best way to study?

[cardsrule]

For course 2 or 3, must you go through all the books on the syllabus, or is it feasible to just get a study guide if you've never had the stuff before. Also, if you say to read the material from the books, do you think a study guide is very useful as a supplement and which ones are good?

[Castle7]

For course 2 or 3, must you go through all the books on the syllabus, or is it feasible to just get a study guide if you've never had the stuff before. Also, if you say to read the material from the books, do you think a study guide is very useful as a supplement and which ones are good?

It is certainly feasible to just get a study guide if you have never had the stuff before and pass. However, you will still have to put in some serious hours to get there. Also, if you do decide you love reading the actual textbooks, you almost have to have a study guide as a supplement to see problems you are actually likely to encounter. In my opinion, you need the text books as a supplement, and the study guide as your staple, for the first two exams in particular.

[neofan]

BTW, which study guide is the best for course 2 (please recommend 2 of them)? I'm almost skeptical that you can avoid textbooks for course 2 as there're a lot of details to be memorized, is it only feasible for business majors?

[Cynic]

I agree that there is no way you can skip the textbooks for C2. Most of them are not that hard to read anyway.

As for study manuals, I think How-to-Pass and CSM are pretty good for this course.

[Castle7]

I agree that there is no way you can skip the textbooks for C2. Most of them are not that hard to read anyway.

As for study manuals, I think How-to-Pass and CSM are pretty good for this course.

Well, I don't consider myself a super genius, and I passed Course 2 by only reading the Corporate Finance book, which I felt was a decent read. For the interest theory questions, you need to know tricks tricks tricks, which, if you read the book, will help you with the theory, but you need to do lots of realistic problems e.g. a study guide, to get there.

I don't know about the business major part, I was not, although I had taken the introductory level of Micro/Macro, and that helped me with some of the conceptual ideas so that I could avoid most of the texts. I used the CSM study manual for C2 at first, because the problems are grouped by very specific types, and yes, as some complain, they CAN be a touch easier. However, I found that to be useful as a place to start, and then I used the Actex practice exams when I was ready for more difficult problems.

[Castle7]

...and just incase my last post was not long enough for you, I think How to Pass is the BEST for Course 3. G. Klein REALLY knows his Actuarial Mathematics and good tricks, etc., etc. I did not see it for C2, so I don't know how good it is, but I DO know most ppl don't feel it is worthwhile for C4. Just some food for thought.

[M.]

Read the textbooks for Course 2, and maybe get a study manual to practice exam-type problems. The books are straight-forward. I hear Actex isn't that good for this course. I bought it and didn't have time to read it.

Chuck the textbooks for Course 3, read Actex to learn the basics of the material, and get some other study manuals (like Batten's) to practice difficult problem types.

[Crystal Dragon.]

I was never impressed with the HTP series.... Just my $0.02.

[Buru Buru]

I read all of the books for course 2 except for the interest theory book. They actually were interesting and easy to read. To me interest theory is one concept done over and over in a different way which you can just practice problems and not read the book. As far as course 3 goes, I read NONE of the books. I really don't think that it is possible for a normal non genius person to read these books and actually pass the exam. The actuarial math book is just huge. I think it would take a normal person over a year to read it just to fail anyway because it is so hard to grasp the concepts from the book

[Dr T Non-Fan]

For interest theory, master "The Time Line"!

[new2to]

No way is HTP as good as the Batten/London book and his old problem sets for Life Con.

Plus Mahler's notes are exhaustive for the Casualty part, which is more difficult by far.