Read time – 6 mins
The correct order of giving Actuarial exams:
- If you know the correct order of appearing for the actuarial exams, you can clear many papers in an optimum span of time.
- You can appear for the actuarial exams from two institutes that are Institute of Actuaries of India (IAI) and Institute and Faculty of Actuaries (IFOA).
- You can appear for any exam at a given time, but you should follow an order to clear them and gain maximum efficiency in all the papers.
- The order to appear for actuarial exams is CS1, CM1, CS2 and CM2. All these papers can be combined with CB1, CB2 and CB3. After clearing these papers, you should go for CP1, CP2 and CP3. These should be followed by two SP papers and one SA paper. The latter depends on which field one wants to specialize in.
- If you are starting your Actuarial journey, then the first exam you should give is CS1 or CM1. If you are appearing for CS1 as your first attempt, then your next paper to target should be CM1 and vice versa.
- Now, there can be various combinations for appearing for exams, which can prove to be effective to clear the papers in minimum time.
- If you have roughly five to six months to first exam, then you can try CS1 along with CB1 or CB2, or can also go for only CM1.
- If you are appearing for CS2 for the first time, then you should give their 100% attention to CS2 only, because the said paper is very lengthy with a lot of new concepts to grasp. This paper requires extreme hard word, utmost focus and frequent thorough revisions. If you appear for CS2 for the second time, then you can also attempt CB1 or CB2 along with it.
- If you have roughly four to five months to prepare for CM2, you can also attempt CB2 along with it.
- If you are appearing for CP1, you should not try to give any other paper with it, because by the time you clear the former CT series and get to CP1, you would be employed and burdened with office work already. Managing CP1 with office is quite a task and thus, no other paper should be attempted with it.
- While appearing for CP2 and CP3, you can attempt both the papers together at a given time, as the combined study time for these is less than 200 hours.
- There are seven SP papers, out of which you need to appear for only two. So, you can try to attempt one SP paper combined with any one of CP2 or CP3 papers (provided one/both of the latter is/are not cleared).
- There are 5 SA papers, out of which you need to give only one. This would be your last paper and the choice of this paper depends on which field you want to specialize in. The choices include Life Insurance, General Insurance, Health and Care, Pension & other benefits and Investment & Finance.
- If you are left with one SP paper and SA paper, you can try to give both the papers together.
- You should try to get into the habit of giving two papers together. This may not include two difficult papers, but one easy paper and another comparatively difficult one are advised to be clubbed in one single attempt.
For further information, you can refer https://youtu.be/TQHsHpTg8ko