# My first actuarial exam is tomorrow **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [May 24, 2005, 11:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-first-actuarial-exam-is-tomorrow/305354 "2005-05-24T23:50:43Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![iwakura43](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/9de0a6/32.png) [@iwakura43](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iwakura43)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2005, 11:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-first-actuarial-exam-is-tomorrow/305354/1 "2005-05-24T23:50:43Z")
And oh god I should have studied more. Plus, there was a major revision in the syllabus since the last examination, and so many of the topics I’m supposed to know don’t have practice questions associated with them. On the plus side, if I fail I have plenty of time to take it again. I’m aiming to finish three, maybe four by the end of college in '09. ---
**Author:** ![Freddy\_the\_Pig](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/a587f6/32.png) [@Freddy\_the\_Pig](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Freddy_the_Pig)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2005, 1:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-first-actuarial-exam-is-tomorrow/305354/2 "2005-05-25T01:10:40Z")
Wow, I thought I was the only person on the Board taking those godawful things. Cheez, if you finish even three by the time you leave college, you’ll be ahead of most people. Are you just now a sophomore? I envy people who know what they want to do already at that age. I hate to think what I was doing when I was a college sophomore. I understand they added a bunch of new distributions to the Course 1 syllabus, but they still don’t give you the cheat sheet with the density and distribution functions like they do for the later exams. Could be a bitch. But it will be for everybody else, too. Hey, good luck. Let us know what you think afterward. ---
**Author:** ![Freddy\_the\_Pig](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/a587f6/32.png) [@Freddy\_the\_Pig](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Freddy_the_Pig)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2005, 1:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-first-actuarial-exam-is-tomorrow/305354/3 "2005-05-25T01:15:25Z")
Wait a minute . . . the end of college in **'09** 😕 Are you a high school student? Nobody should subject themselves to such pain in high school! ---
**Author:** ![iwakura43](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/9de0a6/32.png) [@iwakura43](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iwakura43)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2005, 1:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-first-actuarial-exam-is-tomorrow/305354/4 "2005-05-25T01:23:46Z")
Yeah, I self-studied for Course 1. Supposedly if you’re in high school and you pass, they’ll give you a thousand bucks. Hope it’s true 😃 Which course are you on, and are you SOA or CAS track? The life stuff sounds kinda boring to me, but oh well. I’m into hurricanes and firestorms, terrorism… you know, the fun stuff. Reinsurance perhaps. I just finished doing all the practice problems again (set of 120 or so), and I got them mostly right. But I’ve done them a couple times before, so I don’t know if it’s just that I’ve memorized the questions. Wish there were more practice problems :psyduck: ---
**Author:** ![Cunctator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/43a26b/32.png) [@Cunctator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cunctator)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2005, 1:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-first-actuarial-exam-is-tomorrow/305354/5 "2005-05-25T01:44:27Z")
Good luck **iwakura43**. I’ve been in your position (quite a few years ago now), but I still remember that gut-churning mix of dread and hope. If you’ve done the work then you should be fine. I can assure you it’s all worth the effort in the long run. While I know it ranks low in your priorities at the moment, spare a thought for those who have to mark the papers. The Institute of Actuaries of Australia held its exams last week and I’m going to have to spend quite a bit of time over the next week marking one of the questions on the General Insurance exam (Property & Casualty in US-speak). ---
**Author:** ![Freddy\_the\_Pig](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/a587f6/32.png) [@Freddy\_the\_Pig](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Freddy_the_Pig)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2005, 3:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-first-actuarial-exam-is-tomorrow/305354/6 "2005-05-25T03:21:18Z")
> [@iwakura43](#): > > Which course are you on, and are you SOA or CAS track? The life stuff sounds kinda boring to me, but oh well. I’m into hurricanes and firestorms, terrorism… you know, the fun stuff. Reinsurance perhaps. Me too. That’s why I’m CAS. I just took Course 5, the first upper-level CAS exam. As a career changer I took my first exam at age 43 :eek: , so we’re kind of at opposite poles in that respect! ---
**Author:** ![iwakura43](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/9de0a6/32.png) [@iwakura43](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iwakura43)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2005, 6:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-first-actuarial-exam-is-tomorrow/305354/7 "2005-05-25T18:06:02Z")
I think I passed. 😃 I only made one pure guess (out of thirty). ---
**Author:** ![Kythereia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/e8c25b/32.png) [@Kythereia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kythereia)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2005, 6:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-first-actuarial-exam-is-tomorrow/305354/8 "2005-05-25T18:58:21Z")
Good luck with the results! _snogs actuarially_ ---
**Author:** ![RTFirefly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c77e96/32.png) [@RTFirefly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RTFirefly)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2005, 8:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-first-actuarial-exam-is-tomorrow/305354/9 "2005-05-25T20:05:25Z")
What’s on the first exam these days? I took it 30 years ago, when it was calculus and maybe some linear algebra. I hear the structure of the exams has changed considerably since then. ---
**Author:** ![Ace309](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ace309/32/1050_2.png) [@Ace309](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ace309)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2005, 8:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-first-actuarial-exam-is-tomorrow/305354/10 "2005-05-25T20:10:35Z")
> [@iwakura43](#): > > Yeah, I self-studied for Course 1. Supposedly if you’re in high school and you pass, they’ll give you a thousand bucks. Hope it’s true 😃 You are SO getting a wedgie out of this. ---
