Tell you what, OP: try this sample exam P. See how well you do, what you need to improve, go from there.
It seems to be in a similar format, and exam-taking environment, as the real thing. Find yourself 3 hours, and do it.
http://q38101.questionwritertracker.com/EQERFHHR/
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with no prep at all, and it sounds like he hasn’t had any course work, why even bother? need to get a study guide, and i’d recommend doing an online seminar from maybe TIA or whatever the good ones are.
that’s not good advice.
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Maybe not to take it for real but a useful reference of what an exam feels like
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Yeah, I talk to a bunch of people who see the salaries and say things like “well I got As and Bs in Algebra II in high school. I could probably pass an actuarial exam.”
It’s useful to glance at a few problems to see what you’re getting yourself into.
I disagree. Had I looked at an exam prior to studying the material at all, it would give me no clue on whether or not I could handle it.
I’m thinking of people who think they can pass an actuarial exam with a single digit number of hours studying “because I gots As and Bs in Algebra II”.
Those people exist; I’ve spoken with several.
I don’t know that the OP knows, having nothing to go on, except “I want to be a math teacher, but actuarial looks more lucrative.”
I’d like to know, OP, what math you think you know right now. Once I know that, I can tell you what more you need to know.
OP, IMO, if you’re smart, you should be able to pass the First Course (Exam P) with a few semesters of college Calculus and at least one Mathematical (not Business, not “for non-STEM”) Probability course, and some (100 hours or so, spread over a few months) focused study on the style of questions asked on the exam. Hence why I showed you a sample exam.
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OK, to answer your comments and questions as best as I can, I’ve numbered them.
- Not sure what kind of school has no math major. Assuming a liberal arts college specializing in making teachers? No judgment, and you might have or pick up skills that will stand out (positively) in the Actuarial Profession. Anywho, without a “perceived logically smart” major, you’d have to convince prospective employers that you are logically smart, as the profession prefers that type of person. On your résumé, you might have to list some impressive math classes you took (maybe with the grade).
- Your family is smart. If they were rich, this wouldn’t be a problem. Lots of inheritedly wealthy people go into teaching, knowing they have money to live off of. If your family is not, their advice is sage.
- Actuaries do a variety of different things (not all at once, but some do this, some do that, etc.), but most are in the business of risk assessment and risk management via insurance or reserving, or consulting insurers or other businesses about these topics. That said, it requires a very deep (deeper than a teacher’s, IMO) understanding of mathematics.
- Maybe. Nothing is ever guaranteed, and do note that there is competition. Not only must you qualify for a position (any degree is fine, but passing exams is a better measure, knowing nothing about an applicant), but you also must prove yourself to be the best available candidate for the position. And this applies to all professions, really. And, your competition will have STEM degrees from institutions known for their STEM majors (or their football teams).
- Um, maybe? First, I’m confused about how long your semesters are. By the time summer comes around, you should have TWO semesters under your belt. And if you’re planning to take (and pass) an exam by the end of summer, you should have taken the Math Courses at this college that will help you learn material for your first Actuarial Exam. Are you doing that, right now?? Does your college even have such courses?
- My questions in #5 should help answer this.
- You got this right. This is the Career section, and you had a General question about Careers. We don’t get enough of these here, and on our old website (RIP) we would have simply linked a FAQ thread (because we tired of answering the same questions).
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I like DTNF’s suggestion of looking over the types of questions asked on the first exam, to get an idea of whether OP has the maths chops.
I didn’t have any specific course work or study guides, or any idea what I was getting myself into, but basically just used old/sample problems to study for exam 1. The maths aren’t particularly difficult, but the types of questions are kind of idiosyncratic & take some practice to get used to.
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That’s a little chicken/egg since most if not all (decent) engineering programs do require linear algebra.
I agree with your general sentiment that an engineering background should certainly provide a more than adequate math skills foundation.
I was more trying to say that i don’t think you need math any more advanced than vector calculus to pass actuarial exams and work as an actuary. And I’m not sure you have even know much from vector calculus.
There are certainly actuarial jobs where you need more advanced math than that.
And I may also simply be having difficulty separating in my head what one learns in those individual classes. It has been quite a while since i took them.
It sounds like i didn’t understand the math requirements for most engineering programs.
It’s also been too long for me for most of these exams, but I basically studied for the specific test itself with review manuals and seminars and such. What I took in college as a math major was only minorly helpful. Also, hard to separate it out since I was, in fact a math major, but I don’t think my degree was all that helpful in passing the exams.
An actuarial science major would certainly be helpful in passing these exams, since the classes would be specific to them.
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I took several college level math classes while still in high school, and while most of them were B’s, this doesn’t really reflect my knowledge of mathematics, but more so that I was just looking to get by in high school rather than excel as I should have.
Intermediate Algebra: C
College Algebra: B
College Statistics: B
And I am currently taking an “intro to mathematics” class that is required to get my bachelor’s degree in general education. Not sure what type of math this class specifically is teaching me, as I have looked through the class info and haven’t really seen what it is. Again, it’s rather embarrassing now to look back on my grades from back in high school lol. I’d like to think I’ve matured a good bit in a relatively short period of time.
Um, any Calculus at all?
Have you done much Calculus? I found the first actuarial exam to have a lot of overlap with two college courses in particular, Calculus II (infinite series, double integrals, etc.) and a math class called Theory of Probability, that involved a lot of the calculus surrounding probability distributions, etc.
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Yeah, you definitely need Calculus for the exams.
And probability that uses calculus.
There are also statistics and probability courses that to not use or require calculus, and these will not help nearly as much.
If you didn’t have the drive to get good grades in high school, what makes you think that you now have the drive to pursue actuarial credentials? The exam process requires a lot of work. I’d suggest finding a different career path that does not have so many exams.
A lot of people aren’t motivated to make good grades in high school because grades have no inherent value to them, and they aren’t mature enough to see their value in a future that can seem a long way off to a teenager.
OP should definitely ask themselves if they are willing to put in the enormous work needed to pass actuarial exams, but they should not feel like it’s not an option simply because they were not grade motivated in high school.
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Well yes, I agree with this. I’m just saying there are other fields that you can make decent money that do not require all these exams. Many people get burnt out on these exams, even good students. Not sure exactly how difficult it is to get through them now though vs when I took most of them