Actuary Studies

[iheartu]

Hi 

I'm considering actuary studies and just wanna know more bout it

so if you choose to do it, do you start the major in your first yr of commerce at melb uni?

i heard the course itself is hard and stressful, true?

also, i heard it is very competitive and that students tend to get kicked out of the course because they fail...

 

[pooshwaltzer]

Unlike other commerce streams, actuarial specialisations commence from the get go. With the exception of breadth requirements, there's literally no space to undertake generalist electives of any kind. The course is for the mathematically inclined and workload tends to be more onerous than comparable streams. Even if the student is borderline 70% in relation to their first year's weighted average, the department will still tend to hold consultation with said student to discuss course objectives and prudential contingencies in the even of academic strain leading to fallout. Nonetheless, I know of several pre-MM peers who received their inaugural warnings only to proceed onwards and complete their degrees with the addition of a 4th years honours to enhance credibility of qualification.

[AzureBlue]

Yes, the major is started first year. However, the subjects in first year are not actuarial subjects (only Intro to Actuarial Studies is) and cover a wide range of commerce areas (micro, macro, accounting, maths etc.) and you get one elective/breadth subject in each of the 3 years.
Thus, if you find that after Intro to Actuarial Studies, that actuarial studies is too hard/not for you/boring/etc. you can easily pick up, say, a finance major and continue for the next two years. If everything's fine, then you can move onto second, third, honours years etc.

The BCom (majoring in Actuarial Studies) with an honours year at Melbourne teaches you the course for Part I and II of the IAA actuarial exams - and if you perform well in your uni subject exams, you can get exemptions from these. http://www.actuaries.asn.au/ for more details. After Part I and II, you pretty much become an associate of the IAA>> getting a fellowship requires you to do a course through the IAA and more exams.

Hope that is of some help. The course is, I've heard, hard but not impossible if you really enjoy it and try hard. Don't be so negative!
And you can always transfer to another major after first year if you don't like it. Are you interested in any other areas? It's great to have alternatives - I really like law and eco and maths too so I will be getting those subjects too... I might end up at uni for 9 years if all goes to plan... which it probably won't

PS: PM'ed you with more information about actuarial studies at Melb. Good luck

[tram]

dammit, act stud is meant to be my 'thing' to talk about...... now az has made me redundant..........

[tram]

actually, i have a few points to add:

-Act stud is not impossible, everyone will most defintely find it HARD, but if you have sufficient capabilities in maths (from what i hear a rough guide is 43+(raw) in spech), you should be able to complete the course.

-Not many people 'fail' the course as such, as 99% the people that do choose to persue acturial studies as a major are intelligent enough to know what they're getting themselves into. However, the standard required to obtain an 'exemption' from parts one and two of the IAA's exams is 73% (i.e. a H2A grade). If students persistently fall under this pecentage (but still pass the course), it may not be worth it to continue slugging it out with the act stud major (as they won;t receive accerdiation as qualify as an actuary) and as a result they switch majors.

[darlok]

Don't do it.

[Mulan]

^why?
i like maths, does this mean i should consider actuary studies?
WAT IS ACTUARY STUDIES?
is it like learnign maths at school, but uni style?
or is it maths fully linked to commerce?

[Russ]

You apply maths and stats to the real world in order to calculate risk for certain things (eg insurance)

[AzureBlue]

No, it's not just maths - if you want real maths, do pure maths in uni.
Actuarial Studies is mainly statistics/financial maths, but there's also other stuff as below, like it's multi-disciplinary.

Quoting wikipedia:
An actuary is a business professional who deals with the financial impact of risk and uncertainty. Actuaries provide expert assessments of financial security systems, with a focus on their complexity, their mathematics, and their mechanisms.

Actuaries mathematically evaluate the likelihood of events and quantify the contingent outcomes in order to minimize losses, both emotional and financial, associated with uncertain undesirable events. Since many events, such as death, cannot be avoided, it is helpful to take measures to minimize their financial impact when they occur. These risks can affect both sides of the balance sheet, and require asset management, liability management, and valuation skills. Analytical skills, business knowledge and understanding of human behavior and the vagaries of information systems are required to design and manage programs that control risk.

[Mulan]

hmmms.
no thanks

[AzureBlue]

dammit, act stud is meant to be my 'thing' to talk about...... now az has made me redundant..........

Lol sorry tram

And @iheartu, if you're really interesting in actuarial, but not sure, I recommend you try the major for a year. You can easily transfer out if you don't like it.

[tram]

And @iheartu, if you're really interesting in actuarial, but not sure, I recommend you try the major for a year. You can easily transfer out if you don't like it.

You only do one actuarial subject in first year for the act stud major anyway, all the other subjects are not directely linked to actuarial studies, they're just maths subjects that are used to prove wheather or not you have the mathematical ability to make it thouhg the course, so yea, this is a good path to take

[AzureBlue]

And @iheartu, if you're really interesting in actuarial, but not sure, I recommend you try the major for a year. You can easily transfer out if you don't like it.

You only do one actuarial subject in first year for the act stud major anyway, all the other subjects are not directly linked to actuarial studies, they're just maths subjects that are used to prove whether or not you have the mathematical ability to make it though the course, so yea, this is a good path to take

And apparently the one actuarial subject "Intro to act stud" is not even compulsory... though I would recommend taking it because you would probably want an indication of what it is like before going straight into second year.

[laynie]

from parts one and two of the IAA's exams is 73% (i.e. a H2A grade).

a H2A is 75-79..

[Gloamglozer]

And @iheartu, if you're really interesting in actuarial, but not sure, I recommend you try the major for a year. You can easily transfer out if you don't like it.

You only do one actuarial subject in first year for the act stud major anyway, all the other subjects are not directly linked to actuarial studies, they're just maths subjects that are used to prove whether or not you have the mathematical ability to make it though the course, so yea, this is a good path to take

And apparently the one actuarial subject "Intro to act stud" is not even compulsory... though I would recommend taking it because you would probably want an indication of what it is like before going straight into second year.

It's not that "Introduction to Actuarial Studies" isn't compulsory, it's just that if you haven't done Specialist Maths in year 12, then you cannot possibly do the subject since you have to fill the maths gap with Calc 1 & 2 and Linear Algebra.