Exam C seems deceptively easy....

[Jonnyboy]

I've been studying for exam C for several months now, and I can't help but feel that it is much easier than exam MFE. This worries me since so many people hold the opinion that exam C is the most difficult preliminary exam.

I learn by exploring the rational behind the methods employed in these exams, and the stuff in exam C seems much easier to intuitively understand than the material on Exam MFE. Maximum Likelihood Estimators, Method of Moments, Credibility, etc etc etc all make such perfect logical sense. I could derive these things on my own (albeit having already been introduced to the material).

When I was studying for exam MFE I had issues understanding the reasoning behind Brownian motion, Ito's Lemma, Black-Scholes, etc. It could be because I'm much more comfortable with mathematics than I am with derivatives markets, or perhaps the mathematics driving those formulae is much more sophisticated.

Also, I found P to be much easier than FM.

Thoughts?

[joni308]

Exam C is just a lot of stuff that you have to remember and that's all. But anyone can understand it. You need to remember everything and solve one problem from everything in order to see it how it's applied. You don't have to but it will make you much faster.

Exam C is probably the easiest of all. I suspect that people just get sick of it by the time they are done studying it. Especially if you choose to pick up one the of those manuals which come in multiple volumes as thick as a mattress each.

If you could solve the 289 in under 5 minutes each without looking at the solutions you are good to go. I hear stories about people who solved somehow 2000-3000 problems and failed. My reply is "Define 'solved' ".

And make sure you eat a plum and do a couple of hundred pull-ups before you go to the exam.

[Jonnyboy]

Originally Posted by joni308

And make sure you eat a plum and do a couple of hundred pull-ups before you go to the exam.

lol

[J2S]

FWIW, this has been my experience with C so far as well. I work full-time and so began studying in late January for the May sitting fully anticipating the need to study 300 hours after hearing others gripe about it. I'm at about 180 now and feel I could comfortably pass the exam (~90% on sample questions), which sucks because we're still 50 days out.

About the worst formulas on the exam seem to be the non-parametric Bayesian estimators and Anderson-Darling, but even those yield to concerted effort.

Oh well, too comfortable with material is the right problem to have.

[troyandabed]

Originally Posted by joni308

Exam C is just a lot of stuff that you have to remember and that's all. But anyone can understand it. You need to remember everything and solve one problem from everything in order to see it how it's applied. You don't have to but it will make you much faster.

Even people that are comatose?

Joking aside, do you understand how ridiculous that statement is?

[joni308]

Originally Posted by troyandabed

Even people that are comatose?

Joking aside, do you understand how ridiculous that statement is?

I have no opinion about whether the comatose can understand it. Nor do I have any interest in knowing if they can or not. But everyone who is planning to take Exam C at some point, who most probably took P, FM and MLC and MFE prior to it and already have or are in the process of getting degrees in math or whatever, can understand it. So I stick to my statement and, no, I don't understand how ridiculous that statement is.

[troyandabed]

Originally Posted by joni308

I have no opinion about whether the comatose can understand it. Nor do I have any interest in knowing if they can or not. But everyone who is planning to take Exam C at some point, who most probably took P, FM and MLC and MFE prior to it and already have or are in the process of getting degrees in math or whatever, can understand it. So I stick to my statement and, no, I don't understand how ridiculous that statement is.

Wow. Are you wrong about everything?

[joni308]

Originally Posted by troyandabed

Wow. Are you wrong about everything?

Wow, of course I am.

[JohnLocke]

Originally Posted by Jonnyboy

I've been studying for exam C for several months now, and I can't help but feel that it is much easier than exam MFE. This worries me since so many people hold the opinion that exam C is the most difficult preliminary exam.

Thoughts?

I think many people agree. What they get trapped on is the sheer volume of material.

[dawes]

My experience:

Easiest: FM
2nd Easiest: C