News & Views

It is commonly accepted in actuarial circles that passing all your professional exams first time is quite an achievement. In 2020 APR boasted three qualifiers who did just this and it prompted our study co-ordinator to dust of his hypothesis testing kit and carry out a little bit of statistical analysis to test if this feat suggested that they were exceptionally good students or if they just got lucky.

Applications for APR’s 2021 Mini Actuarial Academy are now open. In this article, we talk through our mini academy and what it offers, including a review of our summer 2020 instalment and some thoughts on the challenges of delivering this virtually.

How can spreadsheets be better protected? John Nicholls explains some key cryptography concepts, then proposes a VBA solution to this problem, which allows individual logins and multiple access levels.

In this article Sammy Ford shares her thoughts on the challenges, and opportunities, of recruiting and onboarding new staff in a WFH world. Some of our recent starters also give their top tips for making the most of a remote induction process.

In this article, to celebrate Black History Month, Curtis Anderson sharing some thoughts on what Black History Month means to him, and its relevance to education. He also speaks to the chair of the Diversity Advisory Group to discuss the future of diversity and inclusion within the actuarial profession

How has Covid-19 changed the way actuaries work? In this article we first discuss some of the main impacts: the good, the bad and the challenging. Then we have a gaze into our crystal ball and put forward our views on how the way we work will have changed once the pandemic is over.

Automated testing is the use of scripts to test models or processes. Its aim is to minimise the human input required to carry out a test. In this article Jack Davies considers the benefits and pitfalls of automated testing and shares some automation tips.

We are delighted to announce the opening of our new Dublin office. Roger expands on why we felt a presence in Dublin was appropriate and recaps our ethos and how this will apply to our newest office.

Part of our head of technology, Phil Creswell’s, role at APR is to ensure that we focus our learning efforts on the most useful technology and not just the current trend of the day. One such useful concept is that of abstraction, which Phil unpacks and explores in detail in this following article.

The April 2020 exam results are in, and this sitting was one like none other before it. In this article Ajay Kotecha reflects on the recent exam sitting and how APR students have adapted to sitting online exams at home.