Pass Marks on Multiple Choice Exams to be Released
By: Brett Rogers, SOA Registrar

What Is The Pass Mark?

One of the most frequently asked questions about the multiple-choice actuarial examinations is, "What was the pass mark for the exam?" In other words, "How many questions did I need to answer correctly on the exam to pass?" In the few weeks that follow the release of grades (on the familiar 0–10 scale), this question is asked repeatedly of the SOA Education and Examination staff by various interested parties such as exam candidates, employers, and others who are just plain curious. Until now, everyone has gotten the same answer: Pass marks for all SOA examinations (including those jointly sponsored with the CAS) are confidential. However, for the multiple–choice exams, all that is about to change.

Multiple–Choice Examination Pass Marks To Be Released

The CAS Board of Governors and SOA Board of Governors both passed resolutions in June requiring that pass marks be released for all multiple–choice examinations beginning with those to be given in November 2007. The grades for those exams, using the familiar 0–10 scoring system, will be released to candidates in January 2008. The multiple–choice exam pass marks will be published on the SOA and CAS Web sites as percentages, rounded up if necessary to the nearest whole percent. Exam P/1 is administered via computer–based testing. As such, multiple forms of the exam are given and the number of correct answers needed to pass may differ from one candidate to another. For this exam, information about the range of passing scores will be provided.

Pass Mark Release Policy Background

Many of you probably wonder what gave rise to this historic change in CAS/CIA/SOA education and examination policy. For more than 30 years, Bruce Schobel, the SOA president–elect for 2007, has been an active volunteer serving on the education and examination committee in various roles. Throughout Bruce's involvement with the SOA's E&E system, he advocated for greater transparency, on the theory that unnecessary secrecy serves only to diminish confidence in the SOA's educational system. He believed that withholding the pass marks on multiple–choice exams implied–at least to some observers–that the SOA had something to hide.

Moreover–and much more troubling–Bruce was concerned that some clever candidates (aren't they all?) were able to discern the pass marks through various post–exam analyses, and this created a non–level playing field. The SOA has always believed that every candidate should have–or at least have the opportunity to have–exactly the same information about the SOA's exams, and the failure to release pass marks was making that impossible.

Shortly after Bruce was elected in September 2006, he moved quickly to bring the issue before the CAS/SOA Joint Exam Administration Committee (JEAC). After much deliberation and discussion, the JEAC sent a recommendation to release the pass marks for the multiple–choice exams to the respective boards of the CAS and SOA, and the rest is history.

Why Not Release Pass Marks for SOA Written–Answer Exams, Too?

A natural follow–up question is why not release the pass marks for written–answer (essay) examinations, too? Bruce points out that grading for the written–answer exams is not nearly as straightforward as the process for the multiple–choice exams. Many of the questions on the written–answer exams are intended to elicit high–level responses from candidates that synthesize the skills and knowledge learned on the preliminary exams and the Fundamentals of Actuarial Practice (FAP) course, together with the syllabus material for the Fellowship exams. Such questions have many aspects to consider during grading, and consequently the issues can be quite complex. Also, written–answer exams are always composed of newly created questions, whereas some multiple–choice questions may be repeated. This means that multiple–choice exams are more consistent, making pass marks meaningful from one exam to another. Written–answer exams have more room for differences from one administration to the next. Therefore, there is little educational value to releasing the pass mark for written–answer exams, i.e., practicing the 2007 Exam CSP–IU isn't necessarily the best preparation for the 2008 Exam CSP–IU, since they could be quite different.

A Word About the 0–10 Grades

The 0–10 grading scale, with scores of 6 and greater being passing grades, will continue to be used on all SOA exams. Raw scores are converted to 0–10 scores using increments of 10 percent of the pass mark. For example:

• A grade of 6 represents raw scores of at least 100 percent, but less than 110 percent of the pass mark.
• A grade of 5 represents raw scores of at least 90 percent but less than 100 percent of the pass mark.
• A grade of 0 represents raw scores that are less than 50 percent of the pass mark.
• A grade of 10 represents raw scores of at least 140 percent of the pass mark.

When setting the pass marks for the actuarial exams (multiple–choice or written–answer), the examination committees have one goal in mind: separating candidates who have demonstrated adequate knowledge of the material–and therefore deserve to pass–from those who have not demonstrated such knowledge. Scores are only meant to give candidates a relative idea of how close or far away they were from passing or failing and are not factored in when pass mark discussions are held. Consequently, on rare occasions there have been exams on which achieving a grade of 10 was not possible–even for a perfect paper. For example, let's say the pass mark was 22 for a 30–question exam. One would have to achieve a score of 30.8 (140 percent of 22) to score a 10. Therefore, a grade of 9 would be the highest possible score by candidates on this exam.

We hope that this change is welcomed by the candidates and will boost everybody's confidence in the integrity of actuarial education.