Tips on taking upper-level actuarial exams
Candidates taking the upper-level exams often find challenges different from those of the preliminary exams. The biggest is the shift from memorizing and manipulating mathematical formulas and equations to reading papers and answering essay questions. Here are some tips to help you prepare for the language-heavy, upper-level, actuarial exams.
Preparation
The best way to eliminate test anxiety and ensure success on an exam is to have adequate preparation. A unique challenge to actuarial exams, however, is that the majority of the preparation is self-teaching. The ancient Greeks said, “Know thyself.” It is crucial to be able to honestly evaluate and manage your own knowledge and understanding to be successful with this type of learning.
One useful study technique is a three-pass system for learning the material. The first pass is a quick skim. Pass two is to read through all the material while writing only the overarching concepts in your own words. The final pass is to flesh out your notes, process the details, and make connections between concepts.
Before reading a paper or section of text, scan the section for titles, headings, subheadings, and topic sentences to get the general idea, paying attention to graphs, charts, and diagrams. Read the summary at the end of the paper or chapter. Look for leading questions and exercises at the beginning and the end.
After the initial skim, slowly, one section at a time, read through the entire material for the main ideas. Read to get a general understanding of the material. Don’t worry if you have to read more slowly than you would a novel. Technical reading is challenging and requires more careful processing. Although it is tempting, do not take detailed notes at this time, but rather focus on understanding the material. Taking notes at this point is not an efficient technique: You are likely to take down too much information and simply copy without understanding. Read for what you do understand, and to determine difficulty. If you do not understand a section, mark it to review in the last pass. As you complete each section or paper, paraphrase and write down just the main ideas in your own words without looking at the source material. Putting the information in your own words forces you to become actively involved with the material.
Once you have the main concepts down, it is time to really focus on self-teaching and be the master of your own learning. Re-read the material to fill in the details and build on the main ideas you wrote down in the second pass. Use active learning strategies for this revision. Look up words whose meanings are important for your understanding, but which you cannot discern from the context. Ask yourself: What are the main ideas of the paper? What is the paper trying to teach me? How are topics connected? Tie ideas together—use visual memory aids, e.g., mind maps, flow charts, diagrams, pictures, etc. Colors are particularly helpful to stimulate memory.
In this final pass through the material, the most effective way to spend each study hour is to devote as little time as possible to reading and as much time as possible to testing yourself, reviewing, organizing, relating the concepts and facts, mastering the technical terms, formulas, etc., and considering the applications of the concepts. In short, spend your time learning ideas, not just processing words visually. As you build your notes, ask exam-type questions. Good reading involves selecting those sections that are relevant to your purpose. Rather than automatically re-reading, stop frequently to quiz yourself on the material you have just read and then review those sections that are still unclear or confusing to you.
Practice Exams
In the last three or four weeks before the exam, use practice exams to simulate the exam experience as closely as possible. Set up a clean, distraction-free space and allow plenty of uninterrupted time.
When you take the practice exams, develop a plan for how you will answer the questions. One strategy is to determine a time limit for each point and stick to it. If there are 80 points on the four-hour exam, allow yourself about two and a half minutes for each point, leaving time for review at the end. When the time is up for one question, move on to the next question. You can finish incomplete answers during the review time.
Practice writing legibly during the practice exams. Good handwriting is important. If your cursive writing is hard to read, try printing instead. You want to make it as easy as possible for the grader to give you points on the actual exam. Complete paragraphs are generally not necessary. Practice writing answers in outline form or brief bullet points.
Exam Time
Finally you are ready to take the exam. This is your opportunity to shine and show how much you have learned. During the exam sitting, use each time segment to your best advantage.
Use the reading period to read the directions and questions carefully. This is the time to strategize. How many points is each question worth? Pay attention to how the question is phrased, and key words such as “list,” “describe,” “fully describe,” “outline,” etc. The point values and key words have special meaning and can give you clues on what type of answer is expected. A particularly useful article is “The Importance of Adverbs on Exams” by Steven D. Armstrong, FCAS (Future Fellows, December 2009). Mentally note the questions you can answer quickly. To boost your confidence, plan to do these questions first. Many candidates use the reading period to designate some questions as “extra,” i.e., they’ll only attempt them if there is extra time at the end. You might decide that a question shouldn’t even be attempted, i.e., if the point value isn’t very high, time is short, or the question requires long, complicated calculations.
As you work through the exam, answers for some questions will come to mind immediately. Write those down as well as key words, listings, formulas, etc, while they are fresh in your mind. Use as much of the exam time as possible for writing answers. If a question is too hard or the answer seems to have slipped from your mind, move on and come back to it later.
In the last 20 to 30 minutes of the exam time, go back through the exam, complete any incomplete questions. Be sure to allow time to go over all the questions. Not enough time? Outline the answer, jot down a formula, add a quick sentence. Should you write down something for every question? It is generally better to write down something for every question than it is to do an exceptional job on some and not have enough time to do others. Six incomplete answers will often receive more credit than three overly complete ones. However, because of the tight time constraint, if you really don’t know the answer to a question, it is probably best to leave it blank and focus on questions that you can answer.
With adequate preparation, honest awareness of your own learning and effective test taking strategies, you can guide yourself to success with the upper-level exams. Enjoy the process and the challenge!
