Exams & Admissions
Membership / Notices to Members

CAS to Discontinue Publishing Exams in Move Towards Enhancing Future Exam Administration

The CAS will discontinue publishing its exams beginning with the Fall 2020 examinations. Past exams that have already been published will remain available for candidates to use as tools when preparing to sit for future exams but no new exams will be published, allowing the CAS to build an exam item bank, which is a robust repository of exam questions and associated statistics. As exam item banks are established, the CAS will be able to take fuller advantage of opportunities offered by computer-based testing (CBT) and better adhere to industry best practices in credentialing.

Up until now, the CAS has written new questions for each exam sitting, rather than re-use questions that have appeared on past exams. Since the past exams were released publicly, re-using the same questions could do a poor job of testing a candidate’s knowledge, as it is possible one could replicate a memorized answer seen in a past exam without understanding the material. Writing new questions every sitting, however, creates certain challenges, as newly written questions are more prone to the possibility of containing unintentional ambiguity than questions that have already been tested. Furthermore, it is harder to gauge things such as question difficulty, length of time required to respond, and expected performance from Minimally Qualified Candidates when using new questions as opposed to questions that have been previously tested.

The CAS is constantly striving to maintain its position as the leading organization for credentialing property/casualty actuaries and is working towards an envisioned future that will increase the satisfaction among candidates and their employers with the CAS’s examination administration. This future includes some goals that can be achieved in the short-term and others that are longer-term aspirations, based on the combination of successfully implementing CBT in conjunction with the ability to build to an exam item bank.

Short-Term Goals and Benefits for CAS Exam Administration

  • Computer-based testing for all CAS examinations, including increased usage of tools and technology that better reflect real-life actuarial practice.
  • Flexibility to allow candidates to schedule their exam within a testing window as opposed to offering single-day testing events.
  • A higher level of exam security, to address concerns with the potential for cheating associated with the move to computer-based testing and exam windows.
  • Deep analysis of exam items to determine which are the best items, so that we can enhance the validity and reliability of exam questions.
  • A more consistent and uniform testing experience for candidates from exam sitting to exam sitting, including the length and difficulty of the exam.
  • The protection of CAS’s proprietary intellectual property.

Longer-Term Aspirations for CAS Exam Administration

  • The opportunity to offer exams more frequently.
  • Faster exam results to candidates.

As the CAS desires to move towards this envisioned future immediately, with candidates seeing improvements beginning in 2021, it is necessary to continue evolving our current model. Building an exam item bank will allow volunteers to channel their energies to achieving all of the future enhancements to CAS exam administration described above, and many others that are not yet realized.

Effects on Candidates

Since candidates will not have access to exam questions after their exam sitting, certain processes have been adjusted. These include:

  • Examiner’s Reports – With the discontinuation of publishing exams, Examiner’s Reports, which include the exams and a detailed discussion of each question, will similarly no longer be published going forward. As with exams, all Examiner’s Reports already published from past sittings will remain available to candidates.
  • Sample Questions – As noted above, all past exams and Examiner’s Reports will be available to candidates for study purposes, providing a significant number of problems to work through for existing syllabus material. As new material is added to the syllabus, the CAS will publish sample questions and answers to assist candidates in understanding how the new material may be tested on an exam.
  • Appeals and Defective Questions – While the past practice of using the published exam and Examiner’s Report as the basis for providing feedback on an exam to the CAS will no longer be possible, candidates will continue to have an opportunity to provide feedback on potentially defective questions, including during the examination itself and immediately after submitting their exam. The new process for providing feedback on potentially defective questions is outlined in the new “CAS Candidate Feedback and Grievances” policy. The policy also includes new mechanisms for candidates to express concerns about their exam experience and to request a verification that a candidate’s responses were accurately collected. Please see the policy for more details.
  • Feedback on Exam Performance – Candidates who do not pass an exam will continue to have the opportunity to receive feedback on their exam performance, in the form of a new report. Details on the new exam performance report are forthcoming.
  • Pass Marks – Because candidates will be completing different forms of their exam in the future, it will not be possible to establish a single pass mark for each exam. Therefore, pass marks for CAS exams will no longer be published. Certain other statistics, such as the percent of candidates that pass, will continue to be published.
  • Discussing Exams – In order to build exam item banks, it is important that the details of the items appearing on an exam remain confidential, and the Examination Discipline Policy has been updated accordingly. Candidates are prohibited from discussing any details of the items that appear on an exam with any other person. This includes all forms of discussion, including posting on internet forums or social media. See the updated policy for more details.

If you have any questions regarding this announcement, please send an email to the CAS Administrative and Customer Service department at ACS@casact.org. Also note that a webinar for candidates is being scheduled for October 28, where you will have an opportunity to ask questions about the changes articulated in this announcement and other aspects of upcoming and future exam sittings.

Further, please note the following additional reminders for candidates:

  • Refer to the CBT FAQ periodically for the latest information. These have been updated with additional FAQ related to this announcement.
  • Upcoming Deadlines: The refund deadline for Exams MAS I and MAS II is October 9, and the refund deadline for Exams 5-9 is October 20. Refund requests may be sent via e-mail to refund@casact.org. A $100 administrative fee per examination will be assessed on all refunds.
  • Visit the Pearson VUE/CAS website for details on computer-based CAS exams delivered by Pearson VUE, including health and safety measures in place for testing.

The CAS recognizes that discontinuing the practice of publishing exams removes tools that many candidates relied upon for exam preparation, while causing many other changes to the CAS’s exam administration. We acknowledge that change is difficult, especially with so many changes to CAS exams occurring at the same time, but it is important for the CAS to keep pace with the opportunities for improvement as the exams transition to computer-based testing. While your future exam experience will ultimately be different from what you have experienced in the past, the CAS believes that these changes are necessary for maintaining the value of its members’ CAS credentials, and upholding the CAS’s position as the leading organization for credentialing property/casualty actuaries.