Here are a couple of real life stories I came across from people I met over the last few weeks about studying for the actuarial exams:
1. I met a lady at the exam seminar last week and she inspired me.
She has 3 kids. Since her husband is in graduate school, she's the sole breadwinner.
When I asked her how she managed to pass her exams on every of her first try. She said, "I wake up every day at 4am to study."
2. My manager was cleaning up his office the other day. And he showed me his dog-eared copy of study manual of Course 8. In front of the manual, it was a picture of his two kids. And he said, "that's my motivation to pass my exam."
3. This one is not actuarial exam related but I thought it's worth sharing. There's a 50 year-old lady came to my friend for math tutoring lessons. This lady has tried dozens of math tutors over the years and she's still failing in her math courses in a community college.
Her husband insisted her to stop taking math tutoring lessons as he thought it's a waste of time and money. She persists as her dream is to get a college degree. Guess how she manages to finish her homework given by my friend? She tries to finish her math problem in her car every day before she goes home. She even hides her homework at the back of the trunk so her husband won't discover it!
Over the last few days, I was at an exam seminar in Ritz Carlton. While sitting in a ballroom, looking up the gigantic chandelier and sipping the cookies n creme gelato shake I got across the street, I feel I'm very priveleged to have all these resources for me to prepare for the exam.
This also makes me think- if others can pass the exam with lesser resources and time than I have, what's my excuse for not studying?
What's your excuse?
A Milestone
The new ASAs list is out. As expected, my name is there. :)
And now my mom can officially throw a party on behalf of me to celebrate my achievement. Since we are so far away, I won't be there at the party but I'll be paying for it. No, I'm not being sarcastic. I do feel happy that when my family and friends are happy for me about my success and achievements. :)
An Effective Way to study for FSA exams
Here are some links that I found which seem to be useful:
Dealing with FSA exams
Studying philosophy for actuarial exams
FSA exam advice from a grader
Another discussion thread on tackling FSA essay exams
In a way, studying for the FSA exams is like training different parts of my body. It's just like working out in the gym- I have pretty strong biceps and back muscles. (In terms of actuarial exams, I rely on my talent in pattern recognition and the unconscious familiarity of the material through practicing lots of problems.)
But then in order to have a well-toned body with strength, I need to start focusing on the muscle groups that are less developed (e.g. my triceps, have you ever heard of the terms flabby arms? :)). (In terms of studying the actuarial exams, the part that I need to work on is my ability to understand and memorize, and get used to the essay-exam format.)
If memorization is part of the educational system to be an FSA, just as memorizing times tables is a part of elementary math education, then I will accept it as the rule of the game. And I will do whatever I can do adapt.
I'd say the FSA exams is my own private Mount Everest for the next 12 months. And admit that your own private Mount Everest exists. That is half the battle.
I passed the Final Assessment
Just got an email from SOA this afternoon. Apparently I passed my Final Assessment! :) Hopefully I'll see my name on the new ASAs list this month or next month. Stay tuned! I really need to go out to celebrate tonight.
Dear Y:
We have completed your FAP Final Assessment grading.
You have been graded as Meets Minimum Requirements.
Candidates who have now completed all Associate requirements will be
on the listing of New ASAs, posted on the SOA website at:
http://www.soa.org/education/
Listings are updated on a monthly basis.
This email confirmation is your official notification of completion
of the FAP Final Assessment. No gradeslip will be issued.
Congratulations!
FAP Staff
APC @ Chicago
Just came back from the APC at Chicago yesterday. It's good to see Professor Klugman and a co-worker that I once worked with in Des Moines.
Really, I need to switch my focus to my module 6, 7 and the Final Assessment. I'm THAT close to be an ASA . It all depends on how much efforts I want to put in now.
My Second Good News in 2008
To complete the first part of the FAP Modules, not only did I have to pass the FAP Exam 1, I also have to pass all the End-Of-Module Exercise Assignments. (At least, that's what I need to get a pay raise). As you may have guessed, my second good news in 2008 is.....(drum roll please)...I passed the Module 1- 5. :)
Now, moving on....hopefully I will finish Module 6,7 and 8 plus the Final Assessment by the end of March.
