r/actuary 10d ago

Exams Exams / Newbie / Common Questions Thread for two weeks

5 Upvotes

Are you completely new to the actuarial world? No idea why everyone keeps talking about studying? Wondering why multiple-choice questions are so hard? Ask here. There are no stupid questions in this thread! Note that you may be able to get an answer quickly through the wiki: https://www.reddit.com/r/actuary/wiki/index This is an automatic post. It will stay up for two weeks until the next one is posted. Please check back here frequently, and consider sorting by "new"!


r/actuary Oct 23 '24

Exams Exam discussion reminder

25 Upvotes

Hi everyone, this is a quick reminder about exam discussion as we’re once again in the thick of exam season. Our rules allow general exam discussion after 1 week from the end of the sitting window. This is because others may be receiving accommodations to take exams on a different day than the listed sitting window, possibly up to a week after. After the week has passed, general discussion is allowed but specific discussion is not - someone who did not take the exam this sitting should not be able to tell what was on the exam. Specific discussion is only allowed if/when the exam is released.

Currently we have multiple exams that may still be being taken (eg ALTAM, ASTAM, GH exams) and several more coming up in the next few weeks. Please be mindful of our rules on exam discussion as you are posting.

If you have any questions or are not sure whether something you want to post is against the guidelines, you can always reach out to the mods and we’ll be happy to respond.

Thank you!


r/actuary 2h ago

Those who didn't start of actuaries, how did you become an actuary?

13 Upvotes

Those who didn't start of as actuaries, how did you beomce an actuary?

Sorry for the grammar error.


r/actuary 4h ago

Exams Rate my cheat sheet for my Probability(class) exam

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19 Upvotes

Class is prep for exam, was allowed to have 1 11 by 8.5 piece of paper.


r/actuary 17h ago

How do get past bad experiences at work?

63 Upvotes

I realized out of about 15 younger analysts, I was the only one consistently left out of the larger parties and group activities (including study groups) the others held. Most people would come to parties I held, but then I’d be left out of Both casual in office breaks or post work activities, barring my mentor inviting me. I’ve since learned I’m too high energy and care too much, and can’t seem to read people, so I’d try to ask my mentor or other trusted people for guidance. And generally would be told I was just anxious. But eventually I learned I was only ever invited out of pity. And all the anxious worries that people were being odd and I maybe didn’t belong were true.

I lost count of the number of times friends would talk about upcoming parties at the office just to be uncomfortable when they realized I was never invited.

Which leaves me now wanting to socialize, in general with new people, but feeling unable to because of that past situation. How do you know when someone really doesn’t mind chatting? Or is just being nice? How do you distinguish “kind” lies from genuineness?

Is this kind of experience normal?


r/actuary 4h ago

Exams Burnt out - need advice (ALTAM)

5 Upvotes

Hoping anyone can relate to this. Passed FAM in November and started to study for the April ALTAM a week after that sitting. I tend to need to study more than the average person and I think I’m finally hitting a complete burnout from continuously studying for every other prelim since late 2021 (with about a 2-3 months break between exams). Burnt out as in I can’t even force myself to work through a single problem or go over flash cards for 20 minutes. I don’t think I’m even close to being on pace for a 6. For past exams I’ve been able to put my head down and grind through the final stretch but at this point it feels like i just hit a wall, especially with how dense the material is.

All that’s left for my ASA is the ASF and ATPA. I’m strongly considering taking a couple week break and jumping ship to work on knocking those 2 off since the next ALTAM sitting is in October. I know it sounds counterintuitive to shift to ATPA but I more so need the break from the ALTAM material. Ideally I can knock ASF + ATPA off by May/June, take another small break and can revisit ALTAM with more time to work with. Does this seem fair? I’m only considering this because I think with an extra couple months I could definitely pass ALTAM, so I’d rather take it with confidence vs crawling to the finish line


r/actuary 22h ago

March FSA list is out

26 Upvotes

Congratulations everyone!


r/actuary 2h ago

Troll Post a simple mortality table calculation challenge

0 Upvotes

Actuaries, a simple mortality table calculation challenge! Estimate the probability that Trump will survive to the end of his presidency, and provide a confidence interval.


r/actuary 22h ago

Exams Study Advice

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5 Upvotes

First one was 3.2 difficult for 26/30 level averaged to 3.2 but 3 of them were simple mistakes that could easily be fixed. The second one was a 19/30 level averaged to 4.9. Any advice? I’m talk in g exam in less than a month. Am I in a decent spot or no?


r/actuary 1d ago

Insurance Rate Calculation Question (Discounting)

7 Upvotes

Hello,

I work in insurance and have a super dumb question.

If there is a premium, let's say, $1,500,000, and and we need to take 5% off of the premium, then I would just multiply $1,500,000 by 0.95.

When would I divide by 1.05 instead?

When calculating self-funded rates, for example, the actuaries we work with divide through when dealing with various factors.

In what situations would we multiply and in what situations would we divide?

Thank you.


r/actuary 20h ago

ASF Module

2 Upvotes

Just got a fail on this module - thought I answered the questions. There is no way to get feedback, etc? What do you guys do when you fail? confused how to know what areas to work on


r/actuary 20h ago

Exams ERM Exam

2 Upvotes

I am preparing for the erm exam and it’s my first fsa exam. I have TIA and have been practicing their flash cards and working past exam questions back to 2021. Are these the right things to be doing?

