1. First Year Information Session 2019
7th March, 2019 PHILLIP GUO

2. Contents About A.S.S What is an actuary?
Process of becoming an actuary
Course structure
Course options
Concluding remarks

3. About A.S.S

4. What we do We are the only actuarial club on campus. Events:
Information sessions like this one
Skills sessions (Excel and LaTeX workshops)
Social events with peers, working actuaries and sponsors
Make friends, meet like-minded students
Half yearly subject review
Newsletters to keep you up to date with jobs, news, events

5. Who we are Daisy Li President Joanna Yang Vice President
Phillip Guo Treasurer
Jason Kaluarachchi Secretary
Phillip Guo (Stand-in) Education Officer
Mia Wang Student Engagement Director
Jason Chong Events Director
Ken Xie Sponsorship Director
Serina He Student Engagement Officer
Chan-Gyu Lee Sponsorship Officer
Kathy Zhang Media Officer
You ? First Year Representative

6. What is an actuary?

7. What is an actuary?
An actuary combines the skills and knowledge of a variety of fields to manage and reduce risk.
Mathematics
Finance
Economics
Actuaries create models to aid in providing advice to decision makers.
In actuarial science, risk refers to the level of uncertainty.
Economic conditions
Mortality
Etc.

8. Examples of tasks of an actuary
Reserving – How much money should we set aside so that we will (with 99.5% probability) have enough to pay off any claims in the coming year?
Pricing – How much should we charge for an insurance policy (i.e. what premium should be set)?

9. What type of mathematics do we deal with?
Financial Mathematics
Should I pay my HECS fees now or later?
Probability
Assuming that a life table is a good representation of mortality, how many people are expected to die in the next 5 years?
Statistics
We have data for the ages of deaths in a town. What can we infer about the distribution for the age of death for that town?
Probability and Statistics are very important in any actuarial role.

10. Actuaries by practice area

11. Actuaries by practice area
SOURCE:

12. Where can you go straight after your degree?
Some past graduates have become:
Actuarial analysts/consultants
Life insurance
General insurance
Superannuation
Data analysts
Management consultants
Investment bankers
and many more…

13. Process of becoming an actuary

14. Process of becoming an actuary
The Actuaries Institute is the overseeing body for actuaries in Australia. Some of the things they do include:
Standards and guidelines
Exams
Networking events
You are not officially an actuary until the Actuaries Institute recognises you as one.

16. Foundation Program exemptions
Topic
CS1
Actuarial Statistics 1
CS2
Risk Modelling and Survival Analysis
CM1
Actuarial Mathematics 1
CM2
Financial Engineering and Loss Reserving
CB1
Business Finance
CB2
Business Economics

17. New “Part II” and “Part III”
SOURCE: Actuaries Institute Foundation Program

18. Other remarks
Part I consists of the technical skills that are required as part of the job – the “Toolkit”.
Part II is more qualitative and is more about the skills and thought process behind an actuary’s actions in a professional environment – “How do we use that toolkit?”
Part III is also qualitative, but is more specialised in the different areas that actuaries typically work in.
The University of Melbourne allows you to fulfil the accreditation requirements for Part I and Part II (given satisfactory performance in certain subjects).
Part III must be done externally (with the Actuaries Institute).

19. Rules for exemptions Previously
For subjects with a non-ACTL subject code, an average of 73 is required (with no fails)
For subjects with an ACTL subject code, satisfactory performance in the end-of- semester exams is required.
Cannot be certain about new Foundation Program or new Part 2, but expect something similar.

20. Course structure

21. Course structure
3-year 300 point program + an optional Honours year or 1.5 year Masters Course.
Opportunity to gain all Foundation Program and Part II exemptions.
Recommended course structure assumes the student seeks exemptions and plans to do Honours or Masters.

22. Before we cover the course structure, let’s look at the cohort trends…

26. Cohort Trends What these slides do not show:
The number of students who get do not get their exemptions (generally less than 50% of students that enrol in a subject get the exemption for that subject).
The number of students who quit after 1st Year 1st Semester.
Basically, be prepared to work hard.

