ACTL10001: Introduction to Actuarial Studies

2x written assignments (each worth 10%)
1x MST (midsem test) (worth 10%)
1x exam (70% of final) Note that this is a hurdle, 50% on the exam is required to pass.

Definitely the worst part of the subject are the two group assignments. You are randomly assigned to groups of 5, where you have to co-ordinate who's doing what on the assignment. You also have to submit a group contract, signalling what is expected from the 5 of you and what happens if someone does complete their obligations.

The first assignment was an application of financial cash flows (which is weird way of saying it...) via the form of purchasing an investment property. We "roleplayed" as consultants to a wealthy client who wanted to purchase a property. We were to use Excel (which isn't taught in the subject, so you'll need learn it somehow) to record all cash-flows and any interest gained or taxes etc. This was actually pretty alright, but my group didn't do too well for a multitude of reasons. Average here was a 79%.
Assignment 2 fared better for all groups on average - an 85 I think. This was a continuation of the first assignment so we had the same groups. In this assignment, we had to research how insurance providers price their plans with respect to certain risk factors - e.g. age, location etc. This was a lot more interesting and hell-of-a-lot-easier than the first one.

Ben is quite responsive to any allegations of a group member(s) not doing their part - as long as you have proof somewhere and you listed it on the contract you submitted as a group, then he'll recognise it and will mark their assignments as 0.

The MST was very hard, average was 9/18 and the highest mark was a 16. If you've read past reviews of this subject, then this shouldn't come too much of a surprise

This is the only level 1 subject within the actuarial major (denoted by ACTLXXXXX) and it's actually the only one that's not needed to satisfy the major itself. As per title, this subject serves as an introduction to the actuarial and what exactly actuaries do. Benjamin in particular is a new lecturer at Unimelb, so we had a new curriculum to reflect this change.

It's obvious that Benjamin is a huge geek over actuarial studies and anything actuarial related, making this subject very interesting (I mean, if the lecturer doesn't seem interested, then why should you be?) as it could be but at the end of the day - it's actuarial studies, so it's quite hard and for me, a little bit boring. If I could sum-up this review, it would be to do it if you are interested in the actuarial major since it provides a GREAT overview of the profession. I cannot recommend this as a breadth if you're just good at maths; Ben makes an emphasis on theory more so than previous years.

If you read my review above here, then you would know I am no longer pursuing the actuarial major - the maths isn't for me and whilst there was some interest with some aspects of the profession, I think I prefer other things like economics more. With that being said, I would have not made the switch away from actuarial if it wasn't for this subject, so I am grateful that this subject really did its job of introducing first years to, actuarial studies! I really did enjoy this subject and I wish everyone pursuing this major the best of luck. Like I said earlier, I wouldn't do this subject as a breadth if you're only good at maths - Ben loves his qualitative aspects perhaps more than the quantitative aspects. Thanks for reading.

The first four weeks relate to financial mathematics - so if you've done Principles of Finance (FNCE10002), then this shouldn't be too hard. The hardest part is the notation used - you need to remember what "v" means or "an" (I can't do the symbol lol). It's not too bad however, but there is a large difficulty spike in tutorial questions by week 3.

The next few weeks (5-9?) cover demography - the data of which actuaries use within their risk modelling. This was my favourite part of the subject, since this is actually why I was interested in actuarial studies in the first place. Alas, this is just me I feel lol.

The last weeks feature a lot of theory regarding insurance pricing and superannuation, the two most interesting topics to discuss on a coffee date I am sure. In all seriousness, these were actually alright and were the hardest topics to grasp both mathematically and theoretically. The superannuation lecture was taken partially by former VIC Premier John Brumby, who is now chancellor of La Trobe Uni (I had no idea lol). This was definitely a highlight for me since it made superannuation more interesting by providing an "insider's view" of the concept. Hopefully Ben gets him back next year!

I can't actually comment on this - I am awaiting a special consideration regarding technical issues. From what I've heard, it is a bit weird and odd, with a huge emphasis on applications of theory - this was an open book exam.
The main issue for studying for this subject was that there were no past exams - Ben made a comment about how it would take too long and how the actual past exams were certainly not indicative of this exam. Take that as you will but I felt like it would have been easy to pass. I apologise that I could not provide an adequate review here.

Yes, with screen capture. More importantly, the lectures

Benjamin Avanzi - he is a new lecturer at unimelb, but has taught courses similar to this in UNSW. (i.e. he knows what he's doing lol)

No - this is explained later in the review.

4 out of 5

Feel free to obtain a copy of the book, but it isn't needed other than for further understanding of the content. The lecture slides + tutorials do more than enough. To obtain the book, ask a past student to send it since it's out of print and it's way too expensive.

Like most of my subjects, I went for the first month (4 weeks) and came to the last few just to consolidate on work. The tutes weren't too useful since solutions were provided at the end of the week anyways, along with a certain tutor being kind enough to provide detailed solutions. There is no guarantee that you'll have access to these detailed solutions in the future however.

2x 2 hr lectures*, 1x 1 hr tutorial per week.
*this varied between week, but expect around 3-4 hours of lecture content per week.

