B Commerce (Actuarial Studies) @ UNSW (1 Viewer)

[Boundless Void]

I wish to know where I may see some course material for this course at UNSW, as I am interested in enrolling in it. I have read previous threads on this forum to no avail: links to course materials such as past exam papers are long outdated and attachments have been long deleted.

I do not wish for this thread to become like many of the others, full of strange MACQ versus UNSW comparisons, and lamentations as to the difficulty of actuarial studies. I only want to get my hands on some facts from the many UNSW actuarial studies students that I suppose frequent these forums.

I presume that gaining entry into the B Commerce degree automatically allows you to major in actuarial studies and to continue with it provided adequate marks are achieved? Is there any additional criteria?

I want to know what it is all about -- the high school Mathematics Extension 1 & 2 courses have virtually no financial applications or statistics. Not even any slightly more advanced conceptions of probability theory.

I have learnt about the three-part accreditation process for actuaries by reading the relevant pages of the Institute of Actuaries of Australia website, so please do not go into this. I am purely interested in what the actuarial courses entail (most specifically in Part I: CT1, CT3-CT6 of the 8 courses in the Part). Some slightly more comprehensive, coursework-related material which is easily accessible by the Internet would be ideal, but names of books and their authors which can be easily found at local libraries (if it is at all possible?) and are used in the course would also be appreciated and looked into as I do understand that it is probably not so easy to find relevant materials in an electronic format.

And as a last question: if you had to characterise the Mathematics in actuarial studies in terms of major areas of Mathematics, how would you do it? (E.g. 25% Statistics, 25% Linear Algebra, 40% Abstract Algebra, 10% Set Theory, ... as a completely uninformed example).

Summarising:
(1) Is being able to major in actuarial studies guaranteed if admitted to B Commerce?
(2) Related materials to CT1, CT3-CT6 of Part I? (Electronic Internet-accessible texts such as past exams and any coursework-related material; and also textbooks easily found at local libraries and used in the course for actuarial units).
(3) How would you characterise the Mathematics in actuarial studies by giving a weighting to major fields (e.g. 25% Statistics, 25% Linear Algebra, 40% Abstract Algebra, 10% Set Theory).

So please, actuarial studies students, post anything you have here -- anything which would be informative to those considering actuarial studies. While having a keen interest and ability in Mathematics and Economics, I believe this area may be suitable and interesting to me, though I must be reasonably sure before committing to anything.

Your help would be appreciated.

 

[blackfriday]

yes you could take actuarial studies but they strongly recommend you can a combined 3/4u maths mark of 180/200 which would imply that you probably got a decent uai.

actuarial studies is just stats, stats and more stats. the high school maths you learn is used in first year maths and thats about it.

 

[Boundless Void]

Such a mark I shall receive, but nonetheless it does not guarantee a 95+ UAI as there are another 6 units to account for.

 

[hello2004]

I'm from Macq but I can answer this part:

(3) How would you characterise the Mathematics in actuarial studies by giving a weighting to major fields (e.g. 25% Statistics, 25% Linear Algebra, 40% Abstract Algebra, 10% Set Theory).

95% - Statistics (I'm including probability in this)

5% - Other

Note that calculus is used throughout the course so I didn't give it a separate rating.

 

[§eraphim]

See the UK Institute of Actuaries website for syllabus,textbooks,past exams.

If you are not confident of safely making it into BCom (UAI 97+), it is highly unlikely you will be able to overcome the following barriers:

- a hard course, with a significant proportion dropping out in 1st and 2nd yr (40% difference in no.s between 1st & 3rd yr enrolments)
- highly competitive students who will do well, and score all the actuarial jobs.

 

[velox]

UAI doesn't count for much. But generally high achieving students at school do well at uni. As other posters have said actuarial = stats. Although you can perform many other jobs with an actuarial degree...

 

[blackfriday]

oh yeh there's the small matter of the credits you have to get in your exemption subjects. you should get them for the actl ones because it matters to you (and by doing actuarial studies i'm guessing you kinda enjoy them to some degree), but what you need to make sure is you get them in first year acct and econ because those subjects are underestimated/so easy that you can't be stuffed.

