Note from the Editor:

At the end of May, Sholom Feldblum announced that he was seeking nomination as candidate for president-elect of the CAS. In a letter addressed to Fellows of the CAS, Feldblum discussed several concerns that he believes are important to the future of the CAS, and are likely to be of interest to most CAS members. Many of these concerns have been discussed in previous issues of The AR. As an aid to members, this issue provides facts and figures on two of these concerns: the property/casualty content on SOA exams and travel time, below. We expect to run an article on Exams 3 and 4 in the November issue. And, as always, we encourage readers to send us their opinions regarding the important issues facing the CAS.

Travel Time Update

Travel time has increased in recent years, according to the most recent analysis conducted by the Education Policy Committee, but is expected to begin decreasing due to "departitioning" of exams. The table below shows the average travel time, measured in "number of sittings," that it took new Associates and Fellows to reach their goal over the period from Spring 1980 through Spring 2000.

On this table the number of sittings beyond Parts 1 and 2 is measured as the number of sittings that elapsed from the time of the first sitting (other than Part 1 or 2) to the time of exam completion leading to the designation. Two more sittings are added to account for Parts 1 and 2. For example, if an ACAS took Part 3 for the first time in Spring 1990, and completed the Associateship exams with the Fall 1995 examination, then the total travel time for this ACAS would be counted as 14 sittings: 12 sittings over the period Spring 1990 through Fall 1995, plus 2 sittings to pass Parts 1 and 2. This measurement of 14 sittings would apply regardless of how many sittings the candidate actually used to pass Parts 1 and 2, and regardless of whether the candidate actually sat for exams during each test period from Spring 1990 through Fall 1995.

If the Committee is able to obtain the appropriate data, future studies will measure travel time based on the number of times that an individual candidate actually sat for an exam.

The CAS Education Policy Committee is reviewing other measures of travel time. Anyone who would like to provide feedback to the committee on this issue can send them to Tom Downey at the CAS Office, tdowney@casact.org.

Travel Time by ACAS/FCAS Class
Travel Time is defined as the number of examination sessions it takes to achieve the CAS designation.
Sittings for Parts 1 & 2 (pre-2000) are included, but only for the successful examination session.

Class	ACAS Class Size	FCAS Class Size	No. of Sittings for ACAS	No. of Sittings for FCAS
Spring 1980	37	13	8.6	11.7
Fall 1980	19	25	9.5	12.8
Spring 1981	37	11	8.5	14.2
Fall 1981	16	32	7.6	12.6
Spring 1982	51	12	7.8	14.6
Fall 1982	17	51	9.9	13.1
Spring 1983	60	18	9.3	14.1
Fall 1983	6	28	9.5	12.8
Spring 1984	59	18	10.4	12.3
Fall 1984	7	35	9.6	13.5
Spring 1985	67	19	10.7	13.0
Fall 1985	9	28	11.5	13.9
Spring 1986	82	19	11.2	13.0
Fall 1986	24	34	10.0	13.4
Spring 1987	66	22	11.1	15.5
Fall 1987	24	39	9.9	14.1
Spring 1988	61	19	12.3	14.8
Fall 1988	26	41	10.2	13.0
Spring 1989	77	14	12.7	16.9
Fall 1989	34	52	10.0	14.2
Spring 1990	87	16	11.3	14.8
Fall 1990	54	54	10.4	14.1
Spring 1991	75	5	10.4	15.6
Fall 1991	64	59	11.3	13.4
Spring 1992	99	15	11.4	11.9
Fall 1992	41	62	12.1	14.7
Spring 1993	101	11	12.8	14.5
Fall 1993	60	85	12.2	14.7
Spring 1994	150	17	12.3	16.4
Fall 1994	75	86	12.3	16.7
Spring 1995	122	17	12.3	19.5
Fall 1995	78	97	13.0	15.9
Spring 1996	136	19	12.3	15.0
Fall 1996	83	104	12.6	16.7
Spring 1997	113	16	12.2	15.3
Fall 1997	95	109	13.5	18.3
Spring 1998	119	18	13.5	17.7
Fall 1998	58	126	14.7	17.2
Spring 1999	167	13	13.8	15.5
Fall 1999	55	124	14.2	18.3
Spring 2000	150	14	16.0	17.4
Fall 2000	33	135	11.9	17.6
Spring 2001	33	29	14.6	18.1