Proper Care and Use of an Actuarial Practice Exam

One of the most important ingredients in preparing for an actuarial exam is the properly treated practice exam.

When you take a practice exam make the conditions as close to the real thing as possible. Maybe even find someone to proctor the exam for you, to make sure you don’t do anything “illegal”.  BUT – try to write down a step or two more of each calculation than you might during the real exam, and start a new scratch paper page for each problem with the number of the problem and the time remaining in the exam at the time that you started the problem. If you skip and go back, that’s fine, just write a second time stamp on that page when you go back to it.

If you feel a little nervous, then you are probably doing it right – in addition to knowing the material, you also need to grow accustomed to how you respond to the exam setting. Butterflies and dry mouth are no fun on exam day – but you will work through them much more effectively if they don’t come as a surprise! Continue reading