CURRENT ACTUARIAL STUDENTS!!...Tell me about the course (1 Viewer)

[oyuck]

Current Actuarial Students (ESP those in your 1st year), can you give us some insight as to the course content and level of difficulty?

So in your 1st year, was it like studying an envisioned HSC Maths Ext 3? Or is there much overlap with HSC Extension 2?

What are the exams like?

PLEASE - only current actuarial students respond for accuracy of content! Thank you in advance

 

[ascentyx]

4th year actuarial student here.

1st year isn't too difficult.. if you keep up to date with the workload and attend most lectures/tutorials you can easily get d's and hd's (especially considering most of the subjects aren't specific to actuarial - econ, stat, accg, etc).

there isn't much overlap with extension 2 as actuarial can be essentially thought of as applied stats (why they don't teach stat in higher maths in the hsc is beyond me).
With that being said though, most of the things you learn in first year maths (linear algebra + calculus) become very important as you actually start getting further into your actuarial subjects (think maximum likelihood estimators, glms, and variance covariance matrices etc etc).

let us know if you want more info about the course (I got to macq btw)

 

[zhiying]

In your honest opinion, is it boring? I enjoy math a lot but not soooooo sure about data and statistics. When you say applied stats, how and where are you applying it to? I'm tossing between UNSW med and commerce with actuarial studies major :S

 

[Blizane]

I'm tossing between UNSW med and commerce with actuarial studies major :S

Why are you tossing up between two irrelevant fields of study? You either enjoy/want to study Science/Med or Commerce/Statistics. Seems to me you only want to pick the most 'prestigious' degree, which will most likely end up in you picking the wrong one for you. (Honestly, though, you are by no means the only one doing this)

 

[zhiying]

I like math - actuary
I like science - med

They may be irrelevant but they are what I like O_O I'm just not sure which one to pic

I'm not saying I have a overwhelming and undying passion to help people in need (I do want to help but just not to an obsessive degree) or whatnot but I like these fields and I'm fairly good at it as far as I'm concerned at the HSC level. Obviously I don't know how they work in university which is why I'm uncertain what to pick. "Unfortunately" they are the most prestigious degree like you said. Sorry

 

[hungwell1337]

its shit and i hate it but i do ok/good so ill keep doing it with no intention of becoming an actuary

 

[mitchy_boy]

Lol, extension 3 maths?

You do first year mathematics which has some elements similar to hsc maths, i.e. some integration is similar, and some complex numbers, but that's about it.

It's not easy, and it's pretty technical. Do some reading yourself. Go to the UNSW website, and look at what they say about the courses, and what you learn.