Definitive Guide to CP1 – Actuarial Practice

The Actuarial Practise subject’s objective is to put the technical and business abilities acquired in the Actuarial Statistics, Actuarial Mathematics, Actuarial Modelling, and Business courses to work while including additional information on how the skills are utilised to address problems in the real world.

The course serves as an introduction to Enterprise Risk Management, subject SP9, and the Chartered Enterprise Risk Actuary credential. It teaches the fundamental knowledge of risk management strategies and processes needed by all actuaries.

The subject also serves as a foundation for the SP and SA subjects by addressing crucial background information that is relevant to many specialities.

Actuarial Practice (CP1) expands on the technical information presented in all of the previous courses and applies the skills acquired to address real-world issues that might occur in any field in which actuaries work. An essential introduction to the Chartered Enterprise Risk Actuary degree introduces more risk management information.

1.  Actuarial advice (2.5%) 
2. Meeting the needs of stakeholders (2.5%) 
3.  The Actuarial Control Cycle (2.5%) 
4.  Risk governance (5%) 
5.  Risk identification and classification (5%) 
6.  Risk measurement and monitoring (5%) 
7.  Responses to risk (7.5%) 
8.  Capital management and monitoring (5%) 
9.  The general business environment (20%) 
10.  Specifying the problem (5%) 
11.  Producing the solution (30%) 
12.  Living with the solution (7.5%) 
13.  Monitoring (2.5%) 14 Principal terms (nil)

The distribution of assessment for these three skill types in the CP1 subject is roughly 20% Knowledge, 50% Application, and 30% Higher Order Skills. The two papers’ skill emphases are different. In Paper 1, knowledge and application abilities will be primarily evaluated. For paper 1, the assessment is distributed roughly as follows: 30% Knowledge, 55% Application, and 15% Higher Order abilities. Paper 2’s application and higher-order skills will be the main topics of the test. A rough breakdown of the evaluation for paper 2’s three skill categories is as follows: 10% Knowledge, 45% Application, and 45% Higher Order skills.

The results for the two papers will be combined after each paper has been graded out of a possible 100.

There will be no necessity to pass either paper individually or to meet a minimum standard. Any aspect of actuarial work, including more general subjects like banking, environmental concerns, natural resource management, and other themes, may be the subject of exam questions. A general awareness of the business, commercial, social, and ecological environments will be assumed, while questions won’t specifically ask about anything outside of what is taught in this and the sections on actuarial statistics, actuarial management, and business.

Skills Level

A syllabus objective’s use of a particular command verb does not mean that this is the sole way to inquire about the subject matter covered by that objective. Any topic in the syllabus may be the subject of a question from the Examiners using any of the command verbs listed in the “Command Verbs Used in the Associate and Fellowship Written Examinations” paper.

Questions may be set at any skill level: Knowledge (demonstration of a thorough knowledge and understanding of the topic), Application (demonstration of an ability to apply the underlying principles of the topic within a given context), and Higher Order (demonstration of an ability to perform deeper analysis and assessment of situations, including making judgments, accounting for different points of view, comparing and contrasting situations, and suggesting possible solutions).

The distribution of assessment for these three skill types in the CP1 topic is roughly 20% Knowledge, 50% Application, and 30% Higher Order skills. The two papers’ skill emphases are different. In Paper 1, knowledge and application abilities will be primarily evaluated.

For paper 1, the assessment is distributed roughly as follows: 30% Knowledge, 55% Application, and 15% Higher Order abilities. Paper 2’s application and higher-order skills will be the main topics of the test. A rough breakdown of the evaluation for paper 2’s three skill categories is as follows: 10% Knowledge, 45% Application, and 45% Higher Order skills.

Assessment

There will be two examination papers used to evaluate this subject: CP1 Paper 1 and CP1 Paper 2. There will be several questions with different marks in CP1 Paper 1. CP1 Paper 2 often has scenarios and questions that the candidate must respond to concerning each scenario. Expect that the topics and ability levels of the questions will correspond to the above syllabus topic weightings.

Each exam has a three-and-a-half-hour time limit and is administered online. The candidate must take CP1 Papers 1 and 2 in the same test session and receive a combined score of a pass in order to pass this course.

Before taking any IFoA examination, please read the most recent versions of the IFoA Examinations Handbook and IFoA Examination Regulations posted on the IFoA website.

Exam format:

2 x paper-based exams, 3 hours and 15 minutes each.
Scientific Calculator is allowed in exams. However, you can use only one of the models from the list below. This can also be used for future exams.
1. Casio FX82 (ES/MS) (with or without any suffix)
2. Casio FX83 (ES/MS) (with or without any suffix)
3. Casio FX85 (ES/MS) (with or without any suffix)
4. Sharp EL531 (with or without any prefix or suffix)
5. Texas Instruments BA II Plus (with or without any suffix)
6. Texas Instruments TI-30 (with or without any suffix)
7. Hewlett Packard HP12c (with or without any suffix)