Clarification -- Use of Series 300 course credit in conversion

Some candidates are using Series 300 courses (e.g., I340, P360U) to satisfy a portion of the educational requirements for Associateship. As stated in the Associateship and Fellowship catalog, where these candidates need to apply these same courses to complete Fellowship specialty track requirements, they will need to replace the "elective" credits from the Series 300 courses through the passing of additional examinations.

At the time of conversion of exam credit (in January 2000) to the new basic education system, the 300 credit ASA (which includes the Core required courses) yields conversion credit for Courses 1-6 plus 25 unassigned elective credits. Where a candidate has used one or more Series 300 specialty track required courses toward the ASA and now needs that course credit to attain credit for Course 8, he/she may need additional course credits to substitute for the required Series 300 course – if the associated credit totals more than 25. The need to pass additional examinations will arise when using the Series 300 course(s) to complete the Course 8 requirement creates a deficit within the ASA credit and the candidate does not have sufficient unused unassigned credit to fill the gap.

The following examples serve to illustrate the possible outcomes for the candidate in this situation.

• A candidate has used Course P365U (25 credits) to complete the requirements for ASA. The candidate is specializing in the U.S. Pension track and has also passed P360U (15) and P362U (20).

The candidate can attain credit for Course 8 by using the credit from P365U along with the other track-required courses. Because P365U is only 25 credits, the candidate does not need to replace any credits. The 25 credits from P365U offset the 25 unassigned credits from the ASA conversion.

Result: The candidate has credit for Courses 1-6 (+25 unassigned credits –25 (P365U) credits), plus Course 8.

• The candidate has used Course G320 (30 credits) as elective credit to complete the ASA. The candidate is specializing in the Canadian Group and Health Benefits track, and has also passed G420C (20), but no other track requirements. The candidate has only 10 unassigned elective credits aside from those that apply from the ASA conversion.

Applying the G320 credit toward Course 8 creates a deficit of 30 credits from the ASA conversion. Subtracting the 30 credits for G320 from the ASA conversion of Courses 1-6 +25 unassigned elective credits leaves the candidate with a deficit of 5 credits for the ASA. The candidate must eliminate the 5-credit deficit prior to the time of conversion, through the passing of an additional examination or the candidate will not receive credit for Course 8. If the candidate does not pass an additional examination, at the time of conversion he/she would receive credit for Courses 1-6 plus 25 unassigned credits for the ASA, plus 30 additional unassigned credits (20 for G420C, and the 10 elective credits specified above). This would become credit for Courses 1-7, plus 5 units of Professional Development. The candidate would be required to pass Course 8.

Back to Education System Redesign | Back to Education & Examinations