Thank you every one for your support!
78997
My first good news in 2008- I saw my candidate number here. Phew! One step closer to the designation/destination.
FAP Module 1 Updates
I'm still working on the end-of-module exercise of Module 1. Hopefully I'll finish writing the memo and submit it by this week.
Sometimes, you just can't underestimate the power of procrastination. ;)
And when I'm done with this exercise, I'll write more again here.
The Distance Between a 5 and a 6
(The longest distance in the world,
it's not the distance of living and dying,
it's not the physical distance that separate us,
it is that I'm standing right in front of you,
and you don't know I love you.)
The few lines above were one of the most memorable things written by Amy Cheung, a popular Chinese writer.
Then I thought, as an actuarial student, the distance between a 5 and a 6 is a very long and significant one too.
This is what's written on the SOA exam result slip:
"The scale of grades runs from 0 to 10. Passing grades are 6 through 10. A grade of 0 does not mean that the candidate received no credit but that he/she had a very poor paper. Similarly, a grade of 10 indicates a very fine paper but not necessarily a perfect one."
So a 6 means a pass and moving on to the next exam, and a 5 means you have to study for the same test over again for the next 4 months. Let say out of 40 questions, if you answer 23 questions correctly, you get a 6. But if you only answer 22 questions correctly, then you get a 5.
What's the difference of the understanding level of the exam material between a 5 or a 6? I don't think there's much of a difference. Probably, it's the factor of luck that makes the difference.
A $1110 textbooks package
I ordered the FAP modules textbooks package from Actuarial Bookstore last Sunday and it arrived yesterday. While opening the packages and unwrapping the books, I felt like I'm opening presents for my birthday! In elementary school, I always remember the time when I received all the textbooks on the first day of school. I liked to flip through the new books while my mom was busy with wrapping the books with sheets of plastic.
While flipping the brand new textbooks, I was so hopeful because a new school term just began. Who knows, a month after, I realized that I did have to study the textbooks and I had to carry those heavy books to school every day, it wasn't fun anymore.
This time, instead of carrying the books around, they will sit in my room and hopefully I will enjoy their company for the next few months and learn something from them. :)
If you want to see further, you need to stand higher
欲穷千里目,更上一层楼 - 王之涣《登鹳雀楼》
You can enjoy a grander sight,
By climbing to a greater height.
Two years ago, during my summer internship, I saw this quote in a co-worker's cubicle. My co-worker said this quote motivated him to pass his actuarial exams faster and sooner.
I was talking to my mom yesterday and we were randomly talking about my career goal and life etc. Somehow, my mom also said something similar to the quote. She said, "more doors will be opened for you once you become a ASA, and even more when you become a FSA.So study hard! It's good that your company is investing so much to you for taking exams."
What does it take to be an ASA
What does it take to be an ASA (Associate of the Society of Actuaries):
1. Pre-requisite: Calculus, Linear Algebra, Business Law 101, Intro to Accounting and Math Statistics. (Most people have taken these classes in college. The SOA exams don't test you on these things directly, but it's good to have some background knowledge.) (Check!)
2. Preliminary Exams - P, FM, MLC, MFE, C (Check!)
3. 3 VEE (Validation by Educational Experience in Applied Statistical Methods, Corporate Finance, and Economics.) - In order to get the credit in college, you need to get a 'B' or above in those particular classes. (Check!)
4. 8 FAP Modules (Fundamentals of Actuarial Practice) - (Studying in Progress)
5. FAP Exam 1 (testing material from FAP Modules 1-5) -(Going to take it on 12/12/2007)
6. FAP Final Assessments (testing material from FAP Modules 6-8)- (Early next year , hopefully)
7. Associateship Professionalism Course (APC) -(Early next year, hopefully)
It sounds like a lot of work, doesn't it? Probably everything that's worth doing, it takes hard work. And you don't just find a pot of gold at the end of this rainbow, you do find some gold coins along the way too. (i.e. pay raise for passing the exams) :)
An Early Surprise
I received an email from SOA yesterday.
