SOA Exam P. Anyone taken it?

MinRaise · #1 01-20-2007, 11:15 PM

I am looking for general advice on studying for SOA Exam P. I purchased a study manual for it which has been helpful, but I really don't know anyone who has taken it recently.

-What texts/books should I read?
-How many hours should I study?
-What do you wish you would have studied more before taking it?

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

TheNoodleMan · #2 01-21-2007, 12:16 AM

siccjay · #3 01-21-2007, 03:37 AM

I really though this post was going to be about Snakes on an Exam before I opened it.

crazymoose · #4 01-21-2007, 05:44 AM

Just a caveat before I post: I have not passed exam P, but I think this info is good nonetheless.

You should go visit the actuarial bookstore. *Do a google search for that, should turn up.* They have 2 different study books for SOA Exam P that cover everything on the exam. If I recall they are in the neighborhood of $75. I wish I would have studied series and expansions involving e. Other than that, know the distributions and means/var/ of them and how to use them by heart. And of course conditional prob/Bayes. There was also a calculus question or 2 I think I got wrong.

I studied 20 hours a week for a month up to the exam and just barely missed passing (I got a 5 and you need a 6). I've heard that 40 hours a week is a good number.

marchron · #5 01-21-2007, 05:51 AM

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Damn you.

Insane_Steve · #6 01-21-2007, 02:38 PM

I'm sitting exam P this spring also. You in college right now? What I'm doing is taken a college course that explicity covers the material on exam P that uses the SOA study guide as a textbook. I'm also taking my requisite probability course for my degree now.

Also, I think the standard for studying is a total of 200 hours for Exam P. I think. How you allot that time depends on how you study.

Alexisonfyre · #7 01-21-2007, 03:02 PM

I took the exam last spring.

Books/texts : I used the ACTEX manual for Exam P. I'm currently studying actuarial sciences in an university and the student's union sold it to us for like 20$(I think it's worth 90$). It covers everything that appears in the exam. I also have A first course in probability by Sheldon Ross but I barely used it.

Hours : It depends. I studied 20-25 hours and passed the test, but I had a class in my first semester that covered everything that was in the exam, so I already knew all of the stuff beforehand. Most of my friends put 75-100 hours of study into that exam.

I'd say the toughest questions were about conditional probabilities.

Send me a PM if you want more info.

almostbusto · #8 01-21-2007, 05:59 PM

i am taking this exam on feb 23. i have probably studied 6 hours so far. i am pretty nervous about it because like the other posters have mentioned, it seems like everyone says you seriously need to study your ass off for months.

i am a senior math student so hopefully i can squeeze by.

i am basically just working on being able to do everything by hand (the calculators you can use don't seem good for much more than arithmetic) and memorizing distributions and their properties.

i have the actex manual for exam P. is ok but i don't like its organization. i spend more time in all the probability theory and statistics books i have collected over the years as a math major.

bighomage · #9 01-21-2007, 06:19 PM

I took exam P in November and I just found out that I passed (hell yeah). I had a probability and statistics class first semester which covered a lot of the basics for the exam, and then I simply used the sample questions on beanactuary.com. Just using these, I passed. If you have a class on probability and you spend enough time doing all the practice questions on the website, to the point that you thoroughly understand them all.

If you haven't had a class, I hear the ASM manual is good. I ordered Probability for Risk Management by Hassett, which could be helpful if you haven't had a Probability class, but I didn't really end up using it.

That being said, I only got a 7, so I didn't blow the test away or anything, but I passed which is all that really matters for these exams.

DrVanNostrin · #10 01-21-2007, 06:39 PM

I'm taking it on 2/23. I've just been using the sample exams located here.

I usually go in 1 hour incriments and do 10 questions in that time. I typically get 5-7 correct. For those of you who have taken it: Is 50-70% any good? And did you have any time issuses on the test? I often struggle to finish the 10 questions in less than an hour.