What Does Open Book Exams Mean?

The ASSA F200 / B200 examinations will not allow candidates to prepare and bring their own materials into the exam, but the Examiners will determine and prescribe material that may add value to reference during the exam and pre-load these materials to the exam platform for all candidates to access during the exam.

Candidates will be made aware of what these materials are, well in advance of the exam via email. These might include Study notes for the specific subject, relevant guidance notes or any other prescribe material that is deemed useful by the examiners.

The focus of exam preparation for F200 subject-level examinations should be on understanding and applying actuarial concepts, rather than compiling extensive notes, cheat sheets or developing referencing strategies for use during the examination.

Subjects

Open Book Exams will be implemented for the following ASSA subjects:

  • F201
  • F202
  • F203
  • F204
  • F205
  • F207 / B200

Format

Duration of exam: 3 Hours 15 Minutes

  • Candidates must prepare in the same manner as they would for closed-book exams to ensure they know their material well.
  • The key focus of the Open Book exam is on applying knowledge correctly and providing sensible arguments and answers in context of the scenario.
  • ASSA will prescribe and provide all accessible materials for use during the exam. This may include: Study Notes of the relevant F200/B200 subject; applicable guidance notes or any other prescribed material as determined by the examiners. Candidates are NOT allowed to bring their own material into the exam. 
  • No online, network, social media or collaboration applications and internet will be allowed.
  • All candidates will be invigilated. Invigilators are aware that candidates are allowed to reference the additional material provided by ASSA during the exam.
  • Bookwork answers do not guarantee a mark. All bookwork must be applied correctly.

System

  • Open Book Exams are hosted on the ASSA Exam Platform. The exam question paper is available on the ASSA Exam Platform only. No hard copies or printing of the papers are allowed.
  • ASSA will prescribe and provide all accessible additional materials for use during the exam. This may include:
    • Core reading notes for the relevant F200 subject
    • Applicable guidance notes for the relevant F200 subject
    • Any additional prescribed material deemed useful by the F200 examiners
  • No other materials or hard copy notes will be allowed in the examination. (only ASSA provided additional materials)
  • The relevant in-person invigilation (venue-based exams) or live proctoring (virtual-based exams) will be in place.

Rules

  • All existing exam rules and the ASSA Examination Policy will apply.
  • Candidates are NOT allowed to bring their own study material, notes, articles, guidelines or any other written format document into the exam.  ASSA will provide all additional material required for the exam, pre-loaded to the exam platform.
  • No online, network, social media or collaboration applications and Internet will be allowed.
  • No hard copy notes or material will be allowed.
  • Candidates may not access files from their desktop or local or network storage during the exam.

Copying and Pasting

Candidates are not permitted to copy and paste large portions of text without demonstrating clear application to the specific question. Simply inserting lengthy excerpts from the provided materials in the hopes of earning marks is not an effective exam strategy.

Exact definitions may be referenced where appropriate, but they should not replace conceptual application. Candidates are expected to demonstrate understanding by applying key principles rather than repeating definitions verbatim.

Direct copying and pasting is not possible: As part of the refinements to the open-book format, ASSA has prescribed the reference materials in a way that prevents direct copy-pasting functionality.

If candidates wish to use specific wording from the reference materials, they will need to retype the content themselves. However, this should not be necessary extensively, as the focus should be on application.