I’m 58 and I’m a registered rep (FINRA) at an insurance & annuity company. I’m studying for FM first because it’s new material for me. Stats is my strong suit. Goal: be the world’s oldest actuarial intern and (maybe) the first person to go from the call center to actuarial. 😂
You're not alone. I'm in my mid thirties, working in the Pensions industry and trying to pass Exam FM as well. It's so hard with a fulltime and demanding job and life. I have given up and restarted so many times. We got this
The exams have really changed these days (I googled them). I took what would be exam P first (called part 2 then in the 1980's) because I had just taken a year long class in probability and stats and I thought it would be fresh in my mind and I could knock it off and then do part 1 next which I thought would be easier and then I'd have two under my belt right away. Well, it was harder than I thought and I got a high failing mark, so I had to take part 2 over again. I found out it wasn't about knowing the material like in college, but knowing the tricks of (standardized) test taking which I was horrible at (some of my co-workers were very smart, though, and tricks didn't matter to them, they just "knew" how to do everything and got 10's on the exams). So, after many practice exams I passed part 2. Then, I passed part 1 the next session without much of a problem, which was basically the calculus series from college. Then when I got to part 3, it was three college courses in one: operations research, numerical analysis and applied statistics and it was just too much to study for one exam and I gave up. Even though I eventually took those classes in a masters program, it was a lot for self study. So, I ended up transferring to the what now would be called the information technology department and did work like that for the remainder of my career along with some analysis and programming work in marketing which these days would be close to what data scientists do (it was called mathematical modeling then). Now, I see the preliminary exams are broken up more and more financially related which is good. If I remember correctly, financial math was later on, too, maybe part 4 when I took them. I'm sure they're still hard, though. :)
Academics and exams have definitely not come easily to me either and I've had to work really hard to even barely pass an exam, so you're not alone at all on that. And those people who seem to know everything with ease can be annoying 😂. I'm glad you found something that you wanted to do for the rest of your career. And yeah, the exams are definitely broken up more and more financially-related, so that's good. I think they're difficult, but I'm sure some people have no problem with them 😜
It's been a few years for me, but I believe you need to memorize everything. They don't give you any kind of formula sheet. Hopefully memorizing will become easier as you do more and more practice problems.
Apologies for the video being like 2 fps and for the audio not being synced 😬
I’m 58 and I’m a registered rep (FINRA) at an insurance & annuity company. I’m studying for FM first because it’s new material for me. Stats is my strong suit. Goal: be the world’s oldest actuarial intern and (maybe) the first person to go from the call center to actuarial. 😂
LOVE this!
You're not alone. I'm in my mid thirties, working in the Pensions industry and trying to pass Exam FM as well. It's so hard with a fulltime and demanding job and life. I have given up and restarted so many times. We got this
The exams have really changed these days (I googled them). I took what would be exam P first (called part 2 then in the 1980's) because I had just taken a year long class in probability and stats and I thought it would be fresh in my mind and I could knock it off and then do part 1 next which I thought would be easier and then I'd have two under my belt right away. Well, it was harder than I thought and I got a high failing mark, so I had to take part 2 over again. I found out it wasn't about knowing the material like in college, but knowing the tricks of (standardized) test taking which I was horrible at (some of my co-workers were very smart, though, and tricks didn't matter to them, they just "knew" how to do everything and got 10's on the exams). So, after many practice exams I passed part 2. Then, I passed part 1 the next session without much of a problem, which was basically the calculus series from college.
Then when I got to part 3, it was three college courses in one: operations research, numerical analysis and applied statistics and it was just too much to study for one exam and I gave up. Even though I eventually took those classes in a masters program, it was a lot for self study. So, I ended up transferring to the what now would be called the information technology department and did work like that for the remainder of my career along with some analysis and programming work in marketing which these days would be close to what data scientists do (it was called mathematical modeling then).
Now, I see the preliminary exams are broken up more and more financially related which is good. If I remember correctly, financial math was later on, too, maybe part 4 when I took them. I'm sure they're still hard, though. :)
Academics and exams have definitely not come easily to me either and I've had to work really hard to even barely pass an exam, so you're not alone at all on that. And those people who seem to know everything with ease can be annoying 😂. I'm glad you found something that you wanted to do for the rest of your career. And yeah, the exams are definitely broken up more and more financially-related, so that's good. I think they're difficult, but I'm sure some people have no problem with them 😜
I started with FM too 😊
Buddies! I think it was a good choice :)
Did you memorize all of the notation and formulas or do they give you any? Thanks!
It's been a few years for me, but I believe you need to memorize everything. They don't give you any kind of formula sheet. Hopefully memorizing will become easier as you do more and more practice problems.
Can you do videos on Exam FAM? Nice job on the video by the way.
I can definitely do my best! I haven't taken it yet, so I'll probably be able to better speak on it once I do :)
And thank you! Definitely messed up with the quality but should be better next time.
FM was definitely harder than P for me. Guess it just depends on the person.
Definitely does depend on the person! We all have different strengths :)
@AaronRiffie same here! I passed P on my first try but failed FM on my first try. Took it next sitting and passed but it was rough