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2017
UNIT GUIDE
Monash Actuarial Students Society
Monash Actuarial Students Society www.monashactuary.com.au
Campus Centre 21 Chancellors Walk actuarial@monashclubs.org
Monash University, VIC 3800 www.facebook.com/monashactuary/
i
ABOUT MASS
The Monash Actuarial Students Society is the official representative student body for all students
undertaking an Actuarial Studies major at Monash University. Established in May 2010, the
Society has grown from a place to meet like-minded students into a complete extra-curricular
resource.
The Monash Actuarial Student Society first and foremost acts as a facilitator for both peer support
and professional networking for each of our members. We provide our members with a valued
source of information regarding academic guidance, accreditation, the actuarial profession and
career opportunities, as well as a cohesive membership community built around our social and
corporate events.
Our two main goals are:
(1) Connect our members with professional actuaries

(2) Enhance our members’ employable skills set
These goals are achieved through the variety of professionally run networking events aimed at
increasing our members’ exposure to industry and our employment enhancing workshops that
focus on the growth of “soft skills”. Furthermore, we provide our members with the latest job and
internship openings directly from our sponsor firms and deliver opportunities to showcase their
skills through case competitions and mock interviews.
ii
Table of Contents
ABOUT MASS ..................................................................................................................... ii
INTRODUCTION ................................................................................................................. iv
DISCLAIMER ....................................................................................................................... v
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT....................................................................................................... v
1000...................................................................................................................................... 1
ACC1100 Introduction to Financial Accounting.............................................................................. 2
BFC1001 Foundations of Finance ................................................................................................. 5
BTC1110 Commercial Law.......................................................................................................... 11
ECC1000 Principles of Microeconomics ...................................................................................... 13
ECC1100 Principles of Macroeconomics..................................................................................... 16
ETC1000 Business and Economic Statistics ............................................................................... 18
MGC1010 Introduction to Management ....................................................................................... 20
MKC1200 Principles of Marketing ............................................................................................... 23
2000.................................................................................................................................... 24
BFC2140 Corporate Finance I ..................................................................................................... 25
BFC2340 Debt Markets and Fixed Income Securities ................................................................. 27
ETC2410 Introductory Econometrics ........................................................................................... 30
ETC2420 Statistical Thinking ...................................................................................................... 34
ETC2430 Actuarial Statistics ....................................................................................................... 37
ETC2440 Mathematics for Economics and Business .................................................................. 41
ETC2520 Probability and Statistical Inference for Economics and Business ............................... 45
3000.................................................................................................................................... 49
ETC3400 Principles of Econometrics .......................................................................................... 50
ETC3410 Applied Econometrics .................................................................................................. 54
ETC3420 Applied Insurance Methods ......................................................................................... 58
ETC3460 Financial Econometrics ............................................................................................... 61
ETC3510 Modelling in Finance and Insurance ............................................................................ 64
ETC3530 Contingencies in Insurance and Pensions ................................................................... 68
4000.................................................................................................................................... 72
ETC4110 Actuarial Practice I ...................................................................................................... 73
ETC4120 Actuarial Practice II ..................................................................................................... 78
ETC4130 Asset Liability Management ......................................................................................... 82
5000.................................................................................................................................... 87
ECF5923 Macroeconomics and Monetary Policy ........................................................................ 88
ECF5927 Managerial Economics ................................................................................................ 91
ETC5242 Statistical Thinking ...................................................................................................... 94
ETC5342 Applied Insurance Methods ......................................................................................... 98
ETC5346 Financial Econometrics ............................................................................................. 100
ETC5351 Modelling in Finance and Insurance .......................................................................... 102
ETC5353 Contingencies in Insurance and Pensions ................................................................. 104
List of Undergraduate Exemptions ............................................................................... 108
List of Master’s Exemptions .......................................................................................... 109
iii
INTRODUCTION
Here you are, a budding actuary accepted into a university course that will propel you on
your way, so… what now? Like most of us “What is actuarial studies” more than likely found
its way into a google search and the results have been less than informative. No doubt they
contained phrases such as: Actuaries are highly analytical; Actuarial Science majors need
to be good at maths; or Actuarial studies deals with risk. While generally accurate, these
statements will in no way provide you with a source of information that will assist you over
your academic career.
Becoming an actuary is not an easy feat. You will face late nights, simultaneous deadlines
and sit exams that cannot be finished in the allocated time. The Monash Actuarial Students
Society recognizes these difficulties you are about to undertake and in the spirit of greater
transparency has compiled this publication. Our hope is that all students majoring in
Actuarial Studies will walk away with a greater understanding of course content and be able
to utilize the advice provided by their peers.
The Monash Actuarial Students Society Unit Guide is a combination of views written by a
diverse population of your peers. Each reviewer has previously sat the course and is offering
their individual insight into the subject. The 2017 edition covers 31 courses found in both
undergraduate degrees: Commerce and Actuarial Studies, and the Master’s degree:
Actuarial Studies. Units included cover the commerce core units, actuarial exemption units,
and the units required to progress into an Honours year. Please be aware that the actuarial
degree has undergone an overhaul in 2016, ETC3430 and ETC5343 have not been
reviewed. These will be added in our mid-year updated.
Over time course content changes and we would ask you to keep this in mind as unit reviews
may not wholly reflect your experience. To counter this the Society will be continually
reviewing units and superseding reviews where updated curriculum demands it. Further, we
also ask that while reading through this document you consider that each review reflects an
individual’s expression of opinion and may differ from one individual to the next.
If you would like to contribute to the next edition of this guide, please send an expression of
interest to actuarial@monashclubs.org.
iv
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
The Monash Actuarial Students Society would like to express our
appreciation to the following members who contributed their time
and insight the 2017 edition the Monash Actuarial Students
Society Unit Guide:
Candy Huang Jessica Sumarno Rossa To

Dilini Tilakaratna Lulu Jin Travis Barr
Eric Au Mangala Prasetia Vince Lau
Harrison Gee Melissa Kung Yanik Ratilal
Jacky Yang Michael Lou Yuying Zhang
Jesse Sondhu Patrick Tan Zilu Tang
DISCLAIMER
All opinions are those of the individual contributors and may not reflect those
of the Monash Actuarial Students Society or Monash University. These reviews
are expressions of opinions and experiences which may not be the same for
everyone. The Monash Actuarial Students Society makes every effort to
ensure the validity and reliability of information however the Society does not
guarantee the accuracy or completeness of the information provided. Note that
these experiences are based on 2016 content thus changes to the unit may be
made. The Monash Actuarial Students Society and Monash University do not
assume any legal responsibility for decisions made or actions taken as a result
of information available in this guide.
v
1000
Level Units
1
ACC1100
Introduction to Financial Accounting
Difficulty: Exemption: CT2 Finance and Financial Reporting
Year Completed: Semester 1, 2016 This unit contributes 30% to CT2, where BFC1001 (Foundations
of Finance) and BFC2140 (Corporate Finance 1) make up 20%
Prerequisite: None
and 50% respectively. A weighted average of at least a
Lecturer(s): Alan Serry
Distinction (70%) is required to be eligible for the exemption,
where each of the units must be individually at least a Credit
(60%).
Subject Content: The unit introduces basic accounting concepts in line with current
Australian accounting regulations and standards. The first half of
the unit (approximately Weeks 1-6) covers topics mostly taught
at the high school level of accounting (VCE); this includes the
accounting process from journalising transactions to the
preparation of accounting documents. The second half of the unit
builds on these skills and introduces new accounting concepts
such as accounting for certain assets, liabilities and equity items.
Lecture(s) and Tutorial(s): Two 1-hour lectures in each stream

One 1.5-hour tutorial
Lecture Recording: Full – Audio and Video
Textbook(s): Financial Accounting: Reporting, Analysis and Decision Making;

Carlon, McAlpine-Miladenovic, Palm, Mitrione, Kirk, Wong; 5th
edition.
Financial Reporting Handbook 2016; Locke, C; 2016 Edition.
Assessments: In-Semester Tests 2 x 10%

Tutorial Presentations 10%
Tutorial Participation 10%
Individual Assignment 10%
3-Hour Final Exam 50%
ACC1100: Introduction to Financial Accounting 2

ACC1100
Comments
General Overview: Having not done the VCE Accounting subject, this unit was still
easy to settle into. This being said, it is important to keep up-to-
date with weekly tutorial questions, which answers are discussed
in tutorials, as a large quantity of tutorial questions are set each
week.
Lectures: Lectures are purposely made such that attendance (either during
the stream or watching recordings) is benefitted. Lecture slides
published on Moodle have blank spaces in them, in which the
solutions/missing words are displayed during the lecture itself; a
half-built set of lecture slides is provided to students, and the
completed lecture slides are shown during the lecture. It is quite
important to obtain the missing sections in some form, as they
are usually crucial elements of the topic.
Tutorials: There is a tutorial in the first week of semester where groups will
be assigned for the rest of the semester. Tutorials have two
components: discussion of solutions to the previous week’s
tutorial questions and an in-class exercise in which a particular
group will present their solutions to the tutorial. This is assessed
as is participation in discussion of tutorial question answers.
In-Semester Tests:
When it comes to assessments there are two in-semester tests.
The best way to prepare for these are to do both the available
revision resources as well as the tutorial questions; the weekly
tutorial questions are quite relevant to the questions that
appeared in the tests.

Assignment: The assignment comprised of undertaking the entire accounting
process from journalising transactions to preparing accounting
documents. This can be easily done on Excel, which is
recommended, as it makes cross-referencing journal entries
much simpler. Instructions on how to complete the assignment
in Excel are not provided so some prior knowledge of Excel is
ideal.
Final Exam: The final exam covers most topics, though it is advised to be
aware of any topic that is specifically said to not be examined.
The examiner allows the use of the Financial Reporting
Handbook during the exam. This is not necessary, however, as
the handbook contains information regarding only accounting
standards and not general concepts. Some found that the details
of the relevant accounting standards were easy enough to
remember after much application in revision questions. I found
there was sufficient time during the 3-hour exam to comfortably
finish.
Textbook: Only end-of-chapter questions from Financial Accounting were

utilised for the unit, though it is a good supplement to the lecture
slides if certain concepts or aspects are not clear.
Financial Reporting Handbook 2016 can be taken into the exam

and can be used to look up accounting standards. If the
implications of the few standards examined are understood, then
this text is not necessary, even for the exam.

BFC1001
Foundations of Finance
Year Completed: Semester 2, 2016 This unit contributes 20% to CT2, where ACC1100 (Introduction
to Financial Accounting) and BFC2140 (Corporate Finance 1)
Prerequisite: None
make up 30% and 50% respectively. A weighted average of at
Lecturer(s): Dr. Jason Tze Choo
least a Distinction (70%) is required to be eligible for the
exemption, where each of the units must be individually at least
a Credit (60%).
Subject Content: The Foundations of Finance unit provides students with the
introductory concepts to Finance. Students studying this unit will
gain a general understanding of what a major in finance will
involve and how the content is implemented in real life. There are
a lot of topics covered in the unit but each are taught in brief so
it is easy to understand.
Lecture(s) and Tutorial(s): One 2-hour lecture

One 1-hour tutorial
Textbook(s): Fundamentals of Financial Markets and Institutions in Australia

(Valentine, Ford, O’Hara & Sundmacher)
Assessments: Online Tests 3 x 6%

Group Assignments 2 x 14%
Participation 4%
BFC1001: Foundations of Finance 5

BFC1001
Comments
General Overview: If you are still deciding on your major and you’re considering
Finance, it is highly recommended that you take BFC1001 as a
unit. No prior knowledge in Finance is needed. Not only is it a
core subject if you do choose to major in Finance, but what you
gain upon completion goes beyond impractical textbook theory.
You will become a more informed citizen making smarter
decisions about your finances.
Content: Topics that are taught include What is Finance; Financial

Markets & Regulations; Wealth, Time and Money; Value, Time &
Money; Financial Institutions; Applications of Finance; Financial
Choices and Decisions; Stocks & Markets; Risk & Financial
Protection and Finance & Globalisation. Out of the eleven topics
that are taught at least half are practical and are useful for
general knowledge. For example, in the topic ‘value, time and
money’ you learn about how you can make more money out of
the money you already have rather than burying it in your
backyard. The skills that are taught in this introductory unit will
definitely not go to waste should you complete the unit and feel
that a major in Finance is not for you.
Whether you are a rote-learner or more of a practical learner,

Foundations of Finance is a unit that has been tailored to suit
both types of learners. Some of the topics will require
memorisation of definitions, whilst others require an application
and understanding of the concepts. In general, the application
part of the course is calculations. Even if maths is not your
strongest point, don’t be discouraged because the maths itself is
straightforward, you just need to know when to use what formula.
There are set consultations with tutors almost every day during
the week if you need extra help.

Lectures: In Foundations of Finance, interactive learning is strongly
emphasised to try and engage students with the content that is
being taught. Thus, as a way of encouraging participation in the
lectures, the online Learning Catalytics (LC) program is designed
to help both the lecturer and the students obtain real time
feedback about whether the content that is being taught is
understood by the students. LC is similar to an online poll where
there are anywhere between five to ten questions to be answered
in the two-hour lecture. Questions are either multiple choice or
short answer in format. Students bring their own electronic
devices to log in and join the session. Whilst responses to the
questions on Learning Catalytics are not assessed, an overall
participation mark of 4% is awarded to students for attending all
weekly lectures and participating in the LC questions.
Although lectures are recorded and are made available on MULO

afterwards, it is worth attending the weekly lectures because the
real time feedback from the LC questions helps to build
confidence if you answer the questions correctly. Further, if you
answer the questions incorrectly, you are quickly able to identify
the area that you may need spend some more time on to ensure
you understand the concept.
In terms of passing the unit without the lectures, I’d say it’s
possible with extreme difficulty. Whilst the content in the
prescribed textbook and moodle books are sometimes repeated
in lectures, they are repeated with additional information.
Examples are given in lectures and instructions as well as
illustrations of how to use the financial calculator as a shortcut to
calculations are taught in lectures.
All the lecture slides are made available before the lecture in pdf
format. Personally, I found it difficult to make notes on an
electronic device with the slides being in pdf format so I printed
them out and hand wrote in lectures. Apart from the first week’s
set of slides, the slides were all complete which means that it is
possible to pass the unit without watching/attending any of the
lectures but depending on how you learn, it would be more
effective to attend the lectures.