27. BCom - Actuarial Studies: Course Structure
Recommended First Year Subjects
Semester 1
ACCT Accounting Reports and Analysis*
ECON Introductory Microeconomics*
FNCE Principles of Finance
MAST10007 or MAST Linear Algebra* or Accelerated Maths 1*
Semester 2
ACCT Introductory Financial Accounting
ACTL Introduction to Actuarial Studies
ECON Introductory Macroeconomics*
MAST10006 or MAST Calculus 2* or Accelerated Maths 2*
Highly recommended that you take the Accelerated Pathway if you can.
*Prerequisite for exemption subject

28. Mathematics options

29. BCom - Actuarial Studies: Course Structure
Recommended Second Year Subjects
Semester 1
ACTL Financial Mathematics I*
MAST Probability*
MGMT Organisational Behaviour
Commerce Elective
Semester 2
ACTL Financial Mathematics II*
ECON Intermediate Macroeconomics
MAST Statistics*
BREADTH!
*Prerequisite for exemption subject.

30. BCom - Actuarial Studies: Course Structure
Recommended Third Year Subjects
Semester 1
ACTL Actuarial Modelling I*
ACTL Actuarial Modelling II*
ACTL Financial Mathematics III*
BREADTH!
Semester 2
ACTL Contingencies*
ACTL Actuarial Statistics*
ACTL Models for Insurance and Finance*
*Prerequisite for exemption subject.

31. Course options

32. Intensive Subjects
The University of Melbourne offers some subjects in intensive periods (Summer, Winter, July, January, etc.)
Complete a subject in a quicker time frame
Allows you to take fewer subjects in other semesters (very useful for third year)
For more information (as well as the subjects that are available in intensive periods), check the university handbook.

33. Course options
Both the Honours Program and the Masters of Commerce allow you to complete your Foundation program and attain your Part II exemptions.
More information on our website!

34. Concurrent diplomas
Can take a concurrent diploma in Informatics, Languages, Mathematical Sciences and Music.
Mathematical science Diploma
Statistics & Stochastic Processes – Must extend degree by at least half a year.
Every other discipline – Must extend degree by a year.
Other Diplomas
Must extend degree by a year
Can overload to graduate on time, but do you really want to…?
More information on website and in Actuarial Students’ Society Subject Review – end-of-year edition.

35. Double majors with actuarial studies
Don’t need to do all of the ACTL subjects in 3rd year to get an actuarial major
Only need to complete 3.
You can get a double major
HOWEVER: if you are set on becoming an actuary, highly recommended that you take all the subjects.
Will help attain exemptions if you pursue them externally.

36. ACTL/FNCE ACTL/ECON Must not enrol in ACTL30006 Financial Maths III.
Must enrol in FNCE20005 Corporate Financial Decision Making (2nd year commerce elective).
ACTL/ECON
Must complete ECON20002 Intermediate Microeconomics in either semester 1 of 2nd year or a summer semester.

37. Complete transitions out of actuarial studies
The ACTL course structure is flexible enough to allow you to do any major combination (outside of accounting) after first year.
Generally, the earlier you leave, the easier it is to transition.

38. Concluding remarks

39. Study tips Probability and Statistics are extremely important.
Focus on all your subjects (not just your exemption subjects).
Rote-memorisation and grinding exercises (common study techniques in High School) will no longer be as effective.
The subjects only get harder as you progress through your degree.

40. Essential skills
We covered a lot on the educational side of things. However, to become a successful actuary, you must need:
Strong communication skills;
The ability to exercise judgment;
Technical skills (Excel, general programming skills); and
Mathematical skills (though I don’t think many of you need to worry about this).
Use the time you have in university to develop these skills! It’s not just about studying and marks.

41. Useful links Actuaries Institute Actuarial Students’ Society
Centre for Actuarial Studies

42. Q & A

43. First Year Representative sign-ups are still open until 11:59pm on 13 March Wednesday! Tomorrow: Flow Traders Trading Challenge [FBE Theatre 2] Next Thursday: Welcome Back BBQ! [Redmond Barry Courtyard] Thank you!