One warning about working past SOA exam problems

I received a good question by email recently:

The exam is approaching, and I started to do the previous SOA exam questions. I feel like it is very time consuming to do those questions. For a 5 hours exam questions, it normally takes me at least 15 hours to practice and fully understand the concepts tested in the questions.

With so many previous exam questions, I can’t do them all. Should I focus on the most recent exams? such as SOA exams after 2014? or any other suggestions?

Yes, I would focus on the more recent exams for sure since they tend to be more syllabus-complete. I agree that there are too many past problems for the typical person to work, and it is probably an inefficient use of your study time to do that—especially attempting to work all past SOA problems in the final weeks before the exam.

It’s important to realize that past SOA exams are naturally going to be a highly biased sample of the current syllabus. The current syllabus contains many readings that have been added within the last 1 to 2 years. Readings that have been on the syllabus the longest have been tested more often.

All that to say, working past SOA exam problems is critical aspect of your preparation, but don’t over-weight your study time to past exams only during the final weeks. It’s critical to continue reviewing the total syllabus routinely because the next exam can feature questions from any reading with equal probability

As with the stock market, you can say past exams are not good predictors of future exams in terms of content tested. Past exams, however, are a very valuable tool for practicing your exam day skills: time management, keeping calm, etc.