July 12, 2007
Dear Exam Candidate,
May 2007 Passing Candidate Numbers for Exams P, FM, MLC, MFE, and C are Now Available:
The exam result is supposed to be released today. Luckily I kept the ticket of admission email in my inbox, so I could retrieve my candidate number. I didn't really expect to see my number on the list since I didn’t study wholeheartedly. Yet, on the other hand, my heart was pounding and hoping to see my number appeared on the screen, somehow.
And guess what, I saw it. My number (12914) was on the first page. I even asked my boss to check it for me, just in case that it was my illusion. :)
Yes! The feeling of making progress of something is wonderful. And I’m grateful for the pay raise, it just comes in handy. No, I’m not getting an iphone or a new car (Christen, you know my impulse shopping spree ;)). I need the extra income to support the college tuition of my little brother.
And my dear FAP modules, here I come.
A Story for Actuaries
Lucky Tom was on his way to work and picking up coins along the way when he ran into a very hungry tyrannosaur. Because Lucky Tom was not a scientist, he was safe from becoming the tyrannosaur's lunch. He continues on his way when he stumbled across an urn that contained six blue balls and four red balls.
While pondering the hypergeometric probabilities, Lucky Tom ran into a group of men. 30% of them had a circulation problem. They informed him that 2/3 of men who have a circulation problem are smokers while 1/14 of men without problems smoke. After using Bayes' Theorem to determine that 4/5 of smokers have a circulation problem, he wandered on.
Lucky Tom walked a little farther and ran into a bank employee who asked if he would be interested in buying an increasing annuity valued at spot rates derived from US Treasury bonds. After calculating the risk and IRR, Lucky Tom declined and continued looking for coins. The bank employee was persistent and followed Lucky Tom and said that he could take out a loan and repay it using the sinking fund method.
Lucky Tom considered this, since he could deposit the coins he was finding at Poisson rate of 1/2 per minute into the sinking fund. However, he declined. "What a strange day today!" thought Lucky Tom, "First a hungry tyrannosaur, then the urn, then the group of men with a circulation problem, what next?" Suddenly, Lucky Tom was distracted by a shiny quarter on the ground. As he bent down to pick it up, he was gobbled up by the hungry tyrannosaur who had now realized that Lucky Tom was indeed a scientist, an actuarial scientist.
THE END
(Note a: I didn't write this story. I found this story at the back of a t-shirt that I ordered from Drake Actuarial Student Society 2 or 3 years ago. I thought someone who served as the exec committee wrote this.)
(Note b : If you have not taken the Exam M, you may not understand why Lucky Tom, the scientist, the tyrannosaur are so significant in the story. These characters appeared a lot in the exam questions. The story is more or less an inside joke for the exam-takers. :))
Actuarial Exams hack: Pattern Recognition
When I took a psychology class in freshman year, my professor had an interesting theory about learning mathematics. He said, "most people are scared of math because they didn't practice enough math problems. Actually anyone can be good at math. If you practice enough math problems, sooner or later, your mind will start to figure out how the numbers work together."
I've been suspecting what my professor suggested was actually the pattern recognition of math questions. To prepare for the actuarial exams, one of the common ways is to keep practicing the released past-years exam questions. After doing all the problems a few times, you will be familiar with all types of problems which are most commonly asked.
Just like learning a foreign language or playing piano, the more you practice the exam questions, the faster you can recognize what topics it is asking and the quicker you retrieve a solution from your memory.
I found an article "Pattern Recognition vs. Real Understanding" from Capitalism Magazine and it explained very well about how a student can develop the skill of pattern recognition and apply it in exam.
