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Van's Notes on Exam:
The
exam is doable if you study with the amount of time they suggested. Make
sure that you know the materials on the topic thoroughly. Practice the
questions with insurance context many times.
What would I do differently? Study earlier and span out the amount of study
time. Also try to arrange your class schedule so you don’t have to
juggle a heavy load classes with the studying for the exam.
Additional advice:
I
think it will be very helpful if you can find somebody that is currently
taking STA 4321 and try to explain some of the concepts to them or
answer their questions. I think you learn more that way and you also
make sure that you truly understand everything. I guess it is the same
like having a study group.
Take the time you study seriously. If you
feel like you are distracted, just go and do something else. Don’t count
the time sitting at your desk as study time if you don’t really study.
And the people design the exam mean it when they say 100 hours study
time for each hour of the test.
Know when your brain works best. If you
are an early person, you should wake up early and study for the exam. If
you are a night person, start studying when it is late. (Don’t stay up
until 5am and try to study for the actuarial exam though. Been there,
done that, it is not really helpful because you think you are still
awake but your brain is not functioning any longer). I would do my study
for the exam first and my school work later.
If you take the exam the first time and
pass it right away, it is great. But if not, don’t stress out too much
because the 2nd time around will be easier since you learn
most of the materials. Just make sure that you feel ready and confident
for the exam. Like many people suggest, you should know all the familiar
problems and how to do them without thinking. The problems that seem new
to you and complicated leave them to the end. If you know how to solve
them, do it. If not, just make an educated guess and move on. Try to
finish your exam within 2 hours so you can have an hour to check your
answer and work on the tough ones. When you read most of the questions
on the test, they should be familiar to you. You don’t need to know
everything but you need to do correctly at least 70% of the questions.
In the exam, I read the question twice.
If I have no clue, I just move on. Personally, I always skip the first
question and come back later because for some reason, it might seem
overwhelming.
Try to use the suggested calculator when
you study for your exam.
Practice and practice. Figure out what is
the best strategy to do a problem for you, not according to any text
book or study manual.
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