Tutorials: Preparation before the tutorials is not necessary. There are no
marks awarded for participation in tutorials. All the tutorial
questions are made available on moodle prior to the week of the
scheduled class. The questions are based on previous week’s
content. For instance, week 2 tutorial questions are based on
week 1’s content. Tutors often explained difficult concepts in
greater detail whilst completing all the questions with students.
Tutors also show students how to use the financial calculator for
calculator related questions. Complete answers to the tutorial
questions are available on moodle the week after the scheduled
tutorial.
Online Tests: There are three sets of online tests each worth 6%. You have
one week to complete the test but the test is to be completed
under timed conditions and you are only allowed one attempt. It
is essential that you continually revise all topics that are taught
because some of the questions on the test will require you to
know content that was taught prior to test. For example, the
second online test which is in week 8 in theory is supposed to
test your knowledge of content that was taught between weeks
4 to 7, but it may have questions that require you to utilise the
skills you learnt in week 3. In preparation for the online test, you
can do practice quizzes online, but keep in mind that the test is
significantly different in format and the style of questions asked
are not similar to the online quizzes.
Assignments: There are two group assignments in this unit, both are 1500-word
research reports. Groups are made up of 2-3 members. You are
in absolute control of choosing your group members. Group
members do not have to be from the same tutorial class. The
assignments are worth 14% each and to make mark calculations
easier at the end of the semester, you will receive a mark out of
14 when the assignment is returned.
The first assignment is made available from week 1 and is due

in week 6. It is based on the topic taught in week 2 – Financial
Markets & Regulations. The task will involve understanding some
economic concepts and research for data. Through your

understanding of the concepts and the data you obtain from
research, you are asked to make a recommendation to the
Reserve Bank of Australia about what to do to the cash rate for
forthcoming month; whether to increase, decrease and keep the
cash rate the same. There is a bonus mark for those students
who predict correctly, however the maximum mark obtainable is
still 14. You are asked to provide explanations in a written report
about why you have made the prediction.
The second assignment is also made available from week 1, but

is due in week 10. The second assignment is based on the topic
taught in week 7 – Financial Institutions. The task involves
researching a superannuation industry and taking on the role of
an adviser to advise a client on how they should invest their super
funds. Personally, I found this assignment harder. The task was
unclear and vague. My suggestion to new students completing
this assignment is to ask as many questions as possible to
lecturers and tutors to ensure that you truly understand the task
at hand. Unlike the first assignment, there is no marking rubric to
help as a template for structure in the assignment.
There does seem to be inconsistency in markers, as students

were awarded different marks for similar work. Markers are more
lenient in their marking of the first assignment because it was the
first assignment for the unit and the unit is a first level subject.
IMPORTANT: what you learn from completing the assignment is

assessable in the exam, so do not skip the topics during exam
revision!
Final Exam: The three-hour exam at the end is relatively easy if you have
worked consistently during the semester. During the lecture in
week 12, the lecturer will go through the harder topics to ensure
you are exam ready. One past exam paper and one sample
paper is made available complete with answers and workings on
moodle during week 12. If you are looking for more calculation
based question practice, the tutorial questions are the best point
of call. For theory questions, you can refer to the questions that
were asked on LC.

A formula sheet is provided. Prior to the exam, the formula sheet
is made available on moodle so that you can familiarise yourself
with the format. The formula sheet will have all the formulas that
you need for the exam.
In the exam, the calculation questions are the quickest and

easiest to gain marks on, so it is highly recommended that you
start on these. In terms of timing strategy in the exam: you will
not be racing for time by the end of the exam if you have revised
well and know you work. So overall, the exam is doable if you
have taken the time to prepare and practice.
Textbook: Whilst it was expected that the prescribed readings were strictly
adhered to before attending weekly lectures, personally I found
the summarised moodle books to be more useful. Thus, as I
progressed through the course I scarcely referred to the
textbook. Apart from the prescribed readings, there are no set
activities or exercises to do from the textbook as tutorial
questions are prepared separately and are made available on a
weekly basis for the relevant week. The textbook may be useful
as a secondary resource to further deepen your understanding
of the content after attending the lecture and reading the moodle
books.
Resources: In my opinion, all the resources you need are on moodle. You
will need a financial calculator which is provided by the Business
and Economics Faculty in your first year at Monash. I was lucky
enough to borrow the textbook from a friend, so I had a copy if I
needed to refer to it. In all honesty though, I never touched the
textbook because the summarised weekly moodle books were
enough for me to make my own summary notes. Therefore, for
me, the textbook wasn’t helpful. Having said that, there are
prescribed weekly textbook readings so having a copy of the
textbook may be useful. I’d suggest buying a soft copy because
it’s cheaper.

BTC1110
Commercial Law (Business Law)
Difficulty: Subject Content: The following topics were covered during the
semester: The Australian Legal System (Week 1), The Law of
Year Completed: Semester 1, 2015
Contract (Weeks 2 – 6), Consumer Protection (Weeks 7 and 8),
Prerequisite: None
The Law of Torts (Week 9) and Law of Business Organisation
Lecturer(s): Roger Gamble (Weeks 10 – 12).
Exemption: None
Lecture(s) and Tutorial(s): Two 1-hour lectures

One 1-hour tutorial
Textbook(s): Concise Australian Commercial Law (3ed)
Assessments: In-Class Extended Response Quiz 20% (Week 5)

In-Class Multiple Choice Quiz 20% (Week 10)
3-Hour Final Exam (Open Book) 60%
BTC1110: Commercial Law 11

BTC1110
Comments
General Overview: This is said to be the hardest of the Commerce core units so I
was terrified when I first started. However, I found this unit to be
really interesting and it turned out to be one of my favourite. It
can be quite challenging and difficult at times but if you can stay
on top of everything and write yourself a really good summary of
cases, the unit will be manageable.
Content: The tutes were not compulsory (yay!) but are worthwhile,
especially because the tutors go through how to structure the
questions properly and this knowledge is especially helpful for
the first assessment task and the exam.
Once again, having a really detailed set of notes is key for doing
well in this unit so make sure to have summaries of each of the
cases and their relevant statutes and start memorising these
from the very beginning. There is also a lot of prescribed reading
and though it can be a little boring, make sure that you don’t fall
behind on this because the lecturer refers to these in the
lecturers.
BTC1110: Commercial Law 12

ECC1000
Principles of Microeconomics
Difficulty: Exemption: CT7 Business Economics
Year Completed: Semester 1, 2016 This unit is worth 55% of the CT7 exemption and is paired with
ECC1100 – Principles of Macroeconomics. You will need a
Prerequisite: None
weighted average of 70% between the two units and not less
Lecturer(s): Stephen King
than 60% in either.
Subject Content: This is an introductory unit that is normally taken by most

students within their first year, and thus no prior knowledge of
economics is assumed. The subject covers the foundations of
economics using diagrams and graphs. Content covered include
supply and demand, opportunity cost and trade, welfare
economics, taxes, subsidies and externalities. The subject is split
into three parts to facilitate learning – a weekly online test, video-
watching/textbook-reading and 2 seminars (lectures) which
actively encourage participation. Students will want to engage in
all 3 learning methods to achieve a good grade.
Lecture(s) and Tutorial(s): Two 1-hour lecture

One 1-hour tutorial
Textbook(s): Principles of Microeconomics, 6th edition by J. Gans, S. King,

M. Byford and N. G. Mankiw.
Assessments: Tutorial Participation 10%

Weekly Online Tests 10%
Mid-Semester Test 20%
*Note: If final exam is higher than midterm then midterm – 0%

and final 80%
ECC1000: Principles of Microeconomics 13

ECC1000
Comments
General Overview: Stephen King is one of the best lecturers I have had – he made
the subject interesting, engaging and fun. Overall, the unit was
very satisfying, and a good introductory commerce unit. Stephen
King’s videos are enough to learn the course. He knows his stuff
inside-out and conveys his knowledge to the student very
efficiently through these videos. In terms of assessments, make
sure you actively participate in class discussions to attain your
participation mark.
Assessments: The weekly online tests through APLIA are quite straightforward
and if you stay on top of the material, it is not very difficult to get
100% every week. The mid-semester test, although entirely
multiple choice, is quite tricky, and you will want to use diagrams
wherever you can to aid yourself in answering these questions.
If your final exam mark is greater than your mid-semester test
mark, the final exam counts for 80% of your final grade as
opposed to 60%. I knew one person that skipped the mid-
semester test for this reason, however don’t do this as the final
examination is much harder.
Stephen King gives students plenty of practice material, so that

is nothing to worry about come the final exam. As mentioned
before however, the 2-hour final exam is harder than the mid-
semester test and is not to be taken lightly. I would advise to do
ALL practice questions given to you as sometimes similar (not
the same) questions may be asked.
Be wary that the Semester 2 lecturer is different, so this may be
something to take into consideration when planning your course
map, however I have also heard nothing but good things about
the Semester 2 lecturer.

Textbook: This textbook was not particularly useful for me and you can get
by without it. The lecturer’s online videos explain the content
adequately and any gaps in knowledge I found can be filled
simply by searching online as this is an introductory
microeconomics unit. That being said, a lot of people I know
found the textbook to be quite useful and applicable as the first
semester lecturer is a co-author, however overall the unit can be
completed without it.

ECC1100
Principles of Macroeconomics
Year Completed: Semester 2, 2016 This unit makes up 45% of CT7. The other 55% comes from
ECC1000. An average mark of 70% must be obtained to receive
Prerequisite: None but ECC1000 is
the exemption, with neither unit’s mark below 60%.
recommended
Lecturer(s): Dr. Jaai Parasnis
Subject Content: This unit builds upon the concepts covered in microeconomics
and is fairly straightforward. This subjects covers
macroeconomic concepts such as Gross Domestic Product,
short-run and long-run impacts of macroeconomic policies and
international trade. In contrast to microeconomics, this subject
does not rely heavily on graphs but rather uses such diagrams to
complement explanations. Week 8 and 12 lectures are used for
revision and catching up on content.

One 1-hour tutorial
Textbook(s): Macroeconomics, 9th Edition by Jackson, J., McIver, R. and

Wilson E.
Assessments: 15-Minute Online Quizzes 2 x 2.5%

15-Minute Tutorial Tests 4 x 7.5%
ECC1100: Principles of Macroeconomics 16

ECC1100
Comments
General Overview: This subject is very interesting and fairly straightforward to learn.
The content taught is very applicable to current news which
makes lectures and tutorials engaging.
Structure of Unit: The tutorial tests are useful and efficient in revising the content
throughout the semester and thus should be prepared for
thoroughly so as to prevent cramming for the exam. It is
important to understand any mistakes made in tutorial tests and
questions as the wording of explanations are expected to be
detailed and coherent – such calibre is expected for the exam.
While I did not use the textbook, I found the lectures and tutorial
sufficient for understanding the content and would often consult
my tutor regarding any questions I had. I also found discussion
with friends an effective method of bolstering my knowledge
regarding macroeconomics.
ECC1100: Principles of Macroeconomics 17

ETC1000
Business and Economic Statistics
Difficulty: Exemption: CT3 Probability and Mathematical Statistics
Year Completed: Semester 1, 2016 This unit is worth 25% of the CT3 exemption and paired with
ETC2520 Probability and Statistical Inference for Economics and
Prerequisite: None
Business. A weighted average of 70% between the two units and
Lecturer(s): Brett Inder
not less than a 60% in either.
Subject Content: This is an introductory unit and is also a core unit, therefore the
subject content is not overly difficult nor overly mathematical and
focusses more on interpretation. Basic probability is assumed
knowledge. Content covered includes tables, charts,
standardisation techniques, analysis of variables of simple and
multiple linear regression, categorical variables, hypothesis
testing and time series data. The course is taught within online
videos and backed by lectures.
Lecture(s) and Tutorial(s): One 1.5-hour lecture

One 1.5-hour computer lab
Textbook(s): Essentials of Business Analytics, J. Camm, J. Cochran, M. Fry,

J. Ohlmann, D. Anderson, D. Sweeney & T. Williams.
I did not use this textbook as lecture and lab materials were
sufficient.
Assessments: Weekly Computer Labs 8 x 3.75%

ETC1000: Business and Economic Statistics 18

ETC1000
Comments
General Overview: Brett Inder is a very good lecturer and explains the content well
through his online videos. Lectures begin well, however gradually
become less important as most of the course is learnt through
the videos. That being said, Brett pulls examples from lectures in
the final exam, so it is good to attend the lectures.
Assessments: If you stay on top of the work, in-semester marks easy to gain. I
cannot stress this enough: do the homework. questions replicate
those in the lab and will help you get marks. The computer labs
are open book and encourage discussion but doing the
homework prepares you well independently for the final exam as
well as each weekly lab.
The final examination is very, very formulaic. If you master the

right way to go about answering particular question you shouldn’t
have a problem passing. Brett provides a lot of practice material,
however not all of it is relevant as it is from a previous course
design, so it may be good to ask tutors what is irrelevant through
consultations.
Overall, the unit is quite interesting and Brett teaches it well.
ETC1000: Business and Economic Statistics 19

MGC1010
Introduction to Management
Difficulty: Subject Content:
Week 1 – The Contemporary Workplace
Week 2- Environment and Diversity
Prerequisite: None
Week 3 – Information and Decision Making
Lecturer(s): Week 4 – Planning
Dr. Loretta Inglis Week 5 – Organising
Dr Mulyadi Robin Week 6 – Controlling
Week 7 – Leading
Exemption: None (Commerce Core)
Week 8 – Human Resource Management
Week 9 – Communication and Interpersonal Skills / Teams and
Teamwork
Week 10 – Motivation and Rewards
Week 11 – Individuals, Job Design and Stress
Week 12 – Leading and Managing Change
Lecture(s) and Tutorial(s): One 1.5-hour lecture

Textbook(s): Management (5th Asia-Pacific edition) by Schermerhorn et al.
Assessments: Annotated Bibliography 15%

2500 Word Essay 25%
In-Class Test 10%
MGC1010: Introduction to Management 20

MGC1010
Comments
General Overview: This unit is a Commerce Core subject and therefore does not
cover any actuarial topics. While the content is not overly
challenging, this is a qualitative class, so those who have
difficulty explaining answers over solving equations may need to
put in some extra work. One thing to be aware of is that the in-
semester assessments are not numerically marked. Instead they
are assessed in grade-level blocks (HD, D, C, etc.). Keep in mind
that as with any qualitative course assessment marks will lean to
the subjective side depending on the marker.
Lectures: It is not necessary to attend lectures as they are delivered directly

from the slides. Occasionally topics were expanded upon with
examples not included in the notes. While these did help to better
illustrate the theory, students who keep up with readings and
regularly review lecture materials will not suffer from missing out.
Complete lecture slides and full lecture recordings are supplied
online, so the unit can be comfortably managed by reading
through the weekly material and attending tutorials.
Assessments: Annotated Bibliographies – This assignment requires you to

review several academic articles from a reading list in
preparation for writing the Essay. The task mainly assesses your
ability to critically evaluate sources and use academic writing
style/referencing.
Essay – This assessment is a 2000-word essay based on a topic

that you are given earlier in the semester. The essay must use a
few of the articles from assessment task 1 reading list as well as
several other academic.

