Basic Education Waiver Policy for Actuarial Examinations
The CAS’s Basic Education Waiver Policy addresses the extent to which the CAS will grant waivers of its basic education requirements including Exams 1, 2, and 3F; DISCs; Course on Professionalism; and Validation by Educational Experience requirements, or their equivalents as defined by the Executive Council.
The Board of Directors agrees that an exam waiver should be considered for verified educational accomplishments, e.g., exams or university courses, required by another actuarial organization that substantially meet the learning objectives of a particular CAS exam with reasonably equivalent rigor and level of mastery of the material. The Board agrees that the alternative should not be required to cover every learning objective that is covered in the CAS syllabus for the particular exam in order to consider a waiver and that other learning objectives covered by the alternative may be considered as substitutes.
In addition to actuarial exam requirements, the CAS may grant waivers for other basic education requirements provided that the educational experience is deemed equivalent in subject matter coverage and depth. For example, the CAS may accept a professionalism course offered by another actuarial organization provided that it is deemed equivalent to the CAS Course on Professionalism or the Executive Council provides a supplement to address any significant CAS requirement that may be lacking. Other examples where CAS requirements may be waived include Online Courses or Validation by Educational Experience requirements. In general, the CAS will not grant waivers for its upper-level exams, i.e., Exams 5 through 9.
The CAS will not grant waiver of all or any portion of its examination requirements for work experience or contribution to actuarial literature.
Under this Policy, the granting of waivers by the Executive Council will be based on the recommendation of the vice president-admissions.
