having to spend time generating ideas. You may be doing all of this already. So finally, be very strict with your time. Even if you still have more ideas on a question, force yourself to stop and give yourself time to attempt the other questions. You'll find that you score most marks for the big ideas you mention early on in your solution. Best wishes Mark
Make good use of the reading time so that the time available to write isn't spend going back over thinking that could be done ahead. Although you can't write in the answer book you can highlight things on the paper. Avoid long rambling sentences. Avoid superfluous adjectives where not essential. Underline key words in your sentence so taht if there is a lot of words around you may be able to cut down. Don't repeat yourself, Put biggest points first so that if you ar running short of time then hopefully you'll have got the major points out being being forced to move on. Whatever you do, don't let speed cause illegibility. If it happens keep key phrases in BLOCK. Experiment with different pens as the different nibs may improve your speed even marginally. Finally and not least PRACTICE PRACTISE PRACTISE
thread this is a great thread. I live in NY and this is my first time sitting for a faculty exam. Frustrating because you cant ask your fellow actuaries about tips to the upper level exams. Everybody over here writes the SOA exams. The should really make these exams computer based and you type your answers. That would save a ton of time. Writing is just a hassle. It's seems that there isn't any formulas or mathematical problem solving you need to do for these exams but I'm only on Chapter 4 and am sitting for the Sept exam. again. Good thread. Any other information is highly appreciated.
I wouldn't want all exams to be computer based. Would take me far longer to format stuff as I want it so for me written is better. Plus it would be blatantly obvious if someone tampered with my script as they could never mimic my handwriting. Not sure electronic can be made that secure.. It could also be an exam centre nightmare having to set up PCs laptops etc known to be virus free, no cheat functionality etc etc. But its a controversial one thats been debated loads
