Exact same situation here and also wondering about this. I did read some of the big source papers (GLM, Fisher, Clark) last time that were suggested but it wasn’t enough.
Never read any source. Maybe a page here and there. It’s not necessary IMO. Also, I didn’t use Crystal Clear either. TIA, and RF were enough for me for Exam 7-9.
This is reassuring to hear. So many people are getting me nervous about having to use 4 study aids plus reading through the source material
any suggestions on how to study for 2nd attempt?
My approach for 2nd attempt was just make sure to understand each section much better than the first time. Again, I used TIA and RF only. I was never the type to overload myself with multiple study materials and sources. That’s way too much. Won’t have time to thoroughly use all of them anyways. i know many guys who used like 3 different study materials, did all practice exams, and still failed. No need to do them all. I did not even do any TIA practice exams. Just focus on past CAS problems and RF problem pack.
I went through flashcards every morning for like 6 months to know them like the back of my hand on exam day.
My goal was to be almost 100% stupid-mistake proof on exam day with easy questions, get most of the intermediate level questions right, and try to get as many partial credits on the most difficult ones. Good testing taking skill is something that everyone should also spend time learning IMO. Good luck!!!
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Why do insurers use ILFs instead of having a rate for each limit?
2 reasons I was thinking of what that:
- It makes filing easier
- Data is sparse at higher limits and calculating a relativity is more accurate than calculating a rate.
Is it one of these reasons or is it for something else that I am not thinking of?
Due to volatility and credibility of data, producing an indicated rate for each limit could easily produce lower rates at higher limits, which is counterintuitive. The ILF approach prevents this, and makes sense.
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How is everyone’s studying going so far?
Starting to take work study hours this week
Where are you at in the material? How do you feel about it so far?
started from the XS, deductible, and individual risk rating section in the TIA and just finished Bahnemann and so far it is not too bad.
What makes me nervous is that this exam has such a low pass rate and I cannot get that out of my head.
Looks like registration opened, but the CAS website is being the CAS website and erroring when going through the registration process. I can’t get it to work 
That happened to me and I closed and reopened the page and I was sucessful
Nice! I got it to work for me too now 
I am in for this sitting! :s
I am super stressed by all the scary comments about this exam tbh, but at the same time I have gone through 60% (not super detailed, just read the problems and solutions) of the RF Cookbook and haven’t found anything out of the usual curveballs of other exams… so I am wondering, what is it that makes this exam so hard to pass? Do I have to wait and see the 40% I am left? 
I have read that the short syllabus gives you a false illusion of being easy… so which are the really hard topics of this exam?
That’s how I felt last year and last year’s exam was relatively standard. The only other exam that I was confident to pass but failed was exam FM, when I was young and naive…
I think the key is to REALLY understand the materials. Now I review them again I know I was overconfident.
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The main thing with this exam is how many different ways they can ask questions on the material. You just have to have a good understanding of how to do the problems obviously, but also all the different ways they can ask certain questions. I strongly suggest the RF Cookbook for this exam because they do an excellent job of explaining the various ways you could see a certain type of question presented. I can confidently say I would not have passed this exam on the first try if it wasn’t for RF.
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you can also use them as offsets with GLM (there are some drawbacks to that but I think that is beyond the scope of the syllabus)
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What is in the study kit and should I be buying it?