Exam 1/P Study Material

[georgiaactuary]

Hey guys,
I'm going to be taking the first actuarial exam in November, and I've been trying to decide what is the best review book to buy. I've been searching online for some free materials, and other than a few tests, haven't found much. So I decided to buy a study book (i.e. Actex) but I'm not sure what book I should buy. Any advice (or links) would be great! Thanks!

[pquach]

pros & cons:
ASM : challenging practice exams, but the content review has its shortcomings
Actex: exams probably not as challenging as the ASM, but the content review is much better

(I bought both, btw)

um, you can find both @ actexmadriver.com

[FMbrah]

A lot of people recommend using TIA (www.theinfiniteactuary.com) for exam P.

I am using that right now and would say it is pretty good. I had to get used to the fact that it is not a physical book (video lessons online) but now that I am used to it, I think it does a good job of explaining the material. Plus the fact that all of the practice problems also have video solutions was helpful to the learning process. It seems pricey but if you are a student you get 50% off, so I think it is worth it.

[jplank1983]

I just used the 4 free TIA exams and they were invaluable. A bit harder than the actual exam, but they helped me realize where I had gaps in my knowledge.

[feanor]

Originally Posted by pquach

pros & cons:
ASM : challenging practice exams, but the content review has its shortcomings
Actex: exams probably not as challenging as the ASM, but the content review is much better

(I bought both, btw)

um, you can find both @ actexmadriver.com

I have to second that comment