2020 Semester 2 - note this was delivered fully online owing from COVID-19 restrictions.

TBA

Group (4-5) Assignments, 2 × 10%
Mid Semester Exam 10% (45 minutes)
End of Semester Exam 70% (2 hours)

Overall, I really enjoyed the content in this subject, and felt it definitely confirmed for me that I chose the right major (although I'm sure the later ACTL subjects will be much harder ). Apart from a few admin type issues, I felt it was a well taught subject, and would recommend to anyone intending on or contemplating doing the actuarial studies major, or anyone who likes maths and needs a breadth.
Started out with the very basics of simple interest/discount and compound interest. Then annuities were introduced, which felt like a much more complicated and difficult extension of the stuff learnt in FNCE10002/Principles of Finance, with actuarial notation. Next major topic was demography, which was relatively straightforward once you took the time to get your head around everything, and included some (in my opinion) pretty interesting probability type stuff. This then lead into contingencies, along with some theory on insurance. The maths in contingencies was initially intimidating, but once you really took the time to understand the formula, wasn't too bad.
Also, it's important to note you're expected to memorize almost all the formulae presented for the exams, but this becomes much easier to do once you understand it.

Lectures:
I'm just gonna be straight up honest here and say due to the lectures being timetabled in the afternoon, and on the one day accelerated maths 2 didn't have a lecture, I attended exactly 1 lecture in person. Luckily, I found there was virtually no difference, and in some regards actually found watching at home to be a better method due to the ability to pause/try questions myself, rewind ect. This years lecturer was new to teaching this subject. It was obvious he knew his stuff and I found his explanations pretty good, only complaint was that he didn't really time it well (some content had to be skipped), and focused too much on reviewing weekly expectations which I found a bit "spoonfeedy".

Tutorials:
As many of the other reviews have said, the tutorials seemed pretty pointless, as you get the full worked solutions, and the tutorials themselves aren't really interactive (expect the tutorial you get your mid sem exam to inspect, definitely attend this one). To my tutor's credit, she added a few extension type questions in, however after around the midway point of semester, I stopped going (it was pretty much a case of MC>MB hahaha). That being said, I still worked through every weekly problem set, and I felt this was a very important component of my learning.
Something in particular I'd like to point out was that the week 0 set had many "proofy" type results, which it said you were expected to know. However coming from the VCE spesh/methods -> accelerated maths pathway, I had never seen it before, and found this quite discouraging. Looking back, while it helps to know the proofs, what's most important is that you know the standard results, especially the geometric sum.

Group assignments:
Groups could be chosen, otherwise you'd be placed in a group. Since assignments basically took the some of hardest aspect of actuarial exams out (formula memorization, time pressure), average scores were very high (Almost 100% for assignment 1, and 85% for assignment 2), and as long as you/your group know the very basics of excel (e.g. creating graphs, set up recursive formula with copy & paste), they're not too difficult, and also provide a good illustration of how the concepts/formula work. However, personally I found group of 4-5 to be a little too big, as it became a bit difficult to get a time that suited everyone.

Mid Semester Exam:
45 minutes with no reading time meant you had to go fast, and didn't have much time to check answers, making this exam more difficult that final exam. I personally did worse than expected (70%, somewhere in between median and top quartile), and was quite disappointed, but based on my mark I'd say it's more than possible to come back if you're disappointed with your mid semester exam score, so just do your best on this one and don't let it get you down

Final Exam:
As mentioned above, this one felt easier than the mid sem exam, despite having all taught content. I personally found my cohorts exam easier than the practice papers, and due to hurdle requirement, first few questions were pretty much basic PV calculations (think principles of finance standard). Ultimately, if you learn and understand all content and formulae, doing well on the final exam is very possible. There may be a proof type question, but the proofs in this subject were much easier than say, the accelerated maths 2 proofs.

Yes, with screen capture

Shuanming Li

Yes, 2 past exams and 1 sample, all with solutions. There was also 1 sample with solutions for the mid sem exam

3.5 Out of 5

An Introduction to Actuarial Studies, Second Edition, 2011 Atkinson and Dickson.
Probably not 100% vital (especially if you're doing this subject as a breadth), but provides very clear explanations of the theory, and many more questions with worked solutions, which are set in addition to weekly tutorial questions.

2 × 1hr lectures per week
1 × 1hr tutorial per week

2017, Semester 2

H1 (93)

2 group assignments worth 10% each, 45 minute mid semester test worth 10%, 2 hour

This subject introduces the various techniques and methods used in Actuarial Science. Whilst it does not go into much depth, the content of the subject definitely provides enough material for you to appreciate the way in which actuaries approach and solve problems.

The course is split up into 3 major topics: Financial Maths(4 weeks), Demography(3 weeks) and Actuarial Practice and Contingent Payments(5 weeks). Within the Financial Maths part of the course, you learn about different interest rates that are used in valuing different financial instruments, such as simple interest, simple discount and compound interest. After that the course moves onto to annuities, and the application of them in bonds and housing loans. This part of the course is somewhat simple, but it is important to solidify your knowledge of these basic ideas with the tutorial problems.

