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Want to Be an Actuary? Odds Are, You’ll Fail the Test
WSJ ^ | 28 Dec 2021 | Neal Templin

Posted on 12/29/2021 7:06:27 PM PST by DUMBGRUNT

Insurers need experts to calculate risk. Among those number-crunchers’ riskiest endeavors are the tortuous exams for credentials.

Kaylee Cohen studied two months for an actuarial exam last year—then failed it. She dreaded telling the actuaries at the insurance company where she was interning that she had flunked.

“But when I told them, they said, ‘Oh yeah, I failed that one too,’ ” says the 23-year-old student at Montreal’s Concordia University. “It made me feel so much better knowing everybody else was in the same shoes.” She finally passed that exam and now has several more to go for an actuarial credential.

There is no limit to how many times a candidate can take the tests. It took one man 50 years to become a Fellow, says Stuart Klugman, an official at the society. The society says a candidate typically takes seven to 10 years to become a Fellow. They must pass 10 exams plus other coursework and requirements.

(Excerpt) Read more at wsj.com ...


TOPICS: Chit/Chat; Humor
KEYWORDS: risk
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I was down because I only received my usual lump of coal again this Christmas.

This article quickly cheered me up!

1 posted on 12/29/2021 7:06:27 PM PST by DUMBGRUNT
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To: DUMBGRUNT

Full TXT:
https://archive.vn/UTmFQ


2 posted on 12/29/2021 7:07:01 PM PST by DUMBGRUNT ("The enemy has overrun us. We are blowing up everything. Vive la France!"Dien Bien Phu last message)
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To: DUMBGRUNT

People become actuaries when they don’t have a good enough personality to be an accountant.


3 posted on 12/29/2021 7:08:49 PM PST by anton
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To: DUMBGRUNT

I suspect the ‘job’ has become almost impossible to handle recently. Much due to regulation and inability to predict what the almighty govt will be doing next cycle.

It would have been a good science 40 years ago, but today, forget it.


4 posted on 12/29/2021 7:14:06 PM PST by George from New England
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To: DUMBGRUNT

John Hancock offered to hire me 58 years ago to become an actuary. I turned it down as stifling. The money would have overcome lots of stifle.


5 posted on 12/29/2021 7:16:00 PM PST by Louis Foxwell (This is what you get when you put criminals in charge.)
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To: anton

That certainly describes my friend’s son-in-law. He passed all the exams but scored zero on the personality tests.

But at least now I can ask him “,,,so he is now actually an actual Actuary?”


6 posted on 12/29/2021 7:20:55 PM PST by Auntie Dem (Hey! Hey! Ho! Ho! Terrorist lovers gotta go!)
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To: DUMBGRUNT

another guy and myself were insured by our lodge for five years due to inherent vice, and we were NOT the oldest in the lodge, but, well...


7 posted on 12/29/2021 7:21:43 PM PST by Chode (there is no fall back position, there's no rally point, there is no LZ... we're on our own. #FJB)
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To: anton

Actuaries are a different breed. I worked with one who had to have his heart removed to fix a known aneurysm and he’d tell you about how having a child was higher risk then his surgery.

After he got back from his surgery, I caught him in the hallway and asked him how he was doing. He proceeded to take off his suit jacket, tie and his shirt to show me his scar.

Smartest people in an insurance company but also the oddest. Our old neighbor’s father was an actuary and in his apartment, she said he had one plate, cup, fork knife etc. Just didn’t see the need for having more than one of anything. He also had to do his calisthenics at the same time everyday. If he was traveling in a car, he’d stop, do his exercises, finish and continue on.

I think a lot of them are on the Asperger high end functionality.


8 posted on 12/29/2021 7:21:43 PM PST by Mean Daddy (Every time Hillary lies, a demon gets its wings. - Windflier)
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To: DUMBGRUNT
These tests are not easy. Here is a sample question:

The lifetime of a printer costing $200 is exponentially distributed with mean 2 years. The manufacturer agrees to pay a full refund to a buyer if the printer fails during the first year following its purchase, a one-half refund if it fails during the second year, and no refund for failure after the second year. Calculate the expected total amount of refunds from the sale of 100 printers.


9 posted on 12/29/2021 7:26:20 PM PST by SamAdams76 (I am 56 days away from outliving John Hughes)
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To: Mean Daddy

“Actuaries are a different breed”

Skills, talents, abilities . . . Oddities.

We all have em. But number people are just different.


10 posted on 12/29/2021 7:29:32 PM PST by Macoozie (Handcuffs and Orange Jumpsuits)
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To: DUMBGRUNT

It would sort of be interesting to know the percentage of actuaries who are fully vaxxed.


11 posted on 12/29/2021 7:31:26 PM PST by CheshireTheCat ("Forgetting pain is convenient.Remembering it agonizing.But recovering truth is worth the suffering")
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To: DUMBGRUNT

“They must pass 10 exams plus other coursework and requirements.”

Egads! TEN exams? Makes you wonder why there are any actuaries. They must be making $250,000 per year or more to endure with that credentialing system.


12 posted on 12/29/2021 7:32:07 PM PST by ProtectOurFreedom (81 million votes...and NOT ONE "Build Back Better" hat)
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To: CheshireTheCat
It would sort of be interesting to know the percentage of actuaries who are fully vaxxed.

Actuaries are "data people", not unlike PhDs.

I think the odds are that next to the general population, they are disproportionately "unvaxxed".

13 posted on 12/29/2021 7:35:07 PM PST by Captain Walker ("The side that has Truth gets Humor as a bonus.")
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To: anton

That’s for darn sure. Or they are full of themselves.

In 30 years in insurance, I know ONE actuary who was fun.


14 posted on 12/29/2021 7:35:19 PM PST by RebelTXRose (Our Lady of Fatima, Pray for us! PRAY THE ROSARY!)
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To: Mean Daddy

> Smartest people in an insurance company but also the oddest

The underwriters win on the personability test!


15 posted on 12/29/2021 7:36:17 PM PST by old-ager
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To: DUMBGRUNT

The difference between an introverted actuary and extroverted actuary is the extraverted actuary looks at your shoes.


16 posted on 12/29/2021 7:38:34 PM PST by alternatives?
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To: Captain Walker

That’s what I am thinking as well.

Maybe I am a closet actuary.

I did well in statistics classes. The material made sense to me easily. I just got it.

Did well in Geometry. Did well enough in the beginning levels of Algebra, but when it came to Calculus...

And that is why I got a humanities/social science hybrid Ph.D. and am not using it all.


17 posted on 12/29/2021 7:41:01 PM PST by CheshireTheCat ("Forgetting pain is convenient.Remembering it agonizing.But recovering truth is worth the suffering")
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To: Captain Walker

Most PhD holders can’t even handle the math in their own dissertations.


18 posted on 12/29/2021 7:41:59 PM PST by Mr.Unique (My boss wants me to sign up for a 401K. No way I'm running that far! )
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To: CheshireTheCat

I LOL’ed at that. :)


19 posted on 12/29/2021 7:45:22 PM PST by meyer (Everything woke turns to poo.)
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To: Mr.Unique; CheshireTheCat
I mention the PhDs because PhDs are disproportionately not taking this shot.

www.thecollegefix.com

(PhDs do data. And when the data is hidden or obfuscated, they don't proceed.)

20 posted on 12/29/2021 7:48:44 PM PST by Captain Walker ("The side that has Truth gets Humor as a bonus.")
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