I feel that since I am a graduate, having been once an actuarial student and now am working, that I should impart some knowledge on the younger generation of actuarial students. This knowledge is common. Yet, no one has emphasized it. Until now. (sounds like a movie trailer intro eh?)
1. Actuarial science in university is easy
It's the truth. How on earth could someone like me do so well in it at uni level? I'll tell you how. Cause it is easy. You do not need to be special to score in actuarial science subjects. All you have to do to get an A is study just a little bit more than average.
2. Engineering/CS is harder than actuarial science
This again is the truth. How many times have we seen engineering students get completely maimed by their exams? Have any of you actuarial science students get around 50% in your exams? I don't think so. Ask an engineering student, I'm sure that they have seen the 50th to 60th percentile plenty a times.
3. Stop acting/telling other people that actuarial science is hard
I'm tired of seeing kids saying actuarial science is hard. Cause it isn't. I know we should try to portray that it is hard to other people who are not in the profession. But the truth is, you do not need to have special skill sets to be good in actuarial science. There are plenty of kids who aren't good in math who end up being actuaries.
4. An A in actuarial science is not equivalent to an A in engineering
My friend, a biased engineer (haha) had his professor tell his class this,"In order for you to get an A in my class you will have to be smart and work really hard. If you are either smart or work hard but not both, you will get a B". In actuarial science it goes more like this,"If you just write down the formulas well on your cheat sheets, you will get an A"
5. You are not special
If you think that since you have a good GPA in actuarial science that you are awesome... no you are not awesome. Most of the kids have high GPAs in actuarial science. You are just another person in the crowd.
6. Ranking of difficulty
Doctor > Engineer > Actuarial science > Accounting > Psychology
7. Actuaries hate accounting people
8. Be humble
The smartest people I've met through out my life are the most humble. They are humble in spreading knowledge, helping out with homework, humble in conversations.
4 comments:
your post reminds me of a certain someone who did actuarial sciences in the uk. think you know who i'm talking about. he kept saying the degree was the hardest thing ever, way harder than medicine or mathematics or engineering or whatever. can't say i've done the course myself, so i just smiled and nodded.
also, every time i meet (malaysian) parents they are similarly quick to point out that their sons and daughters have 138.29 A1s from their spm. in parallel to what you've said, i also think an a1 in any spm subject is a laughably easy achievement - don't get me wrong, though, if anyone got straight As and stuff, more power to them. i just don't see how you (the parents, at least) can equate being a big fish in a small pond to being a big fish in the whole ocean out there.
ah, i should go and post something on my own blog instead of ranting in your comments section, sorry ><.
haha it's all good man. keep the comments coming.
adam
though your hierarchy of courses regarding difficulty is somewhat subjective and i don't know if i want to agree with it, i appreciate that you are putting all these down for students to digest!
I am an actuary-to-be. I am dumb at math. Honest. Ask my friends.
Back in the day. I used to kick everyone's ass in Physics though =)
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