The Proper route to the Actuary world

I live in scotland:

Have my Standard Grades exams this month ( hopefully 1's and 2's )

Then in June my Highers start - Try to get excellent grades

Then since Im thinking of going to a Top 5 UK Uni - Warwick

I have to do Advanced Highers -again get excellent grades

Then Im permitted to got to Warwick Uni

DO the degree for about 4 years

Have to get actuary work experience for 3 years after I graduated

Then Im allowed to join th Faculty Of Actuaries

And therfore work for a bigger company and have job opputunites in places like Dubai

Good route no?.........

Yes, if you get in. Warwick's actuarial science isn't the easiest thing to get into, nor does getting in mean you'll manage to get an actuarial position.

More importantly, you may hate it when you try. It's nice to have a plan, but be flexible, you may find you love science or anything else before you go to uni, or while you're there.

sounds like uv got it all planned out, so why r u saking for confirmation?
i was thinking of the same career myself, but maybe doing a math degree would be way more interesting and broaden ur range more
its pretty early to decide on a life career b4 even starting uni, and actuarial science is a narrow field without much flexibility(maybe im wrong)
plus, from what i heard from other ppl, its considered a really boring , tedious job,
any other views on this, isnt actuary similar to statistician or other techinical financial jobs?

It would be ideal if you first acquire a good general idea of the details of acturial work and study before committing yourself to this field. Try to browse through those actuarial textbooks... if they don't put you off.

Becoming a professional actuary requires a great deal of self-discipline, perseverance, excellent overall academic ability and very very high ability in maths (because the numerous exams you will have to take are notoriously difficult to even pass). After getting a degree in actuarial science, it doesn't automatically mean you are officially an actuary because you still have to continue taking exams whilst working as a trainee to achieve this title. A statistician doesn't even match up in that respect.

Actually, I do know of someone with a degree in actuarial science. He couldn't get a job as a trainee actuary, so he's a trainee pensions administrator. Like me and two other people who don't have degrees at all. Don't apply for this course.

what is it like working in an actuary consultancy, is the job varied and interesting, or do beginners get stuck with really tedious tasks? actuaries have really good prospects to work abroad dont they?


also, does anyone know if high level interesting math/stat skills are actually required for actuaries or is a math background just useful but not majorly important?

Hi,

I've been following this thread with interest, since I'm thinking of doing an actuarial career as well.

I'm thinking of the Imperial MsC of Mathematics. It's listed in the actuary website as granting exemptions from certain exams.

Is there anyone who could kindly advise which of the professional exams the Msc grants exemptions from? (assuming of course one gets the required grades during study) :-)

Cheers

I work in an actuarial consultancy. None of the graduates I know have degrees in actuarial science. If you do MORSE at Warwick (they LOVE Warwick graduates) you get quite a few exemptions from the actuarial exams. Other friends of mine have got degrees such as engineering from Warwick, maths and economics from Bristol, physics from Oxford, and even psychology from Nottingham.

Don't do an actuarial science degree, do a course you'll find interesting, which is maths related.

Where abouts do you work? I've just graduated from Warwick - I did MORSE. I'm really struggling at the moment to work out what I want to do. I'm swaying very much towards actuarial work but I don't know whether that's just because it's expected of you if you do MORSE. To be honest, I don't how similar to my course the work will be in practice. I'm assuming it's quite similar but I'm not sure that's a good thing! The course was challenging. I did the BSc and am interested in doing a masters now. Would I be looked down upon if I did this or would it work in my favour? Thanks so much for any advice anyone can offer!!