Hi I am giving cb1 from Ifoa in April
Can someone help me in finding notes as specially studying for this subject from actuators or any other institution will be a waste of time and money
Would be happy to get it for free if someone already has the notes for it

Having spent the last four years working in non-life general insurance pricing and the last three studying towards the IFoA qualification, I’ve recently started questioning whether I should explore life insurance before progressing further into my career.

One of the things prompting this is how much of the actuarial syllabus focuses on life insurance and related topics. Part of me is curious to experience a different area of the profession and see how much of the theory I’ve studied translates directly into day-to-day work.

I’d be interested to hear from people working in both life and non-life, particularly on the following:

Day-to-day work: How much of what you learn through the IFoA exams do you actually use in practice?

Pay: Is non-life genuinely better paid on average, including when comparing median salaries?

Switching specialisms: Has anyone moved from non-life to life, or vice versa, after several years of experience? How difficult was it, and did you feel you were starting from scratch or could your existing skills transfer across?

Job satisfaction: Knowing what you know now, would you choose the same specialism again? What do you enjoy most and least about your work?

I’m currently just over halfway through the qualification, so I’m conscious that if I want to make a switch, now might be a better time than later in my career.

I’m not necessarily unhappy with non-life; I’m more curious about whether I might enjoy another area of actuarial work more, particularly if it allows me to apply more of what I’ve learned through the exams.

I’d really appreciate hearing about people’s experiences, including anything you wish you’d known earlier in your career.

Hello everyone

For context: I am portuguese, and I just finished my masters in actuarial science (in Portugal there aren't rally undergraduate degrees in actuarial science).

During my master's, I received a merit award, that granted me an internship at a big4 company (which I will not disclose). I say this not to brag, but to show you that a major part that made me accept the award was the fact that it basically granted me an easy entry into the job market, straight out of university.

Initially I was thrilled about it, especially since I talked to some former students of the masters that were working at that company, and they gave me positive reviews about the job. One of them even said that the job required using knowledge aquired during the masters.

Based on these reviews, I thought I would be working on building, or at least maintaining probabilistic and statistical models.

Fast forward to now, and I have to say I, the job is not at all what I expected. My day-to-day consists basically in supporting actuarial auditing projects in the context of solvency II or IFRS17. In practice, what this means is that my work consists mostly of copying current year PBC's, and pasting them on older versions of the excel files, in order to update them. The most ambitious stuff I did was just building the triangles. I didn't even get to apply any reserving method to it.

Furthermore, since Portugal is a small country, most insurance companies, even the larger ones, rely on the standard SCR formula. So it's not like my job envolves assumption checking.

Some people on the actuarial team in the company got to work on consultancy projects. One required supporting the implementation of a model by an insurance company, but from what I gathered, this consisted mostly of documenting model assumptions in a report, and not really model testing.

With all this, I must say I'm not really liking the job, and I wanted to ask any of you of this subreddit, if work is also like this for you (regardless of it likely being outside of Portugal).

I understand I'm new to this stuff, and they are assigning me basic tasks on purpose, as it is the less risky strategy for the company. Nonetheless, this experience has been somewhat disappointing, and made me wonder what the future awaits me.

So I ask you, what does work look like to you. That is, what do you do, concretely, daily in your job?

I'm looking for some advice, guidance, or personal experiences regarding working in the UK or Ireland (yes, I know they're different countries!) as an American actuary.

For some context, I'm currently a junior studying actuarial science at the University of Nebraska–Lincoln. I've passed three SOA exams (FM, P, and SRM), and I'm expecting to graduate in May 2028. I also recently accepted an internship with a large US-based reinsurer that has offices in both England and Ireland, along with several other European countries.

One of the reasons I'm particularly interested in reinsurance is the potential opportunity to work internationally, especially in the UK or Ireland. I'm primarily interested in life insurance and reinsurance, and I plan to continue pursuing the SOA credentialing pathway.

I understand that working abroad comes with challenges, particularly regarding visa sponsorship, differences in actuarial qualifications, and the job market itself. I'm also aware that working in the US for a few years before pursuing an internal transfer might be a more realistic option than applying directly to international positions after graduation. That said, I'm interested in exploring both possibilities.

I have a few questions I'd love to hear people's thoughts on:

• Has anyone here made the move from the US to the UK/Ireland, or worked with American actuaries who have? What did that process and career path look like?
• How realistic are internal transfers within large international insurance/reinsurance companies? Is this something you've seen happen relatively often?
• How are SOA exams and credentials generally viewed by employers in the UK/Ireland, especially in life insurance and reinsurance?
• For someone in my position, would you recommend trying to secure a position abroad directly after graduation, or gaining a few years of experience in the US first?

I'm not expecting to have everything figured out right now, but since I still have some time before graduating, I'd like to get a better understanding of what opportunities might exist and how I could best position myself for them.

I'd really appreciate any advice, personal experiences, or even stories about coworkers who've made a similar move. Thanks!

Are cb1 flashcards useful ??
I used the flashcards for cb2 preparation and it hard carried me through the exam .
Will the ones for cb1 be any help for the theory portion ?