In-Tutorial Quiz – This assessment requires you to answer one
randomly chosen question out of ten possible questions. These
questions were short answer exam-style questions which were
provided to students a few weeks prior to allow for responses to

be prepared.
Textbook: The textbook is highly recommended as the lecture notes contain

insufficient detail for the assessment tasks. The essay
assignment will also require you to refer to the textbook quite
heavily. The textbook is also valuable for making notes in
preparation for the quiz and the exam. The exam had been open
book in previous years, however in 2016 it was a closed book
exam.

MKC1200
Principles of Marketing
Difficulty: Subject Content: The following topics were covered during the
unit: What is marketing? (Week 1), The Marketing Environment
(Week 2), Marketing Research (Week 3), Buyer Behaviour
Prerequisite: None
(Week 4), Segmentation, Targeting and Positioning (Week 5),
Lecturer(s): Products and Services; Branding (Week 6), Product Decisions
Dr Dewi Tojib (Weeks 1 – 6) (Week 7), Pricing Decisions (Week 8), Place Decisions (Week
Dr Pingping Qui (Weeks 7 – 12) 9), Promotion Decisions (Week 10), Marketing Strategy and
Planning (Week 11).
Exemption: None

Online video tutorials
Lecture Recording: None
Textbook(s): Marketing Principles (2nd edition) by Pride et al.
I didn’t buy the prescribed textbook, you can borrow it from the
library, however, the content on the lecture slides and video
tutorials are definitely enough.
Assessments: Tutorial Group Assessments 15%

Marketing Mix Analysis 25%
Online Quizzes 10%
Final Exam 50%
This unit is quite interesting, especially learning about the

Comments:
psychological aspects to advertisements, supermarkets, etc.
This is a heavily theory based unit and there is a lot of
memorising to do (definitions, processes, etc.) The major
assignment is quite easy and this unit was the first one that gave
you marks depending on how creative your cover page was
(yay!). Make sure to keep up with the online quizzes, it can be
quite easy to forget them but the marks do add up.
MKC1200: Principles of Marketing 23

2000
Level Units
24
BFC2140
Corporate Finance 1

This unit contributes 50% to CT2, where BFC1001 (Foundations
Prerequisite: of Finance) and ACC1100 (Introduction to Financial Accounting)
ECF110 and ETF1100; or make up 20% and 30% respectively. A weighted average of at
ECC1000 and ETC1000* least a Distinction (70%) is required to be eligible for the
exemption, where each of the units must be individual at least a
Lecturer(s): Dr. Thanh Huynh
Credit (60%).
Subject Content: The unit introduces students to the theory and application of
basic corporate finance content. The first few weeks introduces
students to simple financial mathematics for students to build a
foundation for later topics such as investment evaluation
models, valuation of equity and debt instruments, sources and
types of funding, issues in risk and return and issues in capital
structure.

One 1-hour tutorial
Textbook(s): Fundamentals of Corporate Finance, (Australasian 2nd ed.),

Parrino, R., Kidwell, D., Au Yong, H.H., Dempsey, M., Morkel-
Kingsbury, N., Ekanayake, S., Kofoed, J., & Murray, J. (2014)
Assessments: Weekly Online Quizzes 10%

In-Semester Test 30%
BFC2140: Corporate Finance 1 25

*Recommended
BFC2140
Comments
General Overview: As a student who did not do an introduction finance unit, the
format of this unit was very easy to follow. The beginning weeks
were building the necessary skills for more complicated
mathematics in the later weeks. Most of the content of the unit is
applied financial mathematics however there are some theory
that is necessary to learn in order to understand why certain
things were done in a particular way in order to maximise firm
value. For those who are not good at math, nearly everything can
be done on the financial calculator and Thanh did a wonderful
job of implementing the calculator instructions within the lecture
slides and showing a demonstrate on how to use the calculator.
Assessments: The weekly online quizzes help solidify my understanding of that

week’s topic as it would’ve been the third time I was exposed to
the content. The first time in lecture, second time in tutorial
questions and third time in this quiz. The weekly quizzes ensure
that I do not slack off every week. They are also a good example
of what the questions in the in-semester test would’ve been like.
Thus, when it was time for the in-semester test, there wasn’t a
lot of surprises. This can be said the same for the final exam.
However, the final exam 3 hours long, the questions would be
slightly harder and more complicated to really test whether you
know the content well enough. Consistent practice in apply
financial mathematics is important and really know how to use
your calculator. Because even if you are given the formula sheet,
it doesn’t help if you don’t know how to use the calculator.
My one tip for this unit is that this is a very applied unit, so always
do questions. Don’t just look at the question and then look at the
answer. Learn the process and understanding it will help you in
the long run.
BFC2140: Corporate Finance 1 26

BFC2340
Debt Markets and Fixed Income Securities
Difficulty: Exemption: CT1 Financial Mathematics

This is a standalone exemption unit. Need to score a 70% or
Prerequisite: higher in the course.
BFB1001, BFC1001*, BFF1001,
BFP1001, BFW1001
Lecturer(s): Jonathan Batten
Subject Content: The course focused heavily on bonds and bond markets.
Weeks 1 to 5 introduced fixed income securities: How to define,
value, and the risks involved. Weeks 7 and 8 looked at credit
analysis and asset backed securities and Week 9 uses much of
the previously covered topics to discuss arbitrage. The
remaining weeks were spent on more theory based topics such
as interest rate dynamics and portfolio management.
The tutorials followed directly from the lecture material. Since

the questions covered in tutorials were straight from the text, it
is worthwhile getting a copy.

One 1-hour tutorial
Textbook(s): Fixed Income Analysis (3rd ed.) CFA Institute; Petitt, B., Pinot,
J. & Pirie, W.
Assessments: 1.5-Hour Mid-Term 20%

*Note: Assessment weighting will change for 2017: In-Class
(40%) and Final Exam (60%)
BFC2340: Debt Markets and Fixed Income Securities 27

*Recommended
BFC2340
Comments
Lectures: If you have the text and read the slides, lectures are not so useful.
The lecture rarely strayed off the slides and the slides are taken
directly from the text. That being said, when you get to weeks 8
and 9 it will be useful to show up. The lecturer’s presentation of
lattices diverges from the text. You will be examined on lattices
for sure, so you will need to use the methods the lecturer
provides to get full marks.
Tutorials: The tutorials are dry. All questions came from the end of chapter
exercises. These can easily be answered by referencing the
chapter. If you are comfortable with the end of chapter questions,
there really isn’t too much to be gained by attending. We had the
answers uploaded at the end of the week, and if you do buy the
supplementary book then you will have all the answers. *Do be
careful though, with the change in mark-weights for 2017 there
be some kind of participation marks. I don’t know if this will
happen, but if it does, be sure to attend.
Final Exam: The final exam was quite a bit of work. You are provided with a
formula sheet. The exam was broken into 3 sections: multiple
choice, short-answer, and essay. Don’t let the title “short-answer”
fool you, the amount of marks available for each short-answer
question where about 75% of those for the essay questions. You
will need to do a lot of writing. Luckily, the essay section was
written such that students needed to choose 3 topics out of 5 to
write about and there was some overlap between short-answer
and essay questions which really helped.
The best way to prepare for the final exam is to use the provided
possible topics sheet. The sheet is an extremely general list of
vague questions. Start with the textbook and write as much as

possible from each chapter about the questions provided. Do this
a few times and you will have just about every possible answer
for the short-answer and essay questions that will be asked.
Textbook: I highly recommend buying the book. The course follows it nearly
chapter for chapter. The end-of-chapter questions are used for
tutorial questions. The lecture slides and tutorials are pulled
directly from it, except for weeks 8 and 9 where the lecturer
explains interest rate trees used for embedded options in a
different way. Other than that, BUY THE BOOK! Read the
chapters and do the end of chapter questions. That will get you
quite far in the course. There is a workbook of the same title as
the text that the CFA sells, if the lecturer uploads tutorial answers
you do not need to buy this. It is just a collection of the end of
chapter questions and answers. Not worth the money at all if you
are supplied with tutorial answers.

ETC2410
Introductory Econometrics
Difficulty: Exemption: None

This unit is a prerequisite for ETC3460, one of the CT8
Prerequisite: ETC1000 exemption units.
Lecturer(s):
Farshid Vahid
John Stapleton
Subject Content: As the title suggests, ETC2410 is an introductory subject, and

hence the subject itself does not go into extreme detail. The
major area of study in this subject is modelling, specifically in
regards to regression. The subject begins with a recap of
concepts learned in ETC1000, namely simple linear regression
as well and multiple linear regression and dummy variables.
Previous knowledge of these topics will also be built upon by
exploring the nature of the OLS model, as well as the
assumptions and weaknesses of the model. For the most part,
this area of study is essentially a review of previous knowledge,
with additional topics that expand upon said foundations. The
second part of the course deals with time series regression,
which was lightly touched upon in the prerequisite subject. It
combines new concepts with previously learnt concepts about
the OLS model and introduces the variable “time” into the
equation. Once again, students are taught about the time series
model, its strengths and weaknesses, as well as exploring the
methods in which we can deal with the correlation caused by time
series data.
Lecture(s) and Tutorial(s): Two 2-hour lecture

ETC2410: Introductory Econometrics 30

Textbook(s): Introductory Econometrics: A Modern Approach, by Jeffrey
M.Wooldridge, 6th Edition, 2015.
Assessments: Group Assignments 2 x 10%

Online Participation Modules 10%

ETC2410
Comments
Content: The content of this course is essentially split into two parts. The
first half deals with linear regression and is a recap of previously
learnt concepts as well and expanding upon said knowledge. The
most important thing to take away from the first half of the course
is a strong understanding of the OLS model and its underlying
assumptions, as this knowledge will be crucial throughout the
entire course. The second half deals with time series data and
regression models dealing with that data. In this section of the
course, there is a lot of new concepts and notation introduced,
and hence it is essential that you understand everything and that
any questions do not go unresolved. With a methodical approach
towards the subject, one can expect that all the concepts learnt
throughout the semester will eventually click in your mind, and
provide you with a better understanding of the OLS model.
Lectures and Tutorials: The lectures and tutorial are extremely beneficial and definitely
worth attending. In the tutorials, you will be learning to use a
program called Eviews to create all your models. Participating in
the tutorial activities will greatly help your understanding of the
concepts taught in the lectures.
Assessments: Regarding the assessment tasks, the online participation module

is to be done weekly, and is graded based on participation, not
the end result. It is a great way to review your knowledge at the
end of the week and essentially an easy 10% of your marks.
The in semester test is multiple choice, but the concepts being

tested are not easy, and hence diligence is required in order to
perform well. The two assignments are done in groups assigned
by your tutors, and will cover most of the content you have learnt
in the course. The assignments are quite interesting, and
definitely a good way to gauge your knowledge and whether or

not you’ve understood everything up to date. If you have been
going to tutorials and lecture, then the assignment will pose no
problem.
Finally, the exam is quite reasonable in terms of difficulty, with

no real trick questions and especially difficult concepts being
tested. Furthermore, an A4 handwritten cheat sheet is allowed in
the exam, so there is no need to memorise formulas. The exam
was a bit long considering the 2-hour time limit, but can be
comfortably completed if you’ve taken the effort to understand
the concepts rather than memorising.
Tip: It is highly recommended that you spend a lot of time on your

cheat sheet. This serves as a form of revision and exam material.
Textbook: Earlier editions of the textbook are also suitable for use in this
unit. The lecture notes in combination with the actual lectures are
very comprehensive and there is essentially no need to read the
textbook. However, the lecturer strongly recommends reading
the allotted chapter of the textbook to further enhance and
consolidate concepts learnt in the lectures. Furthermore, the
textbook will give detailed explanations for difficult concepts and
is a great tool to ensure that all the content within the course will
be understood.

ETC2420
Statistical Thinking
Difficulty: Exemption: CT6 Statistical Methods

This unit is worth 50% of the CT6 exemption and is paired with
Prerequisite: ETC3420 Applied Insurance Methods. You will need to get an
ETC1000*, ETW1000, ETX1100 average of 70% between the two units and not less than a 60%
FIT1006, STA1010 in either. Further, each assessment in this unit has a 60% hurdle
requirement.
Lecturer(s):
Di Cook
Souhaib Ben Taieb
Subject Content: Much of the content is built on ETC1000. Weeks 1 – 5 really build
on previous topics: Hypothesis testing, statistical distributions,
model fit and linear regression. To this, the course adds
randomization, permutation and bootstrapping. Brand new
material, separate from ETC1000 starts around week 8. You will
study generalized linear models, Bayesian reasoning, monte
carlo sampling and times series regression. The labs cover R
programming. You will be working with R-studio each week. The
topics loosely follow the lecture material. You will be required to
work through R code and then write small pieces of your own
code.

