BCAR Methodology
BCAR did a major revision in July 2017 of the BCAR formula:
Prior 2017:
[Adjusted Surplus]/ Net Required Capital
Current (after 2017):
[Adjusted Surplus - Net Required Capital] / Adjusted Surplus
It appears as though the CAS accidently included documents from both "pre" and "post" change. The "Catastrophe Analysis in A.M. Best Ratings" (2017) is published using the "NEW" BCAR. And the "Understanding BCAR" (2016) documented is published based on the OLD BCAR methodologies.
This makes a comment like "BCAR greater than 25 @ 99.6%" have little meaning to a reader who doesn't know what a BCAR represents or means. Possibly an oversight that was discovered too late to correct (subsequent exam event).
How are we supposed to read and understand anything past page 4 of the "Catastrophe Analysis" without having an idea what the numbers mean?
Comments
I wrote to the exam committee about this back in January as the situation you described was the same for the previous sitting as well. I expected them to respond that they had intended to update both readings and would correct the error, but instead they simply verified that the syllabus is correct as is. I have no idea why they still have not updated the "A.M. Best Understanding BCAR" reading. As you said, it renders a large portion of the Cat Analysis reading non-understandable.