Infinite Actuary

[dmbfan41]

Originally Posted by GuineaPig

im pretty sure a huge number of people passed fm in one attempt and only used the ba-II.

no doubt.

and i know numerous people who are passing exams past FM and only using the BA II

[jprep]

Originally Posted by dmbfan41

i'm calling BS on this. many people would fail instead of pass based on the calculator that use? come on.

i think you would probably save more time if you mastered one calculator than if you had to switch back and forth throughout the exam (and potentially switching multiple times during a single problem).

obviously, bring more than one calculator. but i'd highly recommend not switching calculators during the exam.

I'm only talking about people who are on the fence and get a 6, possibly because they run out of time. Speed and accuracy are important. Mastering both calculators is better. But I see what you're saying - it won't matter in the end as long as you actually master the BA-II Plus.

Yes, there are plenty of people who pass using the BA-II Plus alone. I'm talking about people who might be slow with that calculator. I think they could do things somewhat faster using the Multiview.

But for the purposes of this thread, listen to them. You can pass with only the BA-II Plus if you are super smart and prepared. But please please consider using both.

[Bama Gambler]

To each his own, but in my experience (working with literally hundreds of FM students) is that most students would benefit from mastering one calculator. For this exam and for 3L/MLC that calculator should be the BA-II Plus. The key to evaluating long expressions is the STO function.

In my opinion, the TIA seminar has more than enough practice problems to prepare for the exam. There are over 500 old SOA and CAS problems and 2 original sample exams. The purpose of the sample exams is to practice your exam taking strategy. You should use the 500 practice problems to help you master the material and build up your problem solving speed to exam speed.

[Bama Gambler]

One more comment regarding the sample exams. Many students have recently written me that the sample exams are very representative of the actual exam. They said the TIA exams were slightly harder especially the Derivative Markets problems.

[JSA1987]

I already mastered the TI-30XS Multiview for exam P/1. I am learning to use the BA-II Plus Professional (which, unfortunately for me, according to BPP authors Ruckman & Francis is inferior to the BA-35 for this exam--though maybe that's debatable as Bama Gambler seems to favor the BA-II Plus?), but for all the problems so far I've found it much faster to use the Multiview. I'll be sitting for the exam in May, so it may just be that I haven't gotten to the tipping point (in the material) for using the financial calculator yet.

For what it's worth, though I am not taking TIA's prep course for this exam, I took the one for exam P (as my only study material), and passed with an 8 on the first try. My highest level of mathematical study--high school probability & statistics and college-level Calculus I--had been over 15 years prior.

[jprep]

Originally Posted by Bama Gambler

One more comment regarding the sample exams. Many students have recently written me that the sample exams are very representative of the actual exam. They said the TIA exams were slightly harder especially the Derivative Markets problems.

The TIA exams actually make you think. You'll see.

Since so many people seem okay with the BA-II Plus, I'll retract my statements. I'm a high school math teacher, so I just try to think of ways to make things easier for people. Seeing the command-line in the Multiview is one of those ways. But if someone is truly prepared, it won't affect their speed or accuracy. I'll go edit my statement in the first post (meant to do that earlier).

[wallnflowers]

BA II Plus: A+
TIA: A+