Month: September 2013

In case you were wondering, I confirmed with the SOA that you will get a 15-minute read-through time for both the morning and afternoon sessions of the LP exam even though the afternoon session exam time will only be 2 hours.

The simple risk margin example using CoC on p. 9 of the Section C study guide had a small but important error. The CoC amounts should be treated as EOY amounts because CoC represents the dollar return expected by the shareholders who supply the capital at the beginning of each year. Therefore, the first CoC amount should be discounted to time 0 with a full year of risk-free interest. 

The current version of the Section C study guide has the correction, and I also noted it in the study guide revision history. 

Today I posted a practice exam in the Supplementary Materials section. Unlike previous exam-caliber problems, these are these are formatted in exactly the kind of format that you will see on exam day. 

I created both a morning and afternoon session in 2 separate files. The morning session has 60 points of problems, and the afternoon has 40 points. I highly recommend working as many of the published SOA exam problems as you can before you work this practice exam.

I also recommend working the practice exam under real exam conditions so that you can practice time management with a complete, unique set of problems that are of the type you will encounter on exam day.

This will be the last set of practice problems that I am able to post this sitting. My wife and I are expecting our second child next month, so I will have to throttle back on “product development” for a little while. However, I will be readily available for any kind of questions you might have in the forums and email.

Today, September 24, is the last day to register to take the LP exam with the SOA. If you are planning to take the fall 2013 LP exam, don’t forget to register with the SOA!

Several people have asked me where the Section C drill problems are located. They were originally bundled with the set of 50 extra drill problems that I placed in the Supplementary Materials sections earlier. Since several people have had a hard time finding those, I’ve realized that this was a bit confusing, so I decided to move the second set of drill problems into their respective sections so that the placement of drill problems is consistent with Set 1.

Now Sections A, B, D, and E each have a second set (illustrated for A below).

Section C just has set 1. As always, please let me know if you have trouble finding anything. 

The “LP-Miduly” tab in the LP study schedule spreadsheet had a typo for the exam date at the very end, but this has been fixed in the current version posted.

In any event, the LP exam date is Wednesday, Oct. 30, 2013, so make sure you block off some time for that! 🙂

It recently came to my attention that flashcards for several readings were missing from the set I originally posted. The missing cards relate to readings that were previously Canadian-specific but are now on the current LP syllabus. This was just a goof on my part when I was compiling all of the cards. (The exam transition has been fun!)  🙂

I have updated the flashcard PDF with the new cards. There are 33 additional cards, and I’ve tacked them onto the end of the file so that you don’t have to reprint anything you’ve already printed. The additional cards start with number 242, which is right after the old card number.

A few people have asked me if I’ll be posting videos for the fall 2012 and spring 2013 DP exams. Unfortunately I am not going to have time to put those up this sitting, but rest assured that I have reviewed both of those exams and can answer any specific questions you have about those problems if you run into trouble while working through the model solutions. Note that I’ve also covered those exams in the Analysis of Past Exams handout included in the Introduction section on the SOA Exams tab.

If you want to ask questions about any exams for which we don’t have videos, feel free to make a post in the forum section associated with the Analysis of Past Exams  video in the introduction section. You can go straight to that forum by following this link. You can, of course, email me as well. 🙂

I’ve added a new tab to the top of the online seminar called SOA Exams. This tab contains video commentary on various past SOA ILA-DP problems from 2007–2012. I highly recommend watching the introduction video first. In that video, I talk about how to use the published SOA exams to prepare for LP.

The introduction section also has a handout with a detailed listing of all published SOA exam problems relevant to the current syllabus dating back to the 2000 8I exam. It shows the point value of the question, categorizes each one as “verbal” or “calculation,” and indicates the current syllabus source that each solution is based on.

By now you’re likely feeling the effects of having studied for a massive exam for weeks on end. Don’t worry. You’re not alone. It’s normal to feel fatigue at this point.

Mid September is a lot like the 20th mile of a marathon. You’re hurting, but you’ve gone too far to turn back! Just remember that late October will get here before you know it, and you can take a break after the exam.

That said, if you feel like your mind is going numb, now would be a good time to shuffle around your study strategy. While I think it’s important to continually read the detailed study guide and condensed study guide, it’s also important to begin working practice problems. The online seminar already has a number of practice problems, and more are on the way.

If you have not made a full pass through the syllabus, you should focus on doing that quickly. You’ll want to spend the remaining weeks iterating over the syllabus faster and faster—spending extra time as needed on any topics you struggle with the most. But remember to keep everything as fresh as possible.

Taking a day off—especially a Saturday—to do something fun other than studying is also not a bad idea at this stage, especially if your mind is getting sick of the material. It’s better to take a little break now so that you maximize your studying energy in October, when you’ll need it the most.

Hang in there! If it was easy, anybody could get their FSA. But it takes hard work. If you keep working hard, you’ll be rewarded.