Lecture Recording: Partial – Only some lectures
Textbook(s): Introductory Statistics with Randomization and Simulation Diez,

Barr, Cetinkaya-Rund.
Assessments: Weekly Group Lab Reports 25%

In-Class Exercises 5%
ETC2420: Statistical Thinking 34

*Recommended
ETC2420
Comments
Content: If you did well in ETC1000 then the first few weeks of this course
will be very easy for you. There are a few new topics such as
randomization and bootstrapping vs permutation but these are
not such difficult concepts to understand. There are in-class
quizzes that make up 5% of your grade. They are random,
usually one a week. It is only 5%, but since the course has a
hurdle of 60%, I recommend not skipping. The material will
become quite a bit harder toward the end of the course. It is partly
because of the difficulty of concepts and partly because of the
delivery. The subject was new this year and it really felt like they
were making it up as they went along, so you will need to be
diligent in your studies, especially after week 8 or 9.
Computer Labs: The labs were a bit frustrating. If you are like me then you have
had zero experience with R coming in to the class. The first few
labs do not make the assumption that students have never seen
code before. You are given a week to turn in the lab and you will
work in randomly assigned groups. I found that the extra time to
work on it was just about enough to figure out what needed to be
done. The labs are worth 25% of your grade so I highly
recommend doing them and doing them well. It will really help
towards your exemption.
Final Exam: The final exam was open book, open notes. However, the
questions were written in such a way to make the book not
necessary. If you completed all the in class quizzes and you
spent the time needed to finish each R lab, then the exam is not
going to be a problem. That doesn’t mean there weren’t
challenging questions, it just means that there will be no
surprises. It was 3-hours and I had just enough time to
comfortably go through each question at my own pace.

Textbook: The text is free and a link to download it will be provided on
moodle. It is useful for the first four weeks of the class, especially
if you are rusty on t-tests, sampling and simple regression. There
are links to purchase the book from Amazon on moodle also, it
is really cheap but shipping takes a while.

ETC2430
Actuarial Statistics
Difficulty: Exemption: CT5 Contingencies

ETC2430 contributes 35% of the marks for both CT4 and CT5
Prerequisite: ETC1000 exemption. A weighted average of 70% between this class and
ETC3420 for CT4 and ETC3530 for CT5 is required for the
Lecturer(s): Colin O’Hare
respective exemptions. You must not score below a 60% in any
of these units.
Subject Content: The unit acts as an introduction to concepts covered in CT1, 4

and 5, and hence there are three major areas of study, none of
which will go into extreme detail. The first third of the unit focuses
on the ideas covered in CT1, namely annuities, with further
exploration of actuarial discounting principles and proper
actuarial notation. This area of study is principally an introduction
into the bread and butter of actuarial work, and is essential for
later topics. The middle of the course details what is covered in
CT4, namely the various statistical methods used in actuarial
work, and is a look into the models and methods actuaries use
to collect and analyse their data. Lastly, the unit also touches
upon CT5 material, which involves constructing demographic
statistics, life tables and mortality rates and pricing, which is
commonly used in the field of life insurance.

Textbook(s): Principles of Actuarial Science, M. Sherris, 2011.

Introduction to Probability, C. Grinstead, J.L. Snell
Actuarial Mathematics for Life Contingent Risk. Dickson, Hardy,
and Waters.
Subject CT5 Contingencies Core Technical. IFoA.
ETC2430: Actuarial Statistics 37

Subject CT4 Models Core Technical. IFoA.
Formulae and Tables for Actuarial Examinations. IoA.
Assessments: In-Class Tests 3 x 10%


ETC2430
Comments
General Overview: The unit is meant to act as an introductory subject for CT1, 4 and
5, and hence it covers a broad range of topics, but no one topic
in extreme detail. The first third of the course is the easiest, as it
deals in actuarial notation as well as manipulating and calculating
annuities etc. As long as you work hard and familiarise yourself
with the new notation and practice derivations, the maths and
logic behind the ideas aren’t excessively challenging. The middle
of the unit deals with statistical methods used in actuarial work,
and can be quite difficult for some students as the topics being
taught are quite unfamiliar. A strong background knowledge of
probability and statistics, such as from ETC2520 will go a long
way in making this part of the subject much more manageable.
Lastly, the course also covers the idea of life tables and mortality,
which is a crucial part of life insurance. Whilst the knowledge
learnt in this course leans more towards the brief side, it is by no
means easy. Time and effort will be needed to understand all the
concepts. A strong foundation developed from this subject will no
doubt be greatly beneficial when pursuing your exemptions.
Tutorials: The tutorials account for 10% of the marks and hence I highly
recommend attending them. Every week there will be tutorial
questions, and the best way to approaching them is trying them
yourself at home and attending the tutorial to check your answers
and clarify any mistakes. The tutorials are an extremely important
resource, as the tutors will often give extra information and
derivations that are essential for understanding that the lecturer
may not have had time to go through. That being said, the
lectures are definitely worth attending, as Colin will go through
examples and get the class to participate.

Assessments Regarding the assessment tasks, the 10% tute marks are given
based on completion of tutorial exercises, and hence it is
definitely in your best interests to attempt every question before
the tutorial, even if you can’t do them all. The three in class tests
will each cover one third of the unit as specified above, and are
undertaken during one of the 1-hour lecturer. As long as you
have attended all the tutorials and lecturers, as well as
understood all the concepts, the tests are very manageable.
Lastly, the final exam is quite straightforward and aims to test the
majority of the knowledge taught throughout the course. Most of
the questions will have been covered throughout the semester,
but there will be a couple of questions that expand upon that
knowledge, and seek to test if you’ve truly understood the
content.
Textbook: There are many books recommended for this unit, however, the
materials available on moodle will be sufficient. If you carry on
with actuarial studies, the core technical and the Formulae and
Tables for Actuarial Examinations will be very useful. Regardless
though, you should get a copy, either hard or digital, of the
Formulae book.

ETC2440
Mathematics for Economics and Business

This is a required unit for the Actuarial Studies degree and is a
Prerequisite: ETC1000 prerequisite for ETC3510, one of the CT8 exemption units.
Lecturer(s): John Stapleton
Subject Content: The unit introduces a lot of new mathematical concepts and
techniques which is useful for future studies in econometrics,
economics and finance. The course is divided into two arching
concepts: Linear Algebra and Calculus. This can be further
divided into four main topics: matrix algebra, elementary real
analysis, multivariable calculus and optimisation theory.

Textbook(s): Fundamental Methods of Mathematical Economics 4th edition.

Chiang and Wainwright.
Assessments: Group Assignments 2 x 12% and 1 x 16%

ETC2440: Mathematics for Economics and Business 41

ETC2440
Comments
General Overview: I found this unit quite interesting and somewhat challenging. The
first part of the course on elementary matrix algebra should be
very straightforward and you’ll easily get through the first few
weeks. However, the pace soon picks up for intermediate matrix
algebra and you’ll be expected to learn a number of new
concepts such as Eigenvalues and eigenvectors. Provided you
do sufficient study; this should be relatively straightforward too.
Part 2 starts off in a similar manner in that you’ll be introduced to

basic concepts of sets, functions and so on. Make sure you pay
attention in lectures and familiarise yourself with notations. Even
though the concepts are very easy and you may have learnt them
before, it is important to gain a comprehensive understanding of
the basics before you can start tackling the more challenging
differentiation and partial differentiation problems which you’ll
encounter later on in part 2.
The unit greatly developed my knowledge of mathematical

techniques. It also provided me with a more solid foundation for
understanding the notations used in other econometrics units.
The lecture slides were very comprehensive and I found that
once I’ve read through the slides, the lectures simply
consolidated my knowledge and provided details in particular
parts.

Tutorials: The tutorials are not compulsory but I’d recommend attending
them. They begin in the second week of semester. I found that
at times, it can get a bit dry as there was little interaction between
the tutor and the class. However, this mostly depends on your
class dynamics. If your peers are willing to ask questions, the
tutorials would be more engaging. Otherwise, the tutor will simply
take you through the worked solutions of the designated tutorial
problem sets for that week. Considering that the problems are all
mathematical and can often be abstract, this can get pretty
tedious (and confusing) very quickly so be sure to put your hand
up and ask questions if you have any. Pay attention to any
different methods demonstrated by the tutor. Often, this may be
a shorter way of solving the problem and will save you time on
the exam. It is always good to do the questions before the tutorial
but it may not be necessary to spend hours and hours on a
question you don’t know. That’s what attending the tutorial is for.
Your tutor is not only there to provide the answers (which won’t
be uploaded on Moodle) but they are also there to facilitate your
learning and understanding so make sure you ask questions.
Group Assignments: The group assignments will cover the different topics throughout
the course. They are very similar to the tutorial questions, only
more challenging. There will be tricky questions here and there.
The textbook is a very helpful reference point for these harder
questions. You will be expected to collaborate with a group to
answer four to five questions and present your workings
comprehensively. I’d strongly recommend that each group
member attempts the questions by themselves first before
collaborating. This is because the questions are very much like
the final exam questions format and is therefore good practice
for the final exam. In these assignments, the more working out
you put in, the better. Some of the markers may be harsh and
penalise you for a lack of working out or small errors. Also note
that if your groupmates aren’t pulling their weight (as most group
assignments are like) let your tutor or lecturer know.
Alternatively, you can think about it positively in that you will be
learning more by doing the work and your fellow group members
will lose out on the opportunity to learn.

Final Exam: The final exam was quite straightforward. If you did sufficient
preparation and actively participated in the tutorials and lectures
every week, you should have no problems getting through the
exam in the two-hour timeframe. There are a few proofs that may
be tricky but based on your foundations, you should be able to
intuitively demonstrate some level of understanding in your
response. Integration was not examinable due to the lecturer’s
discretion. There wasn’t enough time to cover this topic
comprehensively, hence it wasn’t examinable. A key strategy is
to do the tutorial questions thoroughly prior to the exam and
make sure you understand the concepts and applications
covered in each tutorial. The exam questions are quite similar to
the format of the tutorial questions.
Textbook: Earlier editions of the textbook are also suitable for use in this
unit. The lecture notes are very comprehensive and there is
almost no need to read the textbook. However, I found having a
pdf copy of the textbook (cheaper to own than buying the hard
copy) was quite handy for reference in regards to some parts of
the unit where there aren’t enough worked examples shown on
the lecture slides. For the most part, there isn’t much additional
textbook reading to do. However, it’s recommended you do read
the sub-chapters that the lecturer recommends on the unit
guide/unit outline as it will enhance your understanding of the
topics.

ETC2520
Probability and Statistical Inference for
Economics and Business
Difficulty: Exemption: CT3 Probability and Mathematical Statistics

The unit in conjunction with ETC1000 make up CT3, with this
Prerequisite: ETC1000 subject taking most of the weighting at 75%
Lecturer(s): D. S. Poskitt
Subject Content: As the name of the subject suggests, the unit is quite maths
heavy, but unlike a traditional maths course, a lot of the topics
being taught are quite conceptual, and require a strong
understanding to be able to be applied to questions. The unit
starts off relatively easy, going through concepts of probability,
such as discrete and continuous variables as well as their
distributions. The concepts learned are aren’t too challenging,
and most students would have come across these concepts in
high school. The subject then goes on to describe a variety of
probability distribution functions such as the Normal, Poisson
and Gamma distributions etc., as well as moments,
independence and joint distributions. Lastly, the unit also
explores the concepts and proofs behind key data analysis tools
such as: estimation, confidence intervals, sampling, hypothesis
testing and variance.

Textbook(s): Wackerly, D.D., W. Mendenhall and R.L. Scheaffer,

Mathematical statistics with applications (7th edition), New York,
Duxbury, 2002
Hogg, R.V., Tanis, E. and Zimmerman, D. Probability and
Statistical Inference (9th edition), Pearson, 2014.
ETC2520: Probability and Statistical Inference for Economics and Business 45

Assessments: Fornightly Online Quizzes 5 x 4%

ETC2520
Comments
General Overview: The content of this course is essentially split into three parts. The
first third deals the initial concept of probability, starting with
simple probability calculations and then progressing into a
discussion about discrete/random variables as well and
probability distributions. This initial part of the course is relatively
easy to understand and touches upon many concepts that may
already be familiar. Nonetheless, a good foundation in these
ideas will be essential for the latter parts of the course. The
second third of the course deals with various types of distribution
functions, and teaches about their form, derivation and
transformation. Furthermore, the idea of moment generating
functions, independence and joint distributions are also explored.
This is where the subject really starts getting hard, and the
knowledge learnt in each lecture needs to mastered to properly
understand everything being taught. Although the concepts may
seem unfamiliar and daunting at first, practice and extra reading
will go a long way to help your understanding. The last third of
the unit tends away from being very mathematically demanding,
and instead requires you to actually understand the concepts.
The hardest part of the unit is knowing what to do with the ideas
that you have been taught. More often than not, the actual
mathematical procedures are relatively straight forward and the
hardest part is knowing what the question is asking you to do and
how to being to approach the task.

Lectures and Tutorials: With that being said, the lectures and tutorial are extremely
beneficial and definitely worth attending. The best way to
approach the tutorials is to try all the questions by yourself first,
and then to compare answers/get solutions from the tutor during
the tutorial. This allows you to test your own knowledge, and then
consolidate what you know, as well and getting clarification for
the concepts you find difficult. Another crucial point is the fact
that the best way to learn how to solve all the difficult questions
is through practice, and hence it is in your best interest to do
extra questions from the textbook to familiarise yourself with the
types of questions and gain confidence in answering them.
Assessments: Regarding the assessment tasks, the online quiz done once a
fortnight, and is open for the entire week, meaning you have a
long time to carefully think about the questions and reach the
right solutions. Furthermore, the questions that were asked were
not particularly difficult, and understanding the tutorial material is
more than sufficient to excel in the quizzes. The in semester test
is of a similar nature, except that you won’t have an abundance
of time or your notes with you, so extra study is required. Lastly,
the exam for 2016 semester 2 was extremely difficult, to the point
where most questions were too difficult to answer and a lot of
questions were left blank. Going into the subject, you should
expect that the exam will be tremendously difficult, and as such
a lot of time will need to be devoted to the subject. However,
considering how difficult it was this year, perhaps the examiner
will adjust the level of difficulty in the following years.
Textbook: Many of the concepts taught in this course and extremely difficult,
and hence reference to the textbook as well and doing extra
questions sets from the text is highly recommended.

