A good question I recently received:
In general, how would you prioritize different practice problem sources with less than a month left to the exam? How many full practice exams do you think a student should attempt in test-like conditions to feel well prepared going into the exam?
I think the biggest value in working past exam problems comes from using them to practice under exam conditions, so I usually recommend working at least 1 full exam under real exam conditions. This means:
- Don’t look at the questions or solutions ahead of time
- Do the 15-minute read through using a clock or timer
- Follow the exact rules of the exam (no writing during the read-through)
- Start a 3-hour timer for the morning session (2-hour for afternoon)
- Practice writing your candidate number at the top of each page
- Don’t look at any solutions until time is up
For some people it’s more practical to break up the morning and afternoon session on different days, but at least try to set aside a 2-3 hour period to do this.
There’s really no way to practice your time management techniques without simulating the exam. If you feel like you are struggling to manage your time, keep practicing it until you feel sharp. I recommend doing this right up through the last week.
The most recent two exams are usually most useful for simulating exam conditions since they are the most intact as I mentioned earlier.
You can also practice working problems under time constraints in smaller sessions (e.g. use the Analysis of Past Exams spreadsheet in the Supplementary Materials section of the online seminar to find like an hour of problems to work from specific topics).
We also provide highly detailed solutions to a number of past exams on the SOA Exams tab of the online seminar. This is a valuable resource when you’re using past exams to evaluate your performance.
Definitely don’t feel like you have to work all the old SOA problems or all the drill problems. Most of the LP exam involves verbal responses and it’s impossible to use existing problems forecast future verbal problems, so your time is best used iterating over the syllabus continually to keep the material as fresh in your mind as possible.