Unit convenor and teaching staff |
Unit convenor and teaching staff
Unit Convenor
Xian Zhou
Contact via xian.zhou@mq.edu.au
E4A 607
Refer to the unit's web site
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Credit points |
Credit points
3
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Prerequisites |
Prerequisites
ACST255 and STAT272
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Corequisites |
Corequisites
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Co-badged status |
Co-badged status
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Unit description |
Unit description
This unit develops probabilistic and statistical models for survival and death, health and sickness, loss and claims, and other insurance related problems. Students will learn sophisticated mathematical and statistical methods to estimate lifetime distributions and model parameters; evaluate estimation quality and errors; assess the effects of covariates and risk factors; and test the appropriateness and validity of the models. Survival analysis for censored and truncated data, Cox proportional hazards models with covariates, and Markov processes for multiple state models, will be discussed and studied in details. Students gaining a grade of credit or higher in both ACST358 and ACST359 are eligible for exemption from subject CT4 of the professional exams of the Institute of Actuaries of Australia.
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Information about important academic dates including deadlines for withdrawing from units are available at https://www.mq.edu.au/study/calendar-of-dates
On successful completion of this unit, you will be able to:
Extensions and penalties on coursework assessment tasks:
No extensions will be granted. Late tasks will be accepted up to 72 hours after the submission deadline. There will be a deduction of 20% of the total available marks made from the total awarded mark for each 24 hour period or part thereof that the submission is late (for example, 25 hours late in submission – 40% penalty). This penalty does not apply for cases in which an application for disruption to studies is made and approved.
Submission of assessment tasks:
Answers to the quiz are to be submitted to BESS in paper form by 11am, Friday 20 March 2015.
Answers to the take-home test are to be submitted to BESS in paper form by 3pm, Friday 8 May 2015.
Open-book final examination:
The final examination will be open book in the sense that students can bring in any materials written or printed on paper with any size and number of pages.
Gradebook:
It is the responsibility of students to view their marks for each within session assessment on iLearn within 20 days of posting. If there are any discrepancies, students must contact the unit convenor immediately. Failure to do so will mean that queries received after the release of final results regarding assessment tasks (not including the final exam mark) will not be addressed.
Name | Weighting | Due |
---|---|---|
Quiz | 10% | 20 March |
Test | 20% | 8 May |
Examination | 70% | Examination period |
Due: 20 March
Weighting: 10%
Multiple-choice questions
Due: 8 May
Weighting: 20%
Problem-solving questions
Due: Examination period
Weighting: 70%
Open-book examination with a combination of multiple-choice problem-solving questions.
Classes
This unit is taught through 3 hours of lectures and 1 hour of tutorials per week.
The timetable for classes can be found on the University web site at: http://www.timetables.mq.edu.au/
Tutorials start in Week 1 (updated)
Unit Web Page
The web page for this unit can be found at: http://ilearn.mq.edu.au
Technology Used and required
You will need access to the internet to obtain course information and download teaching materials from the unit website.
It is your responsibility to check the unit website regularly to make sure that you are up-to-date with the information for the unit.
Required and Recommended Texts and/or Materials
Lecture Notes are the required materials and will be posted on the website before the lectures.
The main additional reading materials are the ActEd CT4 notes. This will also be used as background reading for ACST359/819.
What is required to complete the unit satisfactorily
To be eligible to pass this unit, a pass is required in the final examination.
Week |
Topics covered |
1 |
Principle of actuarial modelling; Probability models |
2 |
Survival analysis; Estimation of survival distributions |
3 |
Estimation of survival distributions; Variance estimation |
4 |
Variance estimation and confidence intervals |
5 |
Confidence intervals; Cox proportional hazards models |
6 |
Cox proportional hazards models |
BREAK |
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7 |
Stochastic processes; Markov chains |
8 |
Markov chains |
9 |
Markov jump processes |
10 |
Markov jump processes |
11 |
Applications of Markov processes |
12 |
Applications of Markov processes |
13 |
Revision |
Note: This is only a tentative schedule. The actual schedule will depend on the progress of lectures.
Macquarie University policies and procedures are accessible from Policy Central. Students should be aware of the following policies in particular with regard to Learning and Teaching:
Academic Honesty Policy http://mq.edu.au/policy/docs/academic_honesty/policy.html
Assessment Policy http://mq.edu.au/policy/docs/assessment/policy.html
Grading Policy http://mq.edu.au/policy/docs/grading/policy.html
Grade Appeal Policy http://mq.edu.au/policy/docs/gradeappeal/policy.html
Grievance Management Policy http://mq.edu.au/policy/docs/grievance_management/policy.html
Disruption to Studies Policy http://www.mq.edu.au/policy/docs/disruption_studies/policy.html The Disruption to Studies Policy is effective from March 3 2014 and replaces the Special Consideration Policy.
In addition, a number of other policies can be found in the Learning and Teaching Category of Policy Central.
Macquarie University students have a responsibility to be familiar with the Student Code of Conduct: https://students.mq.edu.au/support/student_conduct/
Results shown in iLearn, or released directly by your Unit Convenor, are not confirmed as they are subject to final approval by the University. Once approved, final results will be sent to your student email address and will be made available in eStudent. For more information visit ask.mq.edu.au.
Supplementary Exams
Further information regarding supplementary exams, including dates, is available here
Macquarie University provides a range of support services for students. For details, visit http://students.mq.edu.au/support/
Learning Skills (mq.edu.au/learningskills) provides academic writing resources and study strategies to improve your marks and take control of your study.
Students with a disability are encouraged to contact the Disability Service who can provide appropriate help with any issues that arise during their studies.
For all student enquiries, visit Student Connect at ask.mq.edu.au
For help with University computer systems and technology, visit http://informatics.mq.edu.au/help/.
When using the University's IT, you must adhere to the Acceptable Use Policy. The policy applies to all who connect to the MQ network including students.
Our graduates will take with them the intellectual development, depth and breadth of knowledge, scholarly understanding, and specific subject content in their chosen fields to make them competent and confident in their subject or profession. They will be able to demonstrate, where relevant, professional technical competence and meet professional standards. They will be able to articulate the structure of knowledge of their discipline, be able to adapt discipline-specific knowledge to novel situations, and be able to contribute from their discipline to inter-disciplinary solutions to problems.
This graduate capability is supported by:
We want our graduates to be capable of reasoning, questioning and analysing, and to integrate and synthesise learning and knowledge from a range of sources and environments; to be able to critique constraints, assumptions and limitations; to be able to think independently and systemically in relation to scholarly activity, in the workplace, and in the world. We want them to have a level of scientific and information technology literacy.
This graduate capability is supported by:
Our graduates should be capable of researching; of analysing, and interpreting and assessing data and information in various forms; of drawing connections across fields of knowledge; and they should be able to relate their knowledge to complex situations at work or in the world, in order to diagnose and solve problems. We want them to have the confidence to take the initiative in doing so, within an awareness of their own limitations.
This graduate capability is supported by:
Teaching materials are updated.
This unit is co-taught with ACST818 Survival Models.
The content of this unit is well connected to a number of research topics in statistics and actuarial studies.
This unit is designed to tackle general insurance problems in practice.
The knowledge and skills provided by this unit are globally accepted and recognized.
The topics of survival models in this unit are naturally and intrinsically aimed at sustainable development of the society.