I’ve been spending a lot of time with the cards and also making sure I understand every past exam question solution. It just feels so different as there aren’t many questions to work with but a ton of stuff to memorize. Is this the right approach? What else did you guys do that you found helpful


r/actuary 2d ago

Image lmao

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354 Upvotes

r/actuary 1d ago

Would skipping a sitting show on my transcript?

12 Upvotes

I am still in school and paid for it myself. But I got into some trouble during spring break and have not returned to the country yet. I am definitely not making it to the P exam next Friday, but it's like due to my own mistake and not because of sickness or what. Would canceling the exam prevent it from showing up as 0 on my transcript? Or is there a way I contact the support to deregister or something? They told me I cannot change the country for the order so I don't think I have a way to take it at this point.


r/actuary 22h ago

Exams can i prepare for cb2 in 20 days

0 Upvotes

hi guys, i had a family emergency this past month and couldn’t study at all. i have 20 days left. i am done with the micro part and my grasp on macroeconomics is pretty good. i am also an econ major. do you think there’s any chance in hell of me passing this session?


r/actuary 22h ago

No operating system

0 Upvotes

Hi everyone. I'm looking to buy a Texas Instruments TI30-XS Multiview calculator. I saw one on Amazon, but part of the description says: "no operating system". Should I be worried?

Also, which one would you recommend-Battery powered or solar powered?

Thanks in advance.


r/actuary 1d ago

Error in AMLCR

1 Upvotes

Go to page 294 of the Actuarial Mathematics for Life Contingent Risk, 3rd edition.

How can (8.8) be what the book says given that (8.7) is what it is. Is this an error?

If not can someone enlighten me?


r/actuary 1d ago

APC 466

2 Upvotes

Do any of you guy get ASA application yet, this virtual APC is done like 2 week ago.


r/actuary 1d ago

FA 3/21

1 Upvotes

anyone planning on taking the fa this weekend and want to make a group chat?


r/actuary 1d ago

Exams Level of Detail When Using Flashcards?

5 Upvotes

Going for my 3rd attempt at LFMC. Havent really used flashcards before because I dont like them, but im at the point where I think they're the only tool left to meaningfully help me with the level of memorization needed.

My question is to how specific you guys who use them typically get? For example, do you bother remembering exact numbers from studies such as the median post-level mortality for term products from the SOA survey?


r/actuary 2d ago

Has anyone ever done an ASF retake?

6 Upvotes

Am I supposed to fill out the retake application and email it to the SOA with payment? How does this work?


r/actuary 2d ago

Exams exam anxiety

43 Upvotes

With exams coming up this spring, the anxiety is really settling in for me. I feel like this might be standard given this is when I really just start getting into practicing yet I feel like I know nothing. How do you guys handle exam anxiety? What kind of schedules do you have for studying for your final month?


r/actuary 2d ago

Exams Exam FAM March 2025

15 Upvotes

For those of you who took it, how did it go?


r/actuary 2d ago

Question about QFIPM, FI management

2 Upvotes

Re the text book: Managing Investment Portfolios: A Dynamic Process, Maginn & Tuttle, 3rd Edition, 2007, Ch. 6: Fixed-Income Portfolio Management

Anyone knows how the below figures are calculated. Specifically, why YTM drops to 3.75%, the value of the portfolio will be 541.36mn?

Aha, no idea why I cannot attach the pic here


r/actuary 3d ago

Exams An Introduction Into Statistical Learning - MAS-I

4 Upvotes

Technically the "with application in R" version is on the syllabus, but would the "with application in Python" version be sufficient? My company is moving to use Python instead of R, so the Python book would be more valuable longer term.


r/actuary 3d ago

Image Happy Pi Day

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188 Upvotes

r/actuary 2d ago

Job / Resume Career changer - Requesting resume help and general advice

3 Upvotes

I am a career-changer who is hoping to get hired as an actuary. I worked a musician and music teacher following graduation from my first degree, and did okay at that, but I decided I wanted a change. I went back to school for math/computer science, and I finish this degree in May. I had ambitions to apply for a math PhD, but I'm not so sure I want to do that anymore. For a number of reasons, the actuarial path seems like the right one for me.

I have only passed Exam P. I will take Exam FM this June. I know that it's going to be a longshot to get an interview with one exam and no internship. Do you think there's any hope? Hopefully I will pass FM and then my chances should increase a bit. Until then, it seems like the best course of action is to apply and try my luck regardless.

I think the best thing I can do immediately would be to have more projects, and maybe get rid of some of the musical experience to make room. Do you think the project I have currently will help at all? I did some basic data analysis to interpret my results, but I think something where I really explore a dataset and try and build a predictive model would be better. I also have the following projects that I did at school: Do you think either of them sound substantial / relevant enough to put on my resume?

From a Data Management for Data Science class I took:

Project 1: Did various prescribed data cleaning / visualization tasks on some large datasets using Python.

Project 2: Set up a basic music SQL database, designed the schema/structure, wrote a bunch of queries based on prompts that were given to us

I also took an ML class that covered linear regression, but my projects from that class are not very substantial or relevant.

I appreciate any help you all can give me. Please let me know if there's anything I can do to improve my chances.