Skipping lessons in ASM

[AlexLar2007]

Given the large number of lessons to learn (54) in ASM manual, is it safe/effective to skip several lessons and use that saved time on practice problems?
In other words, are there lessons that are rarely tested on the exam and other, more important, lessons don't depend on them?

If this is the case, can someone list some of those lessons?

[geta6]

I used TIA. But I'll throw this out there anyway. Due to some time constraints, I wound up having to skip Expenses almost entirely, and I only did a gloss-over on the Markov Chains and Reserving Stuff (there are 7 major formulas out there, I relied on the prospective & retrospective ideas..primarily prospective)

I have a 21 on the PAK. Pass mark should be 18-19, so I'm upper borderline.

If you want to kill the test, skip less than that. If you are shooting for a 6, then skip whatever you feel comfortable with. Use the guide at the front of ASM to help you determine which topics can be skipped. (there is a chart that shows # of questions by topic for recent tests)

Caveat: If you are going to skip a substantial amount, make sure you know the rest of the stuff really well, and you are able to handle questions that mix in random calc knowledge. The last sitting had a couple of questions that tested ability to remember calc more than ability to understand the MLC material.

[CalBear07]

This question is typically asked 2 weeks before the exam, not 5 months before

I wouldn't skip large chunks of material unless absolutely necessary. And I definitely would not skip Expenses or Markov Chains, as those are two of the easiest topics in the syllabus, so you would be throwing away some freebies.

It sounds like you are looking for more obscure topics that are rarely tested on. If so, I think you can probably skip the following:

Other Mortality Laws (5.2)
Central Death Rate (7.3)
Hyperbolic Assumption (8.3)
Annuities: m-thly Payments (Chapter 20)
True Fractional Premiums (Chapter 26)
Reserves: Advanced Topics (Chapter 32)

[Abraham Weishaus]

And Policy Fees.

[AlexLar2007]

Thanks for suggestions. It is a little early to think about this, but time is sparse and I'd rather be doing problems.

[BiscoKid]

Reserves aren't very important, and theres some identities like the most important identity that you'd be better off not knowing, because if you try to remember something like that in an exam situation, you're bound to mess something up...I'd focus most of my time on survival distributions, weibull assumptions are fair game and they haven't been tested in a while so its about time for that

[cali_boy]

Originally Posted by Abraham Weishaus

And Policy Fees.

Policy fees and hyperboics are in the SOA 282, these questions were not in the past exams? (May 2007 - May 2009)

[Abraham Weishaus]

Use of a policy fees for per-policy expenses is arguably not in the syllabus since MQR doesn't cover it.
They provided questions since Actuarial Mathematics covers it. In the next edition of the MLC manual, I've moved all "AM only" topics into a separate lesson to allow for easy skipping. They have not asked any questions on those topics since MQR has been allowed as an alternative textbook. For the meantime: the only expense topics covered by MQR are expense-loaded premiums and reserves and asset shares.

Hyperbolic is in the syllabus, with occasional exam questions, but you can skip it if you're short on time and risk missing one question.

[Locrian]

Originally Posted by BiscoKid

Reserves aren't very important, and theres some identities like the most important identity that you'd be better off not knowing, because if you try to remember something like that in an exam situation, you're bound to mess something up...

What what??

This doesn't sound right to me.