Question regarding cut-off (1 Viewer)

[lyounamu]

Hello, I am a year 11 student who is very interested in the Actuarial course in the Macquarie University. I was told by many that the Actuarial course is academically demanding and approximately one third of its starters drop due to its academic demands and workloads.

If this course is highly demanding and difficult, how come the UAI cut-off is relatively "low" compared to other university courses. I thought UAI cut-off reflects the difficulty of that subject, does it not?

I am not saying that UAI cut-off is necessarily "low", it is just that it seems "low" compared to Medicine course or Medical courses.

Briefly, this is another question. If I am going to do Actuarial study, would you recommend double degree or single degree? And if you do, what double degree would you recommend?

Any comment will be highly appreciated.

 

[lyounamu]

Sorry for another question: "As an actuary undergraduate, what is opinion about your course? And do you have fun doing it?"

 

[biomic]

The UAI generally reflects the demand for the course as opposed to the difficulty of the subject matter, so if not many people are after Actuarial Studies, the UAI cutoff drops to reflect this.

I don't do actuarial so I'm not too sure on the other q's, I'm sure someone else will chime in here soon

 

[CharlieB]

Acturial studies is the most demanding course at mac. I know actuaries who constantly whine and bitch about how much work they have and how they have get a credit in a course to avoid repeating

However, seeing that you are probably asian and have done 2u and 3u maths accelerated and doing extension 2, you should be fine.

 

[pLuvia]

UAI cut off as said, indicates the demand and supply of the course. If there are a lot of places then the uai cut off will be low, if places are limited then uai cut offs are high (i.e. med/law etc). Don't think of the cut off of a course being directly related to the difficulty of the course. I remember a few years back the cut off for actuarial studies used to be quite high, higher then it is now

The course is demanding, but that statistics where ever you got it, is quite an exaggeration (from my experience anyway), I only know a like 3 or 4 people who actually stopped doing the actuarial course most others stayed. The first year courses aren't very demanding it's when you get to second year is when the fun begins

For you question about double degree, it doesn't really matter if you do a double degree or single degree, it's just if you do double degree you can experience a broader knowledge of another field, and also if you don't want to work in the traditonal actuarial field, or don't want to work in anything actuarial related after you graduate you'll have something to fall back on. I wouldn't recommend any double degrees over any other double degrees, but the most common students do is Acst and Applied finance

Also with the single degree it is 3 years, while double is usually 4 years and this consists of all the part 1 and part 2 exemption subjects. While with the single degree you'll have to do another year to do your part 2 exemption subjects

Hope that helps

 

[lyounamu]

I highly appreciate all the comments so far. They were all greatly informed and helpful. By the way, which double course is popular? I heard finance course is popular. I wonder why.

 

[schmeichung]

Double degree gives you more flexibility as you have studied more subjects in different speciality (in this case actuarial and applied finance), the drawback is you would need to pay for extra year of study (money and time, unless scholarship)

Some ibanks only consider people who have undertaken 4th year of tertiary study so its not too bad to do double degree?

But to be honest, when you graduate and look for a job, the employer will only need you to be specialised in one field but not the other, ie you only need actuarial degree if you would like to work in actuarial field, so applied finance degree is sort of "a waste"