Solving differential equations is an art. There are quite a few techniques, and the trick is to recognize which technique will work on the particular equation of interest....Does this sound familiar to you? Sometimes I do feel this "subconscious, automatized ability" while solving certain kinds of exam problems. And usually, if I knew I passed the exam, I could faintly recall how to do the exam problems two months later.Faced with the application of differential equations to physics, Dave discovered that he had developed a subconscious, automatized ability to look at an equation and instinctively just know what technique to use. But he had never explicitly identified what he was doing, or why that was the right approach to solving this particular problem.
What he possessed was not real knowledge, but an acquired talent of pattern recognition, which—as it always does—faded when it was no longer in use.
Pattern recognition may not be the best way to learn math, but definitely it's an effective way to pass the first 4 actuarial exams.
Based on my experience, the SOA has been trying to come up with some creative problems set for last few settings. And I think they are trying to break this pattern recognition habits of the exam-takers. Hence, you still need a basic understanding of the core concepts in order to do well on the "unexpected" questions that you've never seen before.
Study Updates
Before I move on to the next exam, I want to say a big THANK YOU to Yufeng Guo . I took Guo's online course to prepare for Course M last year and it was one of the success factors for me to pass my exam.
Just like what Guo said at the beginning of the course, "taking an actuarial exam is just like climbing Mount. Everest. You need preparation, discipline and motivation to succeed. You also need to have the right attitude."
Now I'm carrying over this mindset to prepare for my Course C. No, Guo didn't offer Course C online course at this moment. And I have to look elsewhere for a good study material. I bought BPP a few weeks ago, but it's been such a pain to carry that Q&A folder around since it's too heavy (I study both at home and at the office). So I bought ASM last night, but it won't be shipped until 1/19. In the meantime, I'll read the BPP manual just to get an understanding for the material.
Thoughts After the Exam Result Release
Yes, I passed Course M.
(See if you can find 50714 in the passing candidates list.)
Yes, there will be a party in my place tonight.
Thoughts Before the Exam Result Release
After taking Exam M in November, I wasn't studying anything actuarial related at all for the last two months. Honestly, it's the best time ever! I felt so much more alive. I got a chance to read more (nothing number-related neither, for the last two months, I read mostly about business, entrepreneur, marketing, creativity and spirituality books), blog more, talk to my friends and family more, exercise more. I feel more creative and happier.
The world seems so much bigger and much more interesting when I am not studying for the actuarial exam.
Today, the exam result will be released in the afternoon and I'm taking the afternoon off. It's never a good idea to find out the exam result in the office- if I passed, I'll be jumping around in my cubicle since I will be over joy; and if I didn't pass, I will look extremely grumpy for the next few hours. Either way, it doesn't seem too professional.
Anyway, if I pass M, I'll throw a party at home to celebrate. (Of course you are always invited, if you are in town this weekend ;)) If I don't, I probably will still buy myself a nice dinner tonight to cheer myself up. Yeah, I know it seems so Ah Q. But what's the point of beating yourself up even more in a minor setback?
My New Year Fortune
After having dim sum on 1/1, I received this fortune from a fortune cookie. I usually don't eat the fortune cookie, but I like the fortune because they are quite cheesy sometimes- especially if you add the phrase "in bed" behind the message.
"Don't put off until tomorrow what you can do today."
Yesterday, when I first came to work, I filled out the form to notify the company that I finally got my VEE credit approved by the SOA. This is quite a big deal because having the VEE credit approval entitles me to request a pay raise!
So following my New Year Fortune does bring me a small fortune!
Updates on Actuarial Passion
Though some of you may not think about your actuarial work when you are on vocation, I believe some of us do have a passion on studying and passing the actuarial exams.
My friend S told me that she studied some of her Life Contingencies portions of Exam M while she was traveling to Europe! (How romantic when you are working on a reserve problem in an Italy espresso bar?!)
And I also have to admit that I studied for the actuarial exams every spring break for the last three years. (No fancy places for me, just the heartland of America ;))
(It may sound too nerdy to some people, but we do enjoy taking the challenge;))
