How to Pass Actuarial Exams

Actuarial Exams can leave you scratching your head, but with adequate preparation, you can conquer them.

Let me preface this by saying that there is no one method to passing exams. I worked best early in the morning; a former co-worker worked best in the evening. We both passed exams consistently.
However, there are a few constants.

Things You'll Need

• Patience
• Endurance
• an appropriate study guide, and study materials (including appropriate calculator and lots of paper)

Instructions

1. Start studying ASAP. I've known people who "did better when under pressure" so they waited to start studying. Each of these people have failed multiple exams.
   If you take one exam, and do not have results yet, start studying for the next one anyway. Worst case, you got a head start on the next exam when you do pass the prior one. Best case, well, you get a head start on the next exam.

2. Work through a manual entirely. Do not skip sections, or example problems. Do everything. You do not have to understand everything. You just need to understand how everything is related and what, exactly, the exam is testing.
   You should not plan to finish the manual one or two weeks prior to the exam. You are better off finishing the manual a good month prior to the exam, so that you can spend as much time as possible "fine tuning" rather than trying to re-cram material from the beginning of the manual.

3. Do as many practice problems as you can get your hands on - as long as they are from a reputable source. There are some "practice problems" I have done in the past that did not seem like other problems I had done.
   The best sources for problems are: (1) the SOA website (http://www.soa.org) - they will often have practice problems for the preliminary exams, although they sometimes will not; (2) "Practice Exams" from your manual; (3) Practice problems from sections in your manual with which you had the most difficulty; (4) the exam forum on http://www.actuarialoutpost.com often has practice problems given by other manual authors.

4. I always found it best to NOT study very much the day before the exam. I would take the day off before the exam, study for a few hours in the morning, then go relax. Maybe go to Starbucks, buy a coffee, listen to music, etc. to just relax. Obviously, if you are not prepared, then this step is pointless. However, for my very first exam, I crammed like crazy on the day prior. I ended up reviewing obscure topics that were very unlikely to be asked.
   It is not bad to review obscure topics, but I spent the whole day looking almost exclusively at these topics, thus (a) made myself nervous, which is not good; (b) possibly confused myself on other topics; and (c) simply wasted time.
   Again, it is good and necessary to know obscure topics. It is just not good to spend your last day before the exam focusing on these, which is likely to happen.
   By the way, the lowest grade I ever made on an exam was on my first exam which I crammed for. My score was a 7.

5. Finally, this may seem silly, but I am a big believer in a healthy dose of caffeine prior to a long exam. I do not mean caffeine tablets with crazy dosages. I mean simply a coffee from McDonalds or something.
   You just want to be as alert as possible when taking the exam without overdoing it. I always found it helpful - you may not.

Tips & Warnings

• I'm assuming two things here: (a) I'm not mentioning obvious things like "bring your candidate number to the testing center." You are an actuary - you know the rules, follow them; (b) You are relatively new to the actuarial career. If you have passed six exams, I trust that you do not need any help with passing exams.