How to Study for Actuarial Exam 1P Without Paying for Materials

Exam P on Probability, offered by the Casualty Actuarial Society and the Society of Actuaries, is the gateway to the actuarial profession. Those who pass the exam can obtain entry-level jobs as actuaries, with salaries ranging from about $44,000 to about $58,000 per year. After some rigorous studying, I recently passed this examination with a high grade. Here are some study materials that can help you obtain top marks on Exam 1P without paying a cent.

The breadth of material listed on the syllabus for this test is extensive, and many of the topics are tremendously complex in themselves. Fortunately not all of the topics listed are actually tested, and the kinds of questions that are asked on the exam are generally more reasonable and straightforward than the ones present in the recommended readings.

As I found out through personal experience, you do not need to spend money at all in purchasing study materials for this exam. Virtually everything you need can already be found online. The most crucial study aid is the list of sample questions from past exams, generously provided by the Society of Actuaries. Along with these questions, you will also find a list of step-by-step solutions which will enable you to check your work. For successful performance on the test, it is essential to be able to successfully solve these problems on your own and to know why you obtained the solutions you did. The problems on the exam are remarkably similar to the ones in the sample questions, so you should do well on your exam if you can solve the problems from prior tests.

In the course of my own studying, I made the mistake of purchasing Michael A. Bean's Probability: The Science of Uncertainty: a book which does an extremely poor job at explaining the mathematical concepts required for the actuarial exam, because it already presupposes the reader's expert knowledge of such concepts. Too often, crucial explanations and proofs are omitted from this book, to be left as "exercises to the reader"-- quite a challenge for a reader who simply seeks a basic grasp of the subject!