♀ Angel's Wing ♂ 天使的翅膀

It's been such a long time since I posted anything, just thought that I will make a quick update - Life as an FSA is not that much different afterall, and I am still studying - for CFA level 2 this June at the moment. The main difference after getting my fellowship is that I am now a GRADER with the SOA! what a change! Very interesting to grade and I will also be attending my first grading training in a few weeks~ will post more later~

My actuarial student life is complete now...



July 16, 2008, I logged on to the society website as usual. Instead of seeing the "paper uploaded successfully" screen, the screen gave me the option to upload my project. A sharp pain came accross my heart. Immediately, I knew that I have failed to pass the grading of the third and final grader. Since I used my work email with the society, I would need to wait until the next day to get the full confirmation of my failure.



Two days earlier, I have finally sent an email to the society to inquiry about the status of my paper. The response was that it's currently being graded by a third grader. This simply implies that I received a failure grade by the first grader and a pass by the second grader. The truth made me so worried all this week. I was barely able to sleep Monday and Tuesday night. Finally, when learning that I have likely failed my paper on Wednesday, I thought, "oh, it's gotta be another night without sleep!" Luckily though, I've had enough drinks that night already that I eventually went to sleep from my tireness.



Thursday morning at 8am, as soon as I walked into my office and turned on my computer, I knew it's the time for the truth to come out. I checked every single email I got before I finally clicked on the one sent from the Sociery of Actuaries. Of course, as I expected, it's a failure. I kind of figured it out the night before already anyways. It only bugs me that why couldn't the third grader give me a pass when I mean, my project can't be that bad if I've gotten at least one pass, right!?



All morning on Thursday, I did nothing but trying to revise my paper based on the minimal feedbacks I received. I understand what the grader was talking about, and yet at the same time, it's not all that easy to revise the paper so that it addresses all the missing points according to the grader's suggesstion. Then it came 10:40am when I had to leave for my German lesson and my lunch break. Now, it's Thursday afternoon, I feel fresher with the paper and have finally started to see what I could actually add to my paper so that it will, hopefully, adequently address the missing points.



In half an hour, I will have a phone conference with my manager and project supervisor in the states about my paper. I hope that I would be able to gain some more insights about my paper from our discussion. Then, I supposed, other than a 1.5 hours dinner break, I will be in the office all night tonight, working on every single detail of the paper. My goal is that I can submit the paper tomorrow night Swiss time which would be Friday afternoon Chicago time. If not, then for sure by Monday morning Chicago time. This way, I will at least have the slim possibility of making the professionalism course in September! Well, only if my paper is good enough to be approved by the first grader since I will not have more time for any further grading with the deadline being August 1.



I can't say how depressed I felt last night when knowing about the failure. I guess my actuarial student life is now complete since otherwise, I would've never known what failing an exam means. At least, I am still young and I think I've got a good idea about how to improve my paper now.



Praise the Lord! Please be with me as I go through some of the worst emotional moments in my life. I pray that my paper will be so good that I will receive a passing grade before the deadline and make it to the course in September. Afterall, I cannot express more about how important going back to the states in September means to me. There's got a lot more than just getting my fellowship with the society and my salary raise, but something else that I've never wanted so badly.



15:33pm in Zurich

一轉眼,一天又過去了,感覺日子過的越來越快了


考試的日子是忙碌的



五月份慶幸的考過了CSP的Advance Finance & Enterprise Risk Management考試,七月底把Final Assessment (FAP)的project交了出去,現在面對的,是11月份Financial Economic Theory的考試.戰勝了5月份生平的第一個6小時essay考試,即將而來的是11月份再一次的挑戰,只希望自己能夠和一前一樣幸運的通過,然後,我的考是生涯就能畫下完美的句點了!之後所剩得,就僅是兩個online modules和最後一個project了!then finally - FSA(美國正精算師)就是我的了!



一邊準備考試,一邊等待著final assessment的結果,一但批准,我就是ASA了!準精算師的頭銜多麼的吸引人啊!



回憶起來,走上精算的路純屬偶然,大一上的時候,我連什麼是精算都搞不懂;因緣際會的居然選了一節probability的課,那是我上大學的第一個學期,而巧的是,我的教授竟然是位精算師,我則這麼誤打誤撞的從Computer Engineering變成雙修精算,又轉成Industrial & Operational Engineering加雙修精算,最後竟然放棄了我的工程路,選擇精算,並提早一年畢業



2004年,我的第一個精算考試,第一個精算internship.....



2007年,我的最後一門精算考試(如果順利通過的話,就再也沒有考試了!)



3年,說短不短......原來我們都在和時間賽跑



ps. 如果你也是學精算的,或是對精算有興趣,請留言!任何問題歡迎發問!