3000
Level Units
49
ETC3400
Principles of Econometrics

One of the two units required to apply for honours by both the
Prerequisite: ETC2410*, ETC3440* Commerce and Actuary degree. The other is ETC3410 Applied
or MTH2232 Econometrics
Lecturer(s): Gael Martin
Subject Content: The course revolves around maximum likelihood estimators

(MLEs). The course has 7 topics, but will only go through 5. The
first section will provide you with a general outline of OLS
estimators and the assumptions used in ETC2410. The second
and third section will then take you through an introduction of
MLEs- what a MLE is and its properties. This will then be linked
back to hypothesis testing in topic 4- primarily the proof and
properties behind the Likelihood ratio test, Wald test and the
Score test as opposed to the actual interpretation. The course
will then finish off with the final topic Quasi-Maximum Likelihood
estimators which will be a new and rather difficult topic.
You will use EVIEWS in the assignments to write actual code. No

previous knowledge of EVIEWS is required. Exercises on
EVIEWS are available in tutorial sheets, with brief answers being
provided. You will not need to write your own unique code, but
you will need enough knowledge to add to a provided baseline
code.

Textbook(s): None
ETC3400: Principles of Econometrics 50

*Recommended
Assessments: Individual Assignments 4 x 10%

ETC3400
Comments
General Overview: I recommend either ETC2410 or ETC3440, both are Introductory
Econometrics. Furthermore, while the course does not assume
any knowledge outside of the prerequisites, there is a heavy
amount of statistical and matrix related algebra. I recommend
you take this unit in your final year when you will be most
comfortable with statistical algebra
This unit focused on theory and provided an understanding of

how everything actually worked in other econometric units-
primarily ETC3410 Applied econometrics and ETC2410
Introductory Econometrics. It was quite interesting to remove the
black box nature of content from other econometrics units and
actually understand how everything worked. The unit, however,
does not have an application side, and hence should be done
with ETC3410. I recommend this unit for anyone planning to do
an Honours or who wants to understand the theory behind
regression analysis.
Content: The content in this unit is probably one the most difficult out of all
the Actuarial units. You will explore a lot of proofs that are quite
long and involve a lot of matrix algebra. You will also not be able
to gloss over content like in other units, and must learn
everything taught in the unit thoroughly. If you can answer the
tutorial questions properly you are definitely on the right track. If
you can answer the tutorial questions, but need one or two short
looks at the lecture notes for the longer questions, you are also
on the right track.
Assignments: The assignments for this unit on the surface is quite

straightforward. The assignment can be broken down into an
EVIEWS sections and a non-EVIEWS section. The EVIEW
section involves simulating to illustrate certain theories and

properties you learn throughout the course. You will then have to
explain what property your simulation illustrates and why. The
non-EVIEWS section on the other hand are a slightly harder
version of the exam and are similar to the tutorial questions.
Although the questions in the assignment are quite

straightforward, it is still quite difficult to score high marks as you
are marked quite harshly. Absolute precision is the key to
succeeding in these assignments. Your answers in the
assignment have to use the correct wording, and need to include
ALL relevant details to complete an answer REGARDLESS OF
WHETHER IT WAS SPEFICALLY ASKED FOR. All details will
be available in the lecture notes if you read through all of it
thoroughly. You will also need to stipulate exactly where you use
assumptions in your answers, and even make sure to capitalise
all random variables. If you are not precise in your answers, you
could easily find yourself losing over 15% of your marks even if
you know all the answers. As a result, I recommend you do not
do this assignment at the last moment, and cross-check with
friends.
Final Exam: The final exam for this unit is quite straightforward if you
understand the content unit, but will be an absolute nightmare if
you try to rote learn. You will be able to choose 4 out of 5
questions in the final exam and will be required to replicate ANY
proof (unless otherwise stipulated) in the lecture notes (prompts
will be provided, however, to make the proofs easier). A thorough
understanding of the properties taught throughout the unit is also
needed. This is the type of unit where pretty much anything can
be assessed, but everything assessed is taught properly (so no
curveballs). Several practice exams are also provided which
provide a very good indicator of the format of the final exam.
Resources: References for textbooks, however, were provided for additional,

non-assessable material, for certain theorems throughout the
course.

ETC3410
Applied Econometrics

One of the two units required to apply for honours by both the
Prerequisite: ETC2410*, ETC2440, Commerce and Actuary degree. The other is ETC3400 Principles
ECC2410, ETC3400* of Econometrics
Lecturer(s): Lisa Cameron
Subject Content: Previous knowledge of OLS is assumed. If you did half-way

decent in ETC2410 you will find this course challenging; if you
got through comfortably then this course will be slightly less
challenging. There are four main topics: Binary outcome models
(Linear/Probit/Logit), instrumental variables, static panel data
and program evaluation. The course focuses heavily on how to
interpret the marginal effects of the various models in each
section. Each topic was structured the same: Introduction to the
material, minimal theory (it is an applied course), definitions and
examples, an overall example tying the topics together, then a
real life example from past research. You will use STATA in
tutorials. No previous knowledge of STATA is required. The first
tutorial is in week 1 and is an introduction to the program. The
tutorials follow the subject material perfectly while also
introducing you to more functions in STATA.

Textbook(s): Introductory to Econometrics, 6th edition. Stock and Watson.

Econometric Theory and Method. Davidson and MacKinnon.
Econometric Analysis of Cross Section and Panel Data.
Wooldridge.
ETC3410: Applied Econometrics 54

*Recommended
Assessments: Individual Assignments 2 x 20%

ETC3410
Comments
General Overview: I found this class very interesting because of the number of real
applications used in the lectures. Each topic included research
results and you could see how the material you were learning
was being used to solve actual problems. The only drawback
from the course is that it focuses on social science instead of
mortality or finance subjects. As an actuarial student, there were
no examples that could be applied to my field of study. However,
the techniques are directly applicable.
Tutorials: I found the tutorials immensely useful. Especially when I began

the assignments and sat the exam. The tutorials were built as
almost supplementary lectures. The first half-hour is used to go
over topics from the week and the remaining hour is spent on
programming and interpreting results. You should not skip the
tutorials and be sure to take notes!
Assignments: The assignments covered topics 1 - 4. With topic 5 being more

heavily weighted on the final exam. The first assignment was a
beast but the second assignment was much shorter. The
assignments are written very well as you can use both the lecture
slides and the tutorial notes to help answer the questions. On top
of this, the assignments are extremely good at preparing you for
the final exam. Make sure you spend time on them!
Final Exam: The final exam was a bit tricky as it was more explanation than
interpretation. You really need to understand when and why to
use each technique covered in the course. Unlike ETC1000 or
even ETC2410 to some extent, there was very little “interpret the
output” type of questions. That said, if you did well on the two
assignments you will find the exam a bit easier. The two hours is

just enough for a confident student, but if you struggle with a
section you may find the time running out quicker than you like.
Textbook: Introduction to Econometrics was the required text for ETC2410.

You will go through the second half of the text in this course, and
it is more than enough to get you through the course. I had the
5th edition, nothing but problem sets changed, so if you want to
save a bit of money go for it. In reality, the lecture slides and
tutorials are built really well and you almost don’t need a
secondary source. There are a few topics that the book covers
in more detail, so it is still worthwhile owning.

ETC3420
Applied Insurance Methods
Difficulty: Exemption: CT6 Statistical Methods

Exemption requires an overall weighted average mark of 70%,
Prerequisite: ETC2420, ETC2520 or with ETC3420 (50%) and ETC420 (50%). A minimum grade of
MTH2222 60% for each unit is needed.
Lecturer(s): Dan Zhu
Subject Content: ETC3420 directly follows the Actuary Institute CT6 Core
Reading. From the Core Readings, the following units were
covered:
Unit 2: Loss Distributions

Unit 3: Risk Models
Unit 4: Ruin Theory
Unit 7: Run-off Triangles
Unit 8: Generalised Linear Models (GLM).
Each of these units were covered and tested over a two-week

period.

Textbook(s): None. Follows the Actuary Institute CT6 Core Readings.
Assessments: Fortnightly Tests 5 x 6%

ETC3420: Applied Insurance Methods 58

ETC3420
Comments
General Overview: Overall ETC3420 was a good unit. The lecturer was a very good
teacher who actively tried to encourage participation in her
lectures, and was very good at remembering names. As well as
being personally invested in her students (allowing generous
consultation times and providing lots of feedback), Dan also gave
lots of advice on the world of Actuarial Science. This included
interview tips, expectations of knowledge as a working actuary
and exam techniques. I would highly recommend Dan as a
lecturer for any Actuarial students, as she helps broaden your
understanding of theory and application like no other lecturer at
Monash.
Lectures: The lecture slides directly follow the core readings for each topic.
Examples given in the slides miss key bits of information as these
examples are taken from the core readings, so it is
recommended you read the core readings in conjunction with the
lecture slides to get a better idea of the concepts.
The lecturer Dan Zhu uses the whiteboard to derive results and
to expand on the concepts taught in the lecture slides. These
workings are not included in the MULO recordings, so it is
advantageous to attend lectures, or to get a friend to send
pictures of the workings to review whilst watching the recordings.
If you listen carefully you can pick up on hints for the tests and
the exams in her lectures. The lecturer highlights important topics
and these topics often make it to the fortnightly tests. This was
true of the final exam also. Therefore, by paying attention in
lectures and taking good notes will go a long way to passing the
course.

Resources: For 2016 Semester 2, a lot of the test questions were taken from
the Acted readings. Therefore, it is very advantageous to go
through examples from the Acted notes, and understand where
the results were derived from.
Materials: The material covered has some cross overs with:

 Ruin Theory – covered in ETC3510 (MTH3251)
 Run Off Triangles – covered in the old ETC1010
 GLM – the core concepts of OLS estimators taught in
ETC2410
 Statistical integrations – MTH2222 / ETC2520
 Matrices – ETC2440 / MTH1030 (wasn’t really
examined)
Prerequisite: ETC2420 provides the other half of CT6, with only a little overlap
with ETC3420. ETC2520 provides covers statistical distributions
and statistical tests. MTH2222 provides a more in-depth
understanding of the mathematical techniques of the statistical
distributions than ETC2520. However, ETC2520 is part of the
CT3 exemption.

ETC3460
Financial Econometrics
Difficulty: Exemption: CT8 Financial Economics

Prerequisite: ETC2410 ETC3510 Modelling in Finance and Insurance. You will need to
get an average of 70% between the two units and not less than
Lecturer(s):
a 60% in either.
Paul Lajbcygier
Catherine Forbes
Subject Content: The unit comes in two parts. Paul takes the first part, and
Catherine takes the second part. During Paul’s section you will
be using excel in the tutorials. In the second half you will switch
to E-Views. Paul will cover modelling returns, asset pricing,
estimation and testing, and portfolio theory. Catherine will cover
volatility modelling, measures of risk, efficient market hypothesis,
the autoregressive conditional heteroskedastic volatility model
(ARCH), GARCH models, asymmetric volatility models.

Textbook(s): None. Notes fully provided by the lecturer. The lecture slides
covered all content.
Assessments: In-Class Tests 4 x 5%

Homework Assignments 4 x 5%
ETC3460: Financial Econometrics 61

ETC3460
Comments
General Overview: A little knowledge in finance helps but is not necessary. This unit
pairs really well with BFC3540 – Modelling in Finance. Paul’s
section is essentially the theoretical background to the content
he covers in BFC3540. For example, he derives CAPM from
utility maximisation. In the computer labs, you will put this theory
into practise with excel problems. The homework problems that
Paul assigns are very similar to the in-tutorial tests so study the
homework problems carefully.
Overall, this unit is quite straightforward. There are no surprises

and everything is covered in the lecture slides. The tutorials are
very useful and relevant. If you are up-to-date with the lecture
content the tutorials are very easy to follow. To do well in this
unit, memorise the theory and the proofs – a lot of questions are
just bookwork from the slides.
Content: Catherine’s section is a fresh start from Paul’s work. It does feel
like this unit is two separate smaller units. This section is not too
difficult and feels repetitive as the GARCH section is an
extension of the ARCH section. The proofs are very similar. The
E-Views work that you do in the tutorial is very practical and
relevant. The E-views work that you do in the tutorial will be
tested in the in-tutorial tests. The homework problems that
Catherine assigns are quite straightforward. The problems are
bookwork problems straight from the lectures.
Final Exam: The exam contained 6 questions, 3 for Paul’s section and 3 for
Catherine’s section. Of those 3 questions you need to pick 2 for
each section. Paul goes into a lot of detail about what is in his
part of the exam in the week 12 lecture. Paul’s section usually
contains a long proof that he covers in his lectures (so be sure to
rote learn these proofs). There is usually a question on asset

pricing (such as Fama French), and a question resembling the
HW/excel problems (you will need to know the excel formulas).
Catherine’s section is more general but expect questions similar
to the HW problems and past exams.

