Difficulty of Actuarial Studies (1 Viewer)

[pLuvia]

Also there are grades you must achieve in order to continue in the course, like in MQ you have to achieve at least a credit in all statistic units to continue with some acst units

 

[sabira001]

I've been reading random threads on Actuarial Studies and the general consensus is that it's a really really hard course. What exactly makes it so difficult? Is the maths required very complicated, or is the workload extremely high, etc. Apparently the drop out rate is over 50%?

My maths is alright but I don't think I will really enjoy the economics part of the course. Can that affect someone's performance in the course alot?

I am looking for year 10 work experience with an actuary, can anyone suggest a good place that accepts year 10s?

 

[watatank]

You pretty much have to be gun at maths (and gun in general) to see this course out.

 

[watatank]

my general understanding of it is...its about analysing stats, economic markets, and a shitload of other data plus more in order to make informed decisions about how money is spent/how to cut losses.

really its a shitload of applied maths, and hard applications of it too. if you absolutely love maths and are really good at it as well, you will go well in this course and will love this job. it helps to have an interest in economics but what really matters is a love for maths.

 

[pLuvia]

In your work experience don't expect to be WORKING with actuaries you will be doing miscellaneous office jobs like shredding paper, organising things etc. Places that hire actuaries are Deliotte, E&Y, MBF etc.

The drop out varies each year, and depends on each university. If you want more information try looking at the various universities that have the course like Macquarie University, UNSW, ANU

At first I did not enjoy the economics unit I'm doing but it's fairly easy to understand and enjoy (I didn't do economics during the HSC)

You don't have to be a genius at maths to pass the maths courses, but it assumed that you have studied the 4u maths course and received a decent mark, if you only studied 3u maths then they would like you to have received a very high mark. But that's not compulsory and first year maths you will learn all the HSC 4u maths anyway. The maths you will encounter a lot is hard probability especially in the second semester of your first year or the 2nd year of uni(depending on which uni you go to, for MACQ it's the former)

I'm studying Actuarial studies right now, but it hasn't gone to level of "really really hard" yet, but if you do your work, listen in lectures, and consistently work throughout the year (as in any course) then you should be able to keep up.

If you want more information on the actuarial course try contacting flyin, Supra, jake2.0 etc.

 

[sabira001]

Hmm... it sounds like its more economics with a few mathematical concepts involved. I do hope its more maths orientated, but wouldn't a a BSc in Maths have more complex maths? I don't think that course is considered very difficult though.

Well for work experience my aim is check out exactly what actuaries do. Currently, all I know is that it's figuring out risk and probability, and that probably is all they do but I would still like more detail.

 

[watatank]

Here are some actuary job descriptions from jobguide and Graduate position page

 

[sabira001]

Yeah thanks. Nothing beats actual experience though (even if it's just shredding paper). I guess I'm still concerned about the financial part of the course, as I will enjoy the maths part.

Any recommendations of other courses that involve high levels of maths? Like eletrical engineering? Lol. I don't want to do a straight maths degree, as I don't see many career options.

 

[pLuvia]

Why does it matter if a course is difficult or not? It is difficult in its own way. If you do a B.Sci majoring maths you will definately do more complex maths then you do in just Actuarial maths since it focused on just maths while Acst focuses on economics, acst, maths etc.

You only do like 3 or 4 compulsory economic units in the Acst course, that's if you don't do a double with economics with it as well.

You could try looking into combined degrees in B.Sci where you can major in maths + another degree, like engineering

 

[sabira001]

Why does it matter if a course is difficult or not? It is difficult in its own way. If you do a B.Sci majoring maths you will definately do more complex maths then you do in just Actuarial maths since it focused on just maths while Acst focuses on economics, acst, maths etc.

Nah my original question was 'why' it is considered so difficult. There are stereotypes given to courses (eg. law is heaps of reading, which I think is true) and I wanted to know why people say it is so difficult.

 

[Affinity]

actuarial studies is not hard per se, but there is alot of material... to learn it properly you would have to spend more time than other subs

 

[watatank]

...because the applications of maths you use as an actuary is supposed to be hard? which is one of the reasons engineering is considered to be so hard.

 

[UWS-Uni-Student]

Well IRC Supra is doing Actuarial Studies @ Macquarie, so you could ask him

 

[Raginsheep]

They teach alot of material fairly quickly compared to other subjects.

That and the fact that the lecturers like to set hard tests.

 

[seremify007]

I wonder where that engineering guy is... thought he would've raided this thread.

 

[Newbie]

Flyin' YOU BEAST
REMEMBER HOW I USED TO SPAM YOUR LATIN FORUM

good times

 

[sabira001]

If you're in year 10, this probably means you haven't done 3 unit or 4 unit mathematics, or taken university subjects in general. Being good at year 10 mathematics and begin good at 3 unit and 4 unit mathematics can be two different things.

I do olympiad maths with the AMOC. I've heard that the olympiad content can contain first year uni subjects? Year 10 maths is basically putting numbers into formulas, while olympiad maths requires much more thinking.

 

[milton]

I do olympiad maths with the AMOC. I've heard that the olympiad content can contain first year uni subjects? Year 10 maths is basically putting numbers into formulas, while olympiad maths requires much more thinking.

well thats a good start.
its good that you started thinking about uni and careers this early, a lot of ppl only do this in the middle of yr12

from what i can gather, actuarial studies is mainly focused on the APPLICATION of maths. its a really small specialised niche of applied maths for finance and insurance. the proper defn is "An actuary is a business professional who analyses and develops solution to manage the financial impact of risk in teh context of the world's societal and economic problem".
examples include working out prices of insurance, super, and whether particular financial contracts are too risky or not

the maths is "hard", but not hard in teh sense it requires "rabbit out of the hat-ingenuity" like in olympiad maths sometimes.
its more of if you read through and do everything that you have to then you would have no problems

wait till the next 2 yrs and see if the level and type of maths suits you.
basically 1st yr 1st semester maths at unsw is sprinting through yr11 and 12 calculus in 14 wks


in regard to getting work experience, the main employers would be the Big 4 accounting firms (PwC, KPMG, Ernst & Young), and major banks and insurance companies. but don't get your hopes up too high, since they wouldn't consider you to be too much help to them

most ppl drop out because they realise actuarial is not their thing so its not so much failing e.g. maybe in 1st yr there's 200 and in 4 yrs time, only about 100 graduate with an actuarial degree. but the postgrad Part 3 exams are another matter. most ppl fail at least a few times and the pass rate is 20% but your salary skyrockets afterwards

 

[CieL]

Also there are grades you must achieve in order to continue in the course, like in MQ you have to achieve at least a credit in all statistic units to continue with some acst units

Really?
I got told that you have to get a Cr or above in every unit or else it's counted as a fail?

 

[milton]

Really?
I got told that you have to get a Cr or above in every unit or else it's counted as a fail?

you need a credit in the subjects that count towards exemptions in Part 1