Jack Angert's homepage

11.15.2006

Good news

I took the second actuarial exam last week, and I feel pretty good about it. The results won't be released until January, but I'm going to go ahead and start studying for the next exam, which is supposed to be the hardest of the preliminary exams. Fortunately, it also deals directly with the sorts of things I do at work, so the concepts won't be completely foreign to me, and by studying for the exam I'll be able to understand more of what's going on at work.

The SOA just split the third exam into two parts (in reality they moved some of the third exam material to the fourth exam and added a new exam that didn't previously exist), so I've still got about 10 tests of some kind that I have to pass before I get my credentials. Fortunately, only three more of the very difficult preliminary exams, along with the equivalent of five college finals to get my Validation by Educational Experience credits, and then an exam and a final project for a set of professional education modules that they call the Fundamentals of Actuarial Practice. Apparently the first FAP exam wasn't that difficult if you had read the material, so if they don't decide that it was too easy that will be something to look forward to. On the other hand, the first time they gave the current incarnation of the second exam they passed 70% of the people who took it. Since then they're back to the ~35-40% that is more typical of the preliminary actuarial exams. To be honest, they've been tweaking the educational requirements quite a bit in the last seven years, so I wouldn't be surprised if the requirements are completely different before I get my letters. So it goes...

—Jack