ETC3510
Modelling in Finance and Insurance

Prerequisite: One of MTH2010, ETC3460 Financial Econometrics. You will need to get an
MTH2015, MTH2032 or ETC2440* average of 70% between the two units and not less than a 60%
and one of MTH2222 or ETC2520* in either.
Lecturer(s):
Fima Klebaner
Andrea Collevecchio
Subject Content: The unit begins with a review of probability. This includes,
exponential moments of normal distribution, lognormal
distribution, joint and marginal densities, multivariate normal
distributions, independence, covariance, conditional
expectations. The unit then moves on and builds up on this –
introducing random walks and martingales. Andrea then covers
optional stopping theorem, Brownian motion and stochastic
calculus.
Fima covers the last few weeks of content. Fima’s focus is more
on the financial applications of the mathematics that Andrea
teaches in the first part of the unit. Fima introduces options
pricing, replicating portfolios, equivalent martingale measure, the
fundamental theorems of asset pricing and models for interest
rates.
Lecture(s) and Tutorial(s): Three 1-hour lectures

One 1-hour tutorial
Textbook(s): None. Notes fully provided by the lecturer.
ETC3530: Contingencies in Insurance and Pensions 64

Assessments: Weekly Homework 10%
Assignment 2 x 10%
ETC3510: Modelling in Finance and Insurance 65

ETC3510
Comments
Lectures: This unit is taught by the math department in a very conventional
way. It is more a unit on stochastic calculus than modelling in
finance and insurance. Andrea and Fima will go through the
content by hand writing it out on transparencies. As such, proofs,
theorems, and problems are covered step by step by hand by
lecturer – unlike econometrics lecturers that just read from the
sides. If you attend every lecture you will find it very easy to keep
up in this unit. The lectures are easy to follow and both Andrea
and Fima offer lots of opportunities for students to ask questions.
Andrea will often slow down and go through lots of examples and
solve problems asked by students. Andrea will also often have
lectures dedicated to reviewing newly learned content by
providing lots of examples and explaining concepts in a different
manner. I highly recommend attending all lectures – if you miss
one, be sure to catch up on it in time to catch the next one live.
Andrea puts in a lot of extra effort for his students. He offered an
extra lecture at 6PM where he would provide extra examples,
answer questions and revise proofs. He would also provide tips
for the assignments.
Tutorials: You will need to go to the tutorials weekly to hand in your weekly
homework. The homework is marked by your tutors and given
back to the following week. As this is a math unit, be sure to
provide a fully worked solution to the problem – including any
minor details like defining terms and correct notation. The
tutorials cover the questions set by Andrea for the week. It is very
important that you keep up with the homework problems. Doing
the questions provided by Andrea is the best way to learn the
content. Although the solutions to the questions are eventually
posted online, I still recommend going to every tutorial.

Assignments: The assignments are tough and very time consuming, but very
relevant. I recommend starting on them early – you will encounter
all sorts of tricks and issues on your initial run through. Get into
study groups and work and discuss together. Be sure to chat to
Andrea and the tutors if you have questions or difficulties. Andrea
can be very generous with tips to students who have had a
serious attempt at the question.
Final Exams: Andrea provides a lot of materials for exam preparation. He

provides a problem book that has many problems for each of the
topics. He also provided two past exam papers. You are also
allowed an A4 cheat sheet for the exam. The cheat sheet can
only contain theorems and formulas – you cannot write any
solved problems on the cheat sheet.

ETC3530
Contingencies in Insurance and
Pensions

Prerequisite: AFC2340, ETC2430* ETC2430 Actuarial Statistics. You will need to get an average of
or BFC2340 70% between the two units and not less than a 60% in either.
Subject Content: This course assumes prior knowledge of basic annuities and
whole life assurances as well as commutation functions. These
are all taught in the prerequisite ETC2430. The subject material
follows the Core Reading from the Institute quite closely. The
overall aim of the class is to price products. Just about everything
you learn will be used in some sort of product pricing. Weeks 1 -
4 build-up the formulae and tools you will need to begin pricing
simple products in weeks 5 –7, weeks 8 –11 add further tools
and formulae used to price more complex products. Week 12 is
used to catch up on any outstanding material and a final revision
lecture. The course begins with simple assurances and annuity
products, moves into lifetables and expected values and
variances. These are used in the next two topics net and gross
premium reserving. After the mid-term you will move into multiple
life products. They are similar to what has been taught in the first
half of the course but are a bit more difficult. You will also cover
with-profit products and price testing. The last section covers
selection.


*Recommended
Textbook(s): Actuarial Mathematics for Life Contingent Risk. Dickson, Hardy,
and Waters.
Principles of Actuarial Science. Sherris.
Actuarial Science. Winklel.
Subject CT5 Contingencies Core Technical. IFoA.
Formulae and Tables for Actuarial Examinations. IoA.
Assessments: 50-min In-Class Test 20%

Group Assignment 20%

ETC3530
Comments
General Overview: Most of the difficulty in this course comes from the volume on
information you need to know. The individual topics are not hard
if you put in the time. My advice for this course: Make a study
group, stay on top of the readings, do practice questions until
your fingers bleed and your eyes go fuzzy, get the CT5 Core
Reading.
Content: To get off to a good start in this course, you will really want to
have done well in ETC2430. The first few weeks of
Contingencies is like a crash course of 2430 with the addition of
more complex annuities and assurances. I cannot recommend
the Core Technical readings enough. Most weeks it is just a
chapter a week, some need 2, but if you stay on top of this
reading, you will have no problems. A bit of a warning: You
cannot rely on the lecture slides alone. This will not be enough.
Further, there are many mistakes in key formulae in the slides.
You will need to get at least one of the books from the list above
to double check all the definitions.
Resources: Practice questions are extremely important too. You will need to
go over many, Colin will provide a link to past exams from the
Institute, they are free to download from their site. DO THESE!
The questions, especially towards the end of the exam get very
involved. For me, tutorial questions were not as useful as the
Q&A section of the Core Technical reading or the practice
exams. Also, many of the tutorial questions had incomplete,
incorrect, or simply no answers. Really stick with the Institute’s
material. The types of questions in this course can become very
involved, so there will simply not be enough time to get through
everything in the tutorial.

Assessments: Both the midterm and the final exam were written to press your
time. I am not sure about everyone in the course this year, but
the furthest many people got was halfway through the final
question. Most people could finish the midterm, but there was no
time to recheck your work. Practice questions are key to doing
well on these.
The assignment is quite interesting. I enjoyed the topic and didn’t

become bored working on it. That being said, it is a lot of work.
Especially if your job is creating the spreadsheet. You will need
to have a good understanding of commutation functions and how
to define assurances/annuities with them. You will make many
mistakes, guaranteed, so be extremely diligent in your formulae
and get others to check it, even from outside your group. Please
do not leave the work until last minute, this is one that you will
need to be on top of. 100% you will not be able to finish it if you
think “ah, I’ll start it over the mid-sem break.”
Textbook: If you are only going to buy/read/work out of one text, make it the
CT5 Core Technical. The course follows each chapter quite
closely and there are exam style questions throughout the text. I
cannot stress enough how important this is. You should buy,
borrow, steal (well, not steal) but get your hands on it. If you
haven’t already, I highly recommend purchasing the orange
formulae and tables book too. This will come in handy throughout
the entire degree, not just this course. I purchased the first book
on the list, and found it useful resource for weeks 1 – 3 and also
when I forgot approximations and needed to look them up. But
overall I really stuck to the Core Technical.

4000
Level Units
72
ETC4110
Actuarial Practice I
Difficulty: Exemption: Part IIA The Actuarial Control Cycle

Note: Exemption from Part II requires a 70% aggregate mark
Prerequisite: Requires Head of from ETC4110, ETC4120 and ETC4130.
Department’s approval prior to
enrolment
Lecturer(s): Dr. Mike Callan
Subject Content: This class focuses heavily on understanding and applying

content related to issues of the insurance industry, financial
products and risk management. The concept of Actuarial Control
Cycle is introduced as well as its practical application in a wide
range of insurance industry. E.g. Life insurance, general
insurance, health insurance, pension, superannuation funds and
investment issues. You will also cover a range of financial
products, the relevant business environment in Australia,
regulation and product design. Most importantly, risk
management is introduced which include risk types, risk
treatment and the general concept of Enterprise Risk
Management.

One 1-hour tutorial
Textbook(s): "Understanding Actuarial Management: the actuarial control

cycle", Institute of Actuaries of Australia, 2010, Second Edition.
Authors: Clare Bellis, Richard Lyon, Stuart Klugman and John
Shepherd.
Assessments: Assignments 1 x 12% and 1 x 20%

In-Class Test 3%
ETC4110: Actuarial Practice I 73

Participation 5%

ETC4110
Comments
General Overview: I found ETC 4110 is useful because the learning materials and
teaching style prepared me for the transition to the workplace.
We are trained to think critically by considering a wide range of
perspectives. This unit expects to have at least 8 hours (exclude
lectures and tutorial) of weekly self-study.
In Sum: Repeat reading the textbook if you have time, get

yourself familiar with those ideas. Practice writing in English
every day, even if English is your first language. Follow the
weekly instruction to complete weekly tasks. Always question if
you are not sure (don’t assume). The lecturer is always there to
help, make sure you ask (in a sensible way).
Weekly Tasks: (i) Weekly readings (normally 1 chapter from the textbook,
additional materials if there is any on Moodle, revision of last
week tutorial and homework)
(ii) Complete weekly homework (short answer and essay style
question without word limit) which required to upload onto
Moodle.
Class Participation: You will not get a mark by showing up in the lecture/ tutorial,
instead, you have to ask/ answer questions to gain the mark. You
don’t have to crack your head to think of smart question/ answer,
as long as they are sensible.
Assessments: Assignments help you to revise the learning materials, you need
to organise the ideas and present them in an appropriate way.
There is no right or wrong approach/ answer. However, you need
to think out of the box by showing you have truly understood the
learning materials to score well.

Class test: It normally take 10 - 15 minutes and worth 1% each.
As long as you have been following the weekly instruction to
complete your weekly tasks, and understand the contents, you
will be fine. The test is meant to test your understanding and train
your writing skills under exam condition.
Final exam: A 3-hour exam with a total of 100 marks no hurdle

requirement. It has short answer (between 1% - 5%) and essay
style (up to 15% - 20%) questions. Please note that ALL of the
lecture slides are examinable. Exam focuses on your
understanding and application of the textbook and lecture slide
contents on practical issues. Past exams may/ may not be
provided by the lecturer; the question style is similar to the past
exam.
Consultation and Feedback: One of my biggest motivations in this unit is receiving feedback
from the lecturer. From the one-to-one appointment, I got to know
my progress, what I could have done better and etc. Besides, I
always email him to clarify my understanding of the homework
questions, even on the weekend. If you have a specific topic that
you are not clear, you can always make an appointment with him
and he will be more than happy to walk you through.
Textbook: The textbook comes with a CD that contains textbook exercise

answer and additional reading materials. New textbook can only
be purchased on the Institute website or second hand one on
Amazon or Student VIP website. Some students are lucky
enough to download PDF version online and print at Officeworks.
The PDF version is as clear as the original textbook, however,
you will not have access to the CD materials. The best and only
way to score well/ get exemption for these units is read the
textbook. Although the slides make good summary of the
textbook content, you would not be able to link the points
together without reading the textbook.
You will definitely need to get started before week one. The
textbook is the first step to start, it is easy to read but make sure
you understand the contents. I recommend you spend enough

time with the text so that you can see how to apply the topics to
real world. It also helps to attempt end-of-chapter exercises. The
key is to ask yourself, ‘So what?’.
Study Partner: Find yourself a study partner in the class, exchange and mark
each other’s homework weekly. Make sure you both are strict in
marking and ask each other for feedback -> this is the most
effective learning way in this unit.

ETC4120
Actuarial Practice II
Difficulty: Exemption: Part IIA The Actuarial Control Cycle

Note: Exemption from Part II requires a 70% aggregate mark
Prerequisite: Requires Head of from ETC4110, ETC4120 and ETC4130.
Department’s approval prior to
enrolment. Recommended to do
ETC4110 prior to ETC4120
Subject Content: ETC4120 expands and adds to topics covered in ETC4110. You
will study how to apply the process of product design, choose the
right models for a variety of clients, learn different approaches to
valuation of liabilities, product pricing and contracts, study
solvency and look at profit and cost reporting as well as how to
monitor and assess experience. The course will rely heavily on
Part I subjects.

One 1-hour tutorial
Textbook(s): "Understanding Actuarial Management: the actuarial control

cycle", Institute of Actuaries of Australia, 2010, Second Edition.
Authors: Clare Bellis, Richard Lyon, Stuart Klugman and John
Shepherd.
Assessments: Assignments 1 x 12% and 1 x 15%

Presentation 5%
In-Class Test 3%
Participation 5%
ETC4120: Actuarial Practice II 78

ETC4120
Comments
General Overview: I found ETC 4110 is useful because the learning materials and
teaching style prepared me for the transition to the workplace.
We are trained to think critically by considering a wide range of
perspectives. This unit expects to have at least 8 hours (exclude
lectures and tutorial) of weekly self-study.
In Sum: Repeat reading the textbook if you have time, get

yourself familiar with those ideas. Practice writing in English
every day, even if English is your first language. Follow the
weekly instruction to complete weekly tasks. Always question if
you are not sure (don’t assume). The lecturer is always there to
help, make sure you ask (in a sensible way).
Weekly Tasks: (i) Weekly readings (normally 1 chapter from the textbook,
additional materials if there is any on Moodle, revision of last
week tutorial and homework)
(ii) Complete weekly homework (short answer and essay style
question without word limit) which required to upload onto
Moodle.
Class Participation: You will not get a mark by showing up in the lecture/ tutorial,
instead, you have to ask/ answer questions to gain the mark. You
don’t have to crack your head to think of smart question/ answer,
as long as they are sensible.
Assessments: Assignments help you to revise the learning materials, you need
to organise the ideas and present them in an appropriate way.
There is no right or wrong approach/ answer. However, you need
to think out of the box by showing you have truly understood the
learning materials to score well.

Class test: It normally take 10 - 15 minutes and worth 1% each.
As long as you have been following the weekly instruction to
complete your weekly tasks, and understand the contents, you
will be fine. The test is meant to test your understanding and train
your writing skills under exam condition.
Final exam: A 3-hour exam with a total of 100 marks no hurdle

requirement. It has short answer (between 1% - 5%) and essay
style (up to 15% - 20%) questions. Please note that ALL of the
lecture slides are examinable. Exam focuses on your
understanding and application of the textbook and lecture slide
contents on practical issues. Past exams may/ may not be
provided by the lecturer; the question style is similar to the past
exam.
Consultation and Feedback: One of my biggest motivations in this unit is receiving feedback
from the lecturer. From the one-to-one appointment, I got to know
my progress, what I could have done better and etc. Besides, I
always email him to clarify my understanding of the homework
questions, even on the weekend. If you have a specific topic that
you are not clear, you can always make an appointment with him
and he will be more than happy to walk you through.
Textbook: The textbook comes with a CD that contains textbook exercise

answer and additional reading materials. New textbook can only
be purchased on the Institute website or second hand one on
Amazon or Student VIP website. Some students are lucky
enough to download PDF version online and print at Officeworks.
The PDF version is as clear as the original textbook, however,
you will not have access to the CD materials. The best and only
way to score well/ get exemption for these units is read the
textbook. Although the slides make good summary of the
textbook content, you would not be able to link the points
together without reading the textbook.
You will definitely need to get started before week one. The
textbook is the first step to start, it is easy to read but make sure
you understand the contents. I recommend you spend enough

time with the text so that you can see how to apply the topics to
real world. It also helps to attempt end-of-chapter exercises. The
key is to ask yourself, ‘So what?’.
Study Partner: Find yourself a study partner in the class, exchange and mark
each other’s homework weekly. Make sure you both are strict in
marking and ask each other for feedback -> this is the most
effective learning way in this unit.