After Financial Maths, you briefly study Demography, which is the study of human populations and their changes over time. This is an introduction to the statistical side of Actuarial Science, as you learn about the different demography rates which can found by analysing gender/age groups of human populations. The course also looks at human population pyramids at a basic level. Next you look at ideas of mortality and life tables, which is where the actuarial notation begins to build up, and everything will start looking the same to you. Rounding off Demography you study models of population growth and different ways of measuring fertility within populations.

The last topic can really be split into two separate topics, contingent payments and actuarial practice. Contingent payments builds upon your study of financial maths, except it deals with uncertainty that is involved with such payments. These come up in life insurance, where an insurance agency seeks to set the correct level of premium for its various customers, who each have different probabilities of survival. The last part of the course is actuarial practical, and is the most boring topic of them all. I think I fell asleep 5 times in the second last lecture because the content was so dry. There is a lot of theory which is taught ranging from general insurance to superannuation and pensions. Don't be too worried if you don't end up remembering all of it, as much of it is not examinable.

As for the lectures themselves, the lecturer was sometimes hard to understand due to his accent, but overall he was quite good and delivered a few laughs here and there. I recommend attending the lectures as the lecturer sometimes writes extra notes on a projected screen, which you can not see if you are watching lectures online. Also, printing lecture slides is also a good idea as there are spaces for you to fill in the blanks during class.

In all honestly, my tutorial experience in this subject was quite bad. My tutor simply wrote answers to problems on the board, without any class interaction, even though the solutions were posted on the LMS at the end of week. After a few weeks I questioned myself why I was still going to them and I stopped, finding it much more convenient to just work on problems at home. There is also an Online Tutor for the subject which you can ask questions on.

There are 2 assignments during the semester, one due around week 3 and the other due around week 10-11. They are both group assignments on excel, and you are allowed to choose your group assignment members, provided you email the lecturer your group members before the weekend between week 1 and 2. Otherwise you will be placed in a random group, which was what happened to me. Make sure at least one of your group members know how to use excel to a decent level, as it will save you a lot of time. The assignments themselves weren't difficult at all, and achieving full marks is very possible.

I can't comment too much on the Mid-Semester Test, as I was overseas when it happened. The lecturer may post it on the LMS during SWOTVAC with the solutions.

The exam is what you would expect of a hurdle exam, with enough "easy" questions on the exam and a few trickier ones to separate the cohort. For exam revision, make sure you have a sound knowledge of the mathematical concepts and do the tutorial questions, especially the questions marked "Exam questions." Also be aware that you may be asked for clear definitions on the exam, and are able to clearly explain some of the actuarial notation in words.
Overall, I had a good experience with ACTL10001, whilst tutorials left a lot to be desired, the lectures weren't so bad and the group assignments were quite fun. One of the best parts of this subject is the fact that almost all the people who do ACTL10001 do almost the same subjects, so it is really easy(I found at least) to make friends and form a social group at uni.

Yes, with screen capture.

Dr Xueyuan Wu

1 specimen exam with solutions given.

3/5

The textbook recommended by the lecturer was "An Introduction to Actuarial Studies" by M.E Atkinson and D.C.M Dickson. The textbook isn't necessary but does contain extra problems besides the tutorial questions given. If you want to buy the textbook try looking online as there is only a few copies in the Co-op at any time.

Two 1 hour lectures a week, 1 hour tutorial per week

2014 Semester 2

TBA

2 Group Assignments (10% each), A 45 min mid-semester test (10%) and 2 hour Exam (70%)

So after doing well in Finance 1 in first semester, I was looking for a similar subject but a little more maths inclined. This subject met that description but it is NOTHING like Finance 1. You can't just simply plug in numbers into a formula, you need to understand the formula and know how to derive it from scratch. You will get many different problems to do with annuities, bonds, housing loans, etc. and it is usually easier (I found) to do things by first principles rather than just memorising a template formula and tweaking it to each scenario. A good background in series will help.
You do mortality and life probabilities which is pretty bland in some parts like dealing with mortality tables and populations, and theres a hint of calculus when you find the force of mortality (nothing major, only finding the derivative of basic functions).

Then you do contingencies, which is basically a mixture of financial maths and life probability. Instead of dealing with payments that are certain, what is the present value of payments that are conditional on if a life survives/dies? This is the basis of life insurance. You learn how to calculate the premium for a certain insured sum. This is probably the hardest part of the subject.
Lastly there's a bunch of theory that you need to know about various insurance policies and the roles of actuaries in life and general insurance. This part was beyond horrible. As someone that doesn't intend to become an actuary, I found myself bored and uninterested-but you do need to know them.
I had a good experience with group assignments but the mid semester I found was too long for 45 minutes with NO reading time. The end of year exam was fair however.

No

Xueyuan Wu

No but a specimen exam was given with solutions in the exam period. Also worked solutions to the midsem and assignments was also given which I though was pretty good.

3.5-4 Out of 5

An Introduction to Actuarial Studies by Atkinson and Dickson. I didn't buy nor use the textbook.

3 x 1 hour lecture per week and 1 hour tutorial per week.

2013 Semester 2

84 (H1)