**Author:** ![Cunctator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/43a26b/32.png) [@Cunctator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cunctator)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2005, 10:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-first-actuarial-exam-is-tomorrow/305354/11 "2005-05-25T22:03:47Z")
> [@iwakura43](#): > > I think I passed. 😃 I only made one pure guess (out of thirty). Are the questions on American actuarial exams multiple choice? 😕 ---
**Author:** ![iwakura43](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/9de0a6/32.png) [@iwakura43](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iwakura43)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2005, 11:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-first-actuarial-exam-is-tomorrow/305354/12 "2005-05-25T23:41:17Z")
**Cunctator** : The first four (“preliminary”) exams are multiple choice and cover actuarial mathematics. I think this makes sense: at this level, either you can solve for the correct probability (in the case of Course 1) or you can’t. Multiple choice questions work better for evaluating if you can do the math than would essay questions, for you can squeeze more of them into the exam session. The later exams are essay-based, and apparently require a ridiculous amount of memorization–multiple tomes of information you need to know. **Ace309** : I got them to give me time out of my class schedule everyday to work on it, so no major extra effort was required. **Kythereia** : “_snogs_”? You’re a female, right? :dubious: 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Khadaji](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Khadaji](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Khadaji)\ **Post date:** [May 26, 2005, 12:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-first-actuarial-exam-is-tomorrow/305354/13 "2005-05-26T00:14:28Z")
Chiming in late to wish you luck! 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Cunctator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/43a26b/32.png) [@Cunctator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cunctator)\ **Post date:** [May 26, 2005, 12:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-first-actuarial-exam-is-tomorrow/305354/14 "2005-05-26T00:24:52Z")
> [@iwakura43](#): > > **Cunctator** : The first four (“preliminary”) exams are multiple choice and cover actuarial mathematics. I think this makes sense: at this level, either you can solve for the correct probability (in the case of Course 1) or you can’t. Multiple choice questions work better for evaluating if you can do the math than would essay questions, for you can squeeze more of them into the exam session. Interesting. The preliminary exams here were never multiple choice in my time and I’m pretty sure that’s still the case now. The examiners want to be able to see how you come up with the answer as well as whether it’s correct. That way, if your approach is correct but you make some errors in the maths, you can at least get partial marks for a question. ---
**Author:** ![iwakura43](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/9de0a6/32.png) [@iwakura43](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iwakura43)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2005, 11:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-first-actuarial-exam-is-tomorrow/305354/15 "2005-07-08T23:51:10Z")
And… I passed !! 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Cunctator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/43a26b/32.png) [@Cunctator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cunctator)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2005, 1:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-first-actuarial-exam-is-tomorrow/305354/16 "2005-07-09T01:46:48Z")
> [@iwakura43](#): > > And… I passed !! 😃 Good stuff. I was wondering how you’d done **iwakura43**. You’re on your way now. I’ve been marking mid-year actuarial exams here over the last few days. There were some excellent candidates. And some very bad ones too! ---
**Author:** ![Freddy\_the\_Pig](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/a587f6/32.png) [@Freddy\_the\_Pig](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Freddy_the_Pig)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2005, 5:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-first-actuarial-exam-is-tomorrow/305354/17 "2005-07-09T17:18:04Z")
That’s great, **iwakura**. It’s very impressive to be able to pass one of these in high school. I passed CAS 5 (yay!) and it already helped me to move to a better paying job, which I’ll start on the 18th, so the opportunities are definitely there if you stick with it. ---
**Author:** ![Kythereia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/e8c25b/32.png) [@Kythereia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kythereia)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2005, 5:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-first-actuarial-exam-is-tomorrow/305354/18 "2005-07-09T17:21:53Z")
Yes, I am female, **iwakura43** , and congratulations! 😃 ---
**Author:** ![iwakura43](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/9de0a6/32.png) [@iwakura43](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iwakura43)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2009, 6:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-first-actuarial-exam-is-tomorrow/305354/19 "2009-01-02T18:00:17Z")
> [@iwakura43](#): > > On the plus side, if I fail I have plenty of time to take it again. I’m aiming to finish three, maybe four by the end of college in '09. I’m raising this thread from the dead to say that I met my goal of four years prior! The latest successful exam results came out today (course MFE for those in the know) and that makes exactly the “four by the end of college” I referred to. 🆒 ETA: Gosh, have we all been posting on this board a long time. ---
**Author:** ![iwakura43](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/9de0a6/32.png) [@iwakura43](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iwakura43)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2009, 6:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-first-actuarial-exam-is-tomorrow/305354/20 "2009-01-02T18:10:36Z")
And **Cunc** , old boy, despite joining at the same time, you seem to have 7x my postcount. Care to comment? 😃 [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-first-actuarial-exam-is-tomorrow/305354.md?page=2)