Announcing the TIA Forum

November 28th, 2012

We are very excited to announce the launch of the TIA forum!

In the past, using TIA to study for exams has been a relatively solitary endeavor.  You watched the videos, worked the problems, and occasionally emailed your instructor for assistance.  If you prefer to learn that way, then don’t worry, you can still do it that way.  Think of the forum as an additional (and optional) way to enhance your learning.  You might just browse other student’s questions, and decide to give it a try later on.

Although a few TIA members have gone out of their way to interact with others by posting on the Actuarial Outpost or other public forums, the TIA forum makes it incredibly easy for all of us to interact with other members.  Any time you have a question or a topic for discussion, you can immediately enter the subject forum and make your post.  Everyone else that is subscribed to the seminar will see that there is a new post in that subject forum, and can respond immediately, seconding or answering your topic.  Watch the short video posted in the “Introduction” section of the course to see how the forum works.

Making your experience at TIA more interactive will result in much more powerful and effective learning.  But another terrific aspect of the forum is that it will act as a growing and changing knowledge base of answered questions.  As your instructor, I’ve found that I answer the same question by email many times.  The forum will allow me to post answers to questions in a way that will remain readily available to all seminar users.  After a while, you’ll find answers to many of your questions instantly in the forum, instead of needing an email response.

But the forums aren’t just for my answers to questions.  As you probably know, there is no better way to test your knowledge than to try to answer the questions that other learners ask.  You should try to answer the questions that other members post as often as you can.  Other members can chime in to ask more about your answer too, and I’ll be keeping an eye on things to make sure that all the questions receive accurate and useful responses.

As always, we want your learning experience here at TIA to be a positive one.  When interacting with each other on the web, please be sure to maintain a cheerful attitude and encourage your fellow learners.  Feel free to immediately flag any post that you feel would discourage anyone from interacting.

The forum is open now, so go ahead and watch the introduction video and get started!

Rick G New Lessons

Added some handouts

November 28th, 2012

I added a few files to the online seminar.

  • Section A - Introduction - Added Professor Batten’s list of various identities. This applies to several areas of the seminar: Population Theory, basic life contingencies and interest theory
  • Section B - Interest rates - Added two discussions of yield curves (written in 2007)

Rick G Updates

Calculator humor

November 23rd, 2012

2013 – No more paper

November 13th, 2012

Unlike prior years, I decided to go totally electronic for this year’s seminar.

Everything is contained in PDF files, and I have made it easy for you to print all the materials. This year’s stack of paper clocks in at about 500 pages.

I will start updating the 2012 overheads and exam solutions for 2013 in December.

Rick G Updates

Some graphic humor

September 13th, 2012

From quickmeme - one of my favorite web sites:

Introducing Priority Peter

Priority Peter in action

Rick G Uncategorized

2006-2007 exam problem solutions

April 20th, 2010

I have added these new recordings for sections 1 through 5 of the online seminar. I am continuing to record more solutions each day …

rick Updates

Recording 2006-2007 exam problem solutions

March 4th, 2010

I have started updating ALL of the “problem review” sections to include the 2006 and 2007 exam problems. As I post each new recording, I will also update the PDF file to reflect the added problems.

rick Updates

Shipping, Shipping - DONE!

February 2nd, 2010

I sent out the last of the EA-1 packages on Tuesday, 02/02. You should have received an email from FedEx with your tracking information.

This week I am in California to attend Larry Deutsch’s Non-discrimination Testing Symposium. Gotta get those credit hours some time!

I am also finalizing the 2009 EA-1 exam solutions.

rick Uncategorized

When will materials be ready?

January 20th, 2010

As shown on my web site, January 31 is when I send out the EA-1 materials. I’m finalizing the materials to distribute to all of you.

You will receive a box with 650 pages of material. In addition, you’ll get a CD-ROM (with PDF files for everything) in the box.

rick Updates