 

[wanton-wonton]

Myself - 2nd year UNSW student studying actuarial studies + mathematics and/or statistics (that's something i can decide on later on, no big deal right now).

I wish to know where I may see some course material for this course at UNSW, as I am interested in enrolling in it. I have read previous threads on this forum to no avail: links to course materials such as past exam papers are long outdated and attachments have been long deleted.

It won't help you in deciding because you won't understand it. Not because you're stupid, but because actuarial studies has their own notations and unless you've learnt what they mean, it will just appear as jibberish.

Best you don't look at it.

I do not wish for this thread to become like many of the others, full of strange MACQ versus UNSW comparisons, and lamentations as to the difficulty of actuarial studies. I only want to get my hands on some facts from the many UNSW actuarial studies students that I suppose frequent these forums.

Well aren't you lucky today.

I presume that gaining entry into the B Commerce degree automatically allows you to major in actuarial studies and to continue with it provided adequate marks are achieved? Is there any additional criteria?

Being able to major in actuarial studies, like all majors, requires you to complete the required subjects of that major, and not just by gaining entry into a degree. If you want to become an actuary, you'd have to do more than just complete the required subjects (for the major), since that won't be enough for the PART I exemptions. If you wish to obtain exemptions from external exams, you will need to average 65-75% (i forget which one) in your ACTL courses.

In short, entry into B. of commerce will give you the OPPORTUNITY to major in actuarial studies - but not guaranteed (unless your marks are good enough).

I want to know what it is all about -- the high school Mathematics Extension 1 & 2 courses have virtually no financial applications or statistics. Not even any slightly more advanced conceptions of probability theory.

Basically, neither 2U, 3U and 4U maths are very relevant to actuarial studies course @ unsw content-wise, even the financial maths and probability in 2U, perms and combs in 3U and harder probability in 4U aren't very used in the course. Though it doesn't hurt being good at it.

Basically doing well at the HSC maths courses is an indication that you can handle the maths involved. Though again, it's not all maths/stats. It's more maths tied with finance.

I have learnt about the three-part accreditation process for actuaries by reading the relevant pages of the Institute of Actuaries of Australia website, so please do not go into this. I am purely interested in what the actuarial courses entail (most specifically in Part I: CT1, CT3-CT6 of the 8 courses in the Part). Some slightly more comprehensive, coursework-related material which is easily accessible by the Internet would be ideal, but names of books and their authors which can be easily found at local libraries (if it is at all possible?) and are used in the course would also be appreciated and looked into as I do understand that it is probably not so easy to find relevant materials in an electronic format.

As I said before, you'd best not look at it.

And as a last question: if you had to characterise the Mathematics in actuarial studies in terms of major areas of Mathematics, how would you do it? (E.g. 25% Statistics, 25% Linear Algebra, 40% Abstract Algebra, 10% Set Theory, ... as a completely uninformed example).

50% stats (used throughout most of the ACTL courses i think - except for ACTL2001 Financial Mathematics), 10% algebra (shit to do with matrix and stuff), 10% calculus, 10% finance, 10% accounting and economics, 10% other shit that i can't think of.

Summarising:
(1) Is being able to major in actuarial studies guaranteed if admitted to B Commerce?
(2) Related materials to CT1, CT3-CT6 of Part I? (Electronic Internet-accessible texts such as past exams and any coursework-related material; and also textbooks easily found at local libraries and used in the course for actuarial units).
(3) How would you characterise the Mathematics in actuarial studies by giving a weighting to major fields (e.g. 25% Statistics, 25% Linear Algebra, 40% Abstract Algebra, 10% Set Theory).

There REALLY wasn't a need for you to repeat what you said above....

So please, actuarial studies students, post anything you have here -- anything which would be informative to those considering actuarial studies. While having a keen interest and ability in Mathematics and Economics, I believe this area may be suitable and interesting to me, though I must be reasonably sure before committing to anything.

Your help would be appreciated.

You're welcome.

 

[schmeichung]

agree..dont bothered reading them when you dont need to..
i would rate 50% stat, 20% algebra, 20% calculus, 10% other
but hey, maths is maths, why would u bother separating them?
the most relevant maths studied in high school should be the calculus and abit of geometric progression stuffs? and of coz perm & combin topic but not really the same style