ETC4130
Asset Liability Management
Difficulty: Exemption: Part IIB Investment and Asset Modellig

This unit is worth 33.33% of the complete Part II exemptions and
Prerequisite: ETC4110 is paired with ETC4110 Actuarial Practice I and ETC4120
You are assumed to have completed Actuarial Practice II. You will need to get an average of 70%
all Part I subjects before taking this among the three units to get an exemption for Part III.
course. It isn’t required to do so but
that would be advantage and would
prepare you for the course.
Subject Content: This course assumes that students completed all Part I subjects.
You will need to have at least sat CT1, CT2, CT5 and CT8. It
introduces asset-liability management and covers the objectives
of Part IIB – Investment and Asset Modelling: the characteristics,
behaviours and valuations of major asset classes; modelling
assets; setting an investment strategy; and major economic
investment theories and their limitations. The main aim of the
course is to revise all the knowledge related to asset-liability and
facilitate your ability to use their applications in practice as an
actuary. The amount of Part I material used in this class is
enormous. The entire CT1 subject (BFC2340) is covered in a
single week only.
Lecture(s) and Tutorial(s): One 3-hour session broken into:

2-hour lecture
1-hour tutorial
Lecture Recording: None
Textbook(s): Investments, Bodie, Kane, Marvcus 10th Edition

Investment Principles for Actuaries, Fitzherbert, 2008. (optional)
ETC4130: Asset Liability Management 82

Assessments: 10-minute Quizzes 2 x 1%
Individual Assignments 1 x 12% and 1 x 20%
Participation 6%

ETC4130
Comments
General Overview: In my opinion, ETC4130 and the other Part II subjects are harder
than the Part I subjects, but they are very useful in preparing you
for a career as an actuary. Later when you go to a job interview,
you may find the interview questions similar to the topics you
discussed in class. The lecturer is a bit tough but he is helpful
and his method is very useful in improving student’s results.
To be successful in this course, I highly recommend you truly

dive into the course from week 0 (yes, I mean week 0) and you
should make an effort to show your involvement in the course to
the lecturer.
Weekly Tasks: 1. Pre-reading the related chapters in the textbook for next
week (around 100 pages per week)
2. Making notes and thinking about what was discussed in
class
3. Doing homework for this week
4. Review the solution from previous homework and tutorials
and
5. Practice writing everyday (especially if you are an
international student). It will be too late if you wait until
SWOTVAC to start revising everything, or even few weeks
before the SWOTVAC. Especially since you will be crazy
busy with assignments which will due towards the end of the
course.
To be honest, it’s hard to complete all these tasks each week,

especially if you are also enrolling in other part II subject like
Actuarial Practice as it means your workload is double. But
please keep in mind that no excuse will be accepted by the
lecturer for not reading the required chapters or doing your
homework. If your time is limited, at minimum you should go

through the lecture slides before class and try to figure out the
points you don’t understand. Never forget to do the homework
every week as it’s a good way to revise and practice, and
especially, it helps you earn the full 6% participation mark,
provided that you actively contribute to the class discussion.
Class Participation: Active contribution? It means contributing your idea voluntarily in

class and you need to answer any question that the lecturer gives
to you. Wrong answers are not punished, but you are not allowed
to say “I don’t know” as it proves that you are lazy and
unprepared for the class.
Assessments: You are given 4 weeks to finish each assignment. It’s a bad idea
to wait until few days before the deadline. The questions are
quite general and there is no unique right answer. In my opinion,
the difficulty comes from how to determine your approach. To do
so, you need to clarify who the audience of the report is and what
information they want to get from the report. Apart from
interesting content, you need to make your report professional to
earn more credit. Things such as graphs and tables must be
consistent and designed for easy understanding, etc. Some
common mistakes are: 1) Content is not appropriate to the
audience; 2) Using jargon without definition but your audience is
not technically mined (e.g. IT guys, customers); 3) Trying to put
everything into the report. 4) Not follow the name convention.
For the final exam, you need to revise the lecture slides and
additional material (examinable) at least twice (very important),
the textbook (the main points only as you just have a week), and
redo the tutorial questions and homework. It may vary, but in my
exam, each question is comprised of few small parts and even
asking a definition, so don’t ignore the small topic. You may ask
him to provide previous exam questions for practice.
Textbook: The prescribed text is pretty thick (i.e. around 1,000 pages) and
will be covered in 12 weeks, so make sure you spend sufficient
time to go through it during the course. One thing is that the book
covers investments from an investment practitioner’s view while

we need to cover how an actuary thinks about the wider issue of
why the assets are suitable. The textbook is US based. We don’t
need to learn the specifics of that market and will concentrate on
the general principles.

5000
Level Units
87
ECF5923
Macroeconomics and Monetary Policy

Prerequisite: None ETC5927 Managerial Economics. You will need to get an
average of 70% between the two units and not less than a 60%
Lecturer(s): Dr. Sephorah Mangin
in either.
Subject Content: There is not much content in this unit. The course can be
separated into two main parts.
Before the mid-term: You will learn about money, interest rates,
the stock market, the efficient market hypothesis, financial
institutions, financial crises, central banks, and monetary policy.
It is best to understand each concept and their definitions, be
sure to follow the lecturer closely as material will be used for
further application later.
After the mid-term: This is the most complicated and interesting

part; monetary theory. It contains the IS and MP curves and the
demand and supply curves. You need to know how each curve
changes under different circumstances and also be able to find
the equilibrium. Study every curve carefully or you will be really
confused by the complex graphs in the end.

One 1-hour tutorial
Textbook(s): The Economics of Money, Banking, and Financial Market,

Frederic S. Mishkin, Tenth Edition.
Assessments: 1-Hour Mid-Term 40%

ECF5923: Macroeconomics and Monetary Policy 88

ECF5923
Comments
General Overview: Believe me, this unit is not difficult for Actuarial students. You can
follow the classes easily even if you did not have any previous
knowledge. The undergraduate code for this unit is ECF2331.
The undergraduate prerequisite is ECF1200. I have a sense that
some of the concepts in ECF5923 have been taught in ECF1200
because the lecturer would use those concepts directly without
explaining them. But all the concepts can be found in the
textbook. Every week before class, the lecturer will put the
textbook reading pages on the Moodle. Read them! That is
helpful especially if you have no idea about the economy.
Tutorials: All the tutorial questions are from the end-of-chapter section in
the textbook. Doing the tutorial questions after lecture is a good
way of reviewing. Do not be worried if you miss one of the
tutorials, answers will be put on Moodle a few days after the
tutorial.
Assessments: You may have one or two past paper for practising before the
midterm and the final exam. Do them! Try to do past paper
several times. It would be better for your exam if you are so
familiar with the questions that you can remember the answers.
This way you are prepared for any type of question that comes
up on the exam.
Most of the contents taught before the midterm will not be tested
on the final. Also, the most complicated content such as
monetary theory will come after the mid-term. There are many
curves and graphs in this part. For me, this is also the most
interesting part. You need to understand each curse like IS curve
and MP curve and how they will change under different
circumstances. Also, you need to understand the differences

between short term and long term equilibria. My advice, you
should draw every graph down on the paper by yourself without
looking them, and explain the graphs to your classmate. That
really helped when I was learning this part.
Textbook: The lecturer will put the upcoming contents and relative textbook
reading pages on moodle before every class. This textbook is
readable even for non-English speakers. All the tutorial questions
are from the textbook. If you do not want to buy the book, you
must figure out some other methods to get the tutorial questions.
Though the lecture slides are quite clear, reading the textbook
can help you better understand the concepts.

ECF5927
Managerial Economics

Prerequisite: ECF1100 ETC5923. You will need to get an average of 70% between the
two units and not less than a 60% in either.
Lecturer(s): Paul Raschky
Subject Content: This unit introduced students to economics used by management

to make decisions. The main focus of the course was on demand
and supply. Topics such as economic optimization, competitive
markets, monopolistic competition & oligopoly, game theory &
competitive strategy and uncertainty were analysed. There was
a lot of professional vocabulary to learn along with definitions and
theories such as economic profit, marginal cost, short run and
monopoly profit theory. Much emphasis is placed on constructing
graphs to represent the concepts covered in the lecture.

One 1-hour tutorial
Textbook(s): Managerial Economics, 14th Edition, Mark Hirschey and Eric

Bentzen.
Assessments: Tutorial Participation 10%

In-Class Test 30%
ECF5927: Managerial Economics 91

ECF5927
Comments
General Overview: Overall this unit was not too difficult and does not demand a large
amount of time to study for. That being said, supply and demand
curves and other related graphs take a bit of getting used to.
Going over how each is constructed and spending some time
understanding the different between shifts and movements along
each curve is important.
Tutorials: Attending tutorials is important, there are 10 marks available for

doing so. Roll is taken at the end of each tutorial so friends are
not able to tick off names for those that skip. Prior to each tutorial,
read the relevant chapter from the prescribed textbook for each
week and prepare written answers to the questions.
Assessments: The mid-term was multiple-choice and was held during the week
7 lecture. It was easy after revising the material that had been
covered in the lectures during the first 5 weeks of the semester
and tutorials during the first 6 weeks of the semester. Sample
questions and solutions were uploaded to moodle in week 5, go
over these. The outline and structure was also provided during
the lecture in week 5.
Sample questions and solutions were uploaded to the moodle in

week 12. It is useful to go over these during SWOTVAC. The two
hours is enough to complete the exam if proper revision was
done. The outline and structure were also provided during the
week 12 lecture. The exam is a mix of short and long answer
questions, no multiple choice. Again, revision is the key to
earning high marks and finishing on time. Along with
understanding concepts, be sure to review how to draw graphs,
including correctly labelling axis.

Textbook: This text book was useful because the content in the lecture
slides is not thorough enough. The text is also easy to
understand.

ETC5242
Statistical Thinking
Difficulty: Exemption: CT6 Statistical Methods.

Prerequisite: None
ETC5342 Applied Insurance Methods. You will need to get an
Lecturer(s): average of 70% between the two units and not less than a 60%
Di Cook in either.
Souhaib Ben Taieb
Subject Content: This course covers a wide range of statistical methods and
critical thinking. The overall aim of the class is to teach students
to think statistically. Week 1 -2 simulation of games for decision
strategies (the zero-sum game), in weeks 3 –4 many statistical
distributions are covered, weeks 5 –8 begins to talk about
bootstrapping, permutation and linear models. Week 9-10
introduces multilevel modelling and compiling data for problem
solving. Weeks 11 and 12 are about Bayesian reasoning and
time series. The last lecture for the semester is used for project
presentation and there will be no review class for this unit.
The course builds on itself as the week’s progress. First we look

at methods to extract estimates from randomness by fitting
distributions, then we take those methods and define criterion for
fitness and then we build models based on the previous results
to either describe or predict outcomes. Hypothesis testing is also
covered in some detail as is Bayesian reasoning and Monte
Carlo sampling.


Textbook(s): Introductory Statistics with Randomization and Simulation, 1st
edition, David M Diez, Christopher D Barr, Mine Cetinkaya-
Rundel.
Subject CT6 Statistical Methods Core Technical. IFoA.
Assessments: Weekly Class Exercises 5%

Weekly Group Labs 15%
Group Project/Presentation 10%

ETC5242
Comments
General Overview: This unit is tries to cover a large range of statistical methods. This
means that each topic is just touched on and not covered in any
deep or rigorous way. Much of the material, such as simple linear
modelling and model fitting, has been covered in other courses.
If you have sat ETC2410 Introductory econometric previously,
the overall difficulty of this unit will not be too high.
Tutorials: The tutorial is where the difficulty in the course mainly comes
from. Getting used to R is not an easy process and the tutorials
are not set up to really teach you how to code. I have tried to take
some basic internet class and refer to books about this software,
but it didn’t work. The only thing that I recommend you to do is to
go to as many consultation as you can. Trust me! Every minute
you spend in consultation is worth more than 10 minutes spent
in the tutorial.
Assessments: The weekly in-class quizzes are all basic questions mentioned in
the lectures. So, make sure you review the lecture and work
through every question mentioned in the slides. This will help you
to gain the full 5 marks.
There’s no mid-semester exam and the final exam is open book

and not difficult. The course was new this year so there were no
past papers to refer to. However, Di did provide us an exam-like
sample paper which contained similar questions found on the
final. There final exam has a large number of questions, each
worth very few marks. I spent the entire 3 hours writing my
answers without resting my hand.
The project assignment was about modelling houses price.

Almost every topic we learned in the first 9 weeks was used in
this project. Quite a lot of students used the random forest model,

which was not mentioned in class, to get a better fitting model.
Those groups got better rankings, yet the other groups were not
penalized points since the method was not covered in class. I
strongly suggest that you finish modelling by the end of the
semester break and get down to the report and presentation prep
as soon as possible.
Textbook: I never read the text book. All I referenced was the lecture slides

ETC5342
Applied Insurance Methods
Difficulty: Exemption: CT6 Statistical Methods.

This subject makes up 50% of CT6, the other 50% is from unit
Prerequisite: ETC5242 ETC5242
Lecturer(s): Dan Zhu
Subject Content: Within the CT6 materials, there are 12 topics, the unit covers 6
of them. Even though it is only half the material, it is still quite a
difficult unit for many. The material covered followed the Core
Reading very closely: Loss distribution, risk models, ruin theory,
run-off triangles, and generalised linear models. Each topic was
covered over a two-week period with an assessment at the end
of each topic.

Textbook(s): None. The CT6 materials was handy but Dan stressed in the
lecture to follow her materials strictly as the final exam will be
based on her lecture materials. The examples from the lecture
slides are from the CT6 materials, so it is not necessary to
purchase the CT6 materials.
Assessments: In-Tutorial Tests 6 x 5%


ETC5342
Comments
General Overview: This unit is one of the hardest unit that I have studied so far,
however I enjoyed it immensely. The reason for this was due to
the effort put in by both the lecturer and tutors. The main
feedback received from Dan after every test was that students
overthink in the questions and ended up giving ridiculous
answers that are amazing but ultimately wrong. Every week the
lecturer gave us some advice on how to better understand what
the question is asking and to work out problems slowly. We were
allocated more than enough time to complete the test so the
advice did help.
The professor comes from a financial mathematics background

and so her proofs are very mathematical and omit integration
steps. The tutorials help tremendously as you are provided with
an alternative way to solve the problem which Dan will accept.
This really made the unit more bearable and easier to
understand. With that being said, Dan tries her best to bring the
class with her during the semester. She visibly takes it to heart
when students underperform even when she provides hints.
Although it is a difficult unit, Dan makes it interesting and makes
a conscious effort to learn most, if not, all students’ name in the
lecture. Students need to be comfortable with
ETC2520/ETC5252 – particularly MGF, PDF, PGF and CGF.
During lectures, it is best to actually pay attention as Dan drops

many hints about the tests and the questions that will be asked.
Fail to listen actively and you will lose easy marks. As stated
above, students need to be comfortable with ETC2520/ETC5252
material as this unit will extend on those topics. Calculus is also
very important and any student that is unable to perform
integration by parts or substitution is going to have a difficult time.

ETC5346
Financial Econometrics

Prerequisite: Students must be ETC5351 Modelling in Finance and Insurance. You will need to
granted permission to undertake this get an average of 70% between the two units and not less than
unit to ensure an appropriate 60% in either.
background in Finance and
Econometrics
Lecturer(s):
Paul Lajbcygier
Heather Anderson
Subject Content: The unit is split into three main topics: Statistical Properties of
Financial Time Series, Asset Pricing Models and Time Series
Properties of Financial Data. Paul cover modelling returns, asset
pricing, estimation and testing, and portfolio theory. Heather will
cover volatility modelling, measures of risk, efficient market
hypothesis, the autoregressive conditional heteroskedastic
volatility model (ARCH), GARCH models, asymmetric volatility
models.

Two 1hour tutorials
Textbook(s): None.
Assessments: Homework Assignments 2 x 10%

In-Class Quizzes 2 x 10%

ETC5346
Comments
General Overview: I found this class one of the easier units as part of the
postgraduate degree. The tutor was great, he tried his best to
make sure everyone understood enough of each topic to get
close to full marks for both the homework and quiz. Paul’s
research interest is in asset pricing models, because of this and
his background in physics and mathematics, he asks many
questions in the tutorial and exam where you are required to
derive formulae.
Given that Paul also teaches Modelling in Finance, a banking

and finance unit, he embraces Excel in all assessments, even
the exam. So, it is important that all Excel formulas used in the
tutorials and homework are understood as they may appear in
the final exam.
The final 6 weeks lacked the same structure as the first so you
will really need to stay disciplined in your studies. That being
said, Heather does a good job of guiding you to review the topics
that will be examined.

ETC5351
Modelling in Finance and Insurance

Prerequisite: ETC2520 or ETC2440 ETC3460 Financial Econometrics. You will need to get an
average of 70% between the two units and not less than 60% in
Lecturer(s):
either.
Fima Klebaner
Andrea Collevecchio
Subject Content: There are five main topics: probability, martingales, Brownian
motion, stochastic differential equations and asset pricing. The
first four topics are covered in much detail by Andrea, with a quick
revision at the end of each topic. Topics build on previous
material in the course. Fima covers the last section of the course
and introduces options pricing, replicating portfolios, equivalent
martingale measure, the fundamental theorems of asset pricing
and models for interest rates.

One 1hour tutorial
Textbook(s): None. All references and required reading are materials

prepared by Fima and Andrea which are uploaded onto
Moodle. The notes online for reading and review are used in
the lectures but different examples are used in the lecture to
complement our learning.
Assessments: Assignments 2 x 15%

Weekly Tutorial Participation 10%

ETC5351
Comments
General Overview: I found this class quite difficult as it was more focussed on
mathematics than previous units. It can get quite tough but the
lecturers and tutors go out of their way to help you. Andrea was
brilliant, he made the lectures bearable, interesting and made
you want to learn. He understands that students struggle with the
unit so be sure to seek help when you are struggling, the
lecturers will make time for you.
For those student wanting to do well and learn further material,

there is an optional master class for students where he will go
into further detail regarding that week’s topic. It is not examinable
but it can provide more context for content you may be struggling
with.
All material covered in the course be provided on moodle as
notes. There is no need to purchase supplementary texts or
materials.
Assignments: The two assignment questions were quite difficult, however as

the deadline approaches, Andrea would provide tips in the
lecture as to how to do the questions. There shouldn’t be any
problems with the assignments if you work hard, but it is very
important to show all workings out as the tutors are given explicit
instructions that certain workings out and notes must be made to
get full marks.
The exam was straightforward. It was a difficult exam however

there were no surprises and revision advice was provided. A
double sided A4 sheet of hand written notes can be brought in.
The exam questions were similar in style to the assignment
questions however they were simpler and could be done easily if
you knew the material well due to the exam time constraint.

ETC5353
Contingencies in Insurance and
Pensions

Prerequisite: ACF2340, ETC2430* ETC2430 Actuarial Statistics. You will need to get an average of
or BFC2340 70% between the two units and not less than a 60% in either.
Subject Content: This subject requires basic cash flow and time value of money
knowledge, which is covered in ETC2430. For ETC5353, we
need to use this to price all kinds of products and understand
how to price a product. Weeks 1 - 4 reviews and builds on
concepts from ETC2430. Weeks 5 - 7 focuses on how to price a
single life product. Actuarial notation and reserving is also
covered over this period. Weeks 8 - 11 covers multiple live
probabilities and how to price multiple life product. Week 12 was
left for review and question time.

Textbook(s): Core Reading for Institute of Actuaries of UK Subject CT5

Contingencies IFoA
Actuarial Mathematics for Life Contingent Risks. David
C.M.Dickson, Hardy R. and Howard R. Waters.
Acted actuarial notes for Life Contingent Risks. IFoA
Formula and Tables for Actuarial Examinations. IoA.
Assessments: 50-Minute Mid-Term 10%

Group Project 30%

ETC5353
Comments
General Overview: I didn’t take ETC2430 before ETC5353, so at first it was quite
hard to understand cash flows and the many different types of
interest rates. However, everything became easier as the course
went along. I felt more and more comfortable with the notation as
I caught up and the concepts also became easier as I studied
more. Therefore, if you find it difficult at first, don’t give up just
put in a bit more study.
There are many small details to get caught up in, however, the
course is all about application, so it is better to understand basic
concepts and work from there. Don’t worry if you can’t catch
every detail, the course covers a lot of material and broadly
understanding ideas such as net reserve pricing instead of the
mathematical proofs will get you far.
Tutorials: The tutor will not have enough time to cover everything so be
sure to go over the questions in your free time. For me, I did
some in the semester and did the rest during SWOTVAC. The
tutorials are really useful, and you should go to all of them. It is
also useful to see different tutors as they will present different
ways to solve the same problem; also, the content covered is
different across tutors. The most important tutorial is the last one,
because some tutors will explain how to study for the exam. They
will not provide information on the exam itself, but instead help
you review more efficiently.
Assessments: In class practice and assessment are important. Actually for us

these are like exam style questions, so do these practice
questions after each lecture by yourself. In class Colin will teach
you how to use the Formula and Tables for Actuarial

Examinations, and you should listen carefully, because you will
use these tables in the midterm and final exam.
One more thing is how to find practice question. I think the

questions in the textbook (Actuarial Mathematics for Life
Contingent Risk) are too hard. The questions in the Acted notes
are CT exam style questions, and questions in final are more
flexible. However, the Acted notes are a really good tool to help
you study, especially when you find it difficult to catch up in class.
The slides are follow the Acted material closely but they are less
clear, so the notes are very good to use when reviewing.

Appendix
107
List of Undergraduate Exemptions
Table 1: Institute core technical subjects and corresponding undergraduate university subjects
Institute Core Technical Subject University Subject
Part I
CT1 Financial Mathematics BFC2340 Debt Markets and Fixed Income
Securities
CT2 Finance and Financial Reporting ACC1100 Introduction to Financial Accounting
BFC1001 Foundations of Finance
BFC2140 Corporate Finance 1
*CT3 Probability and Mathematical ETC1000 Business and Economic Statistics
Statistics
ETC2520 Probability and Statistical Inference
for Economics and Business
CT4 Models ETC2430 Actuarial Statistics
ETC3430 Financial Mathematics Under
Uncertainty
CT5 Contingencies ETC2430 Actuarial Statistics
ETC3530 Contingencies in Insurance and
Pensions
CT6 Statistical Methods ETC2420 Statistical Thinking
ETC3420 Applied Insurance Methods
CT7 Business Economics ECC1000 Principles of Microeconomics
ECC1100 Principles of Macroeconomics
CT8 Financial Economics ETC3460 Financial Econometrics
ETC3510 Modelling in Finance and Insurance
Part II
IIA The Actuarial Control Cycle ETC4110 Actuarial Practice I
ETC4120 Actuarial Practice II
IIB Investment and Asset Modelling ETC4130 Asset Liability Management
*these two units can be replaced with MTH2222 and MTH2232
Source: Centre for Actuarial Studies and

Monash Business School
Current as of 30th November 2016
108
List of Master’s Exemptions
Table 2: Institute core technical subjects and corresponding postgraduate university
subjects
Institute Core Technical Subject University Subject
Part I
CT1 Financial Mathematics BFC2340 Debt Markets and Fixed Income
Securities
CT2 Finance and Financial ACC1100 Introduction to Financial
Reporting Accounting
BFC1001 Foundations of Finance
BFC2140 Corporate Finance 1
CT3 Probability and Mathematical ETC5252 Probability and Statistical
Statistics Inference for Economics and
Business
CT4 Models ETC2430 Actuarial Statistics
ETC5343 Financial Mathematics Under
Uncertainty
CT5 Contingencies ETC2430 Actuarial Statistics
ETC5353 Insurance and Pensions
CT6 Statistical Methods ETC5242 Statistical Thinking
ETC5342 Applied Insurance Methods
CT7 Business Economics ECF5923 Macroeconomics and Monetary
Policy
CT8 Financial Economics ECF5927 Managerial Economics
ETC5346 Financial Econometrics
ETC5351 Modelling in Finance and
Insurance
Part II
IIA The Actuarial Control Cycle ETC4110 Actuarial Practice I
ETC4120 Actuarial Practice II
IIB Investment and Asset ETC4130 Asset Liability Management
Modelling
Source: Centre for Actuarial Studies and

Monash Business School
Current as of 30th November 2016
109

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2017

Monash Actuarial Students Society www.monashactuary.com.au

Campus Centre 21 Chancellors Walk actuarial@monashclubs.org

Monash University, VIC 3800 www.facebook.com/monashactuary/

Our two main goals are:

(1) Connect our members with professional actuaries

Candy Huang Jessica Sumarno Rossa To

Lecture(s) and Tutorial(s): Two 1-hour lectures in each stream

Lecture Recording: Full – Audio and Video

Textbook(s): Financial Accounting: Reporting, Analysis and Decision Making;

Assessments: In-Semester Tests 2 x 10%

ACC1100: Introduction to Financial Accounting 2

ACC1100: Introduction to Financial Accounting 3

Textbook: Only end-of-chapter questions from Financial Accounting were

Financial Reporting Handbook 2016 can be taken into the exam

ACC1100: Introduction to Financial Accounting 4

Lecture(s) and Tutorial(s): One 2-hour lecture

Lecture Recording: Full – Audio and Video

Textbook(s): Fundamentals of Financial Markets and Institutions in Australia

Assessments: Online Tests 3 x 6%

BFC1001: Foundations of Finance 5

Content: Topics that are taught include What is Finance; Financial

Whether you are a rote-learner or more of a practical learner,

BFC1001: Foundations of Finance 6

Although lectures are recorded and are made available on MULO

BFC1001: Foundations of Finance 7

The first assignment is made available from week 1 and is due

BFC1001: Foundations of Finance 8

The second assignment is also made available from week 1, but

There does seem to be inconsistency in markers, as students

IMPORTANT: what you learn from completing the assignment is

BFC1001: Foundations of Finance 9

In the exam, the calculation questions are the quickest and

BFC1001: Foundations of Finance 10

Lecture(s) and Tutorial(s): Two 1-hour lectures

Lecture Recording: Full – Audio and Video

Textbook(s): Concise Australian Commercial Law (3ed)

Assessments: In-Class Extended Response Quiz 20% (Week 5)

BTC1110: Commercial Law 11

BTC1110: Commercial Law 12

Subject Content: This is an introductory unit that is normally taken by most

Lecture(s) and Tutorial(s): Two 1-hour lecture

Lecture Recording: Full – Audio and Video

Textbook(s): Principles of Microeconomics, 6th edition by J. Gans, S. King,

Assessments: Tutorial Participation 10%

*Note: If final exam is higher than midterm then midterm – 0%

ECC1000: Principles of Microeconomics 13

Stephen King gives students plenty of practice material, so that

ECC1000: Principles of Microeconomics 14

ECC1000: Principles of Microeconomics 15

Lecturer(s): Dr. Jaai Parasnis

Lecture(s) and Tutorial(s): One 2-hour lecture

Lecture Recording: Full – Audio and Video

Textbook(s): Macroeconomics, 9th Edition by Jackson, J., McIver, R. and

Assessments: 15-Minute Online Quizzes 2 x 2.5%

ECC1100: Principles of Macroeconomics 16

ECC1100: Principles of Macroeconomics 17

Lecture(s) and Tutorial(s): One 1.5-hour lecture

Lecture Recording: Full – Audio and Video

Textbook(s): Essentials of Business Analytics, J. Camm, J. Cochran, M. Fry,

Assessments: Weekly Computer Labs 8 x 3.75%

ETC1000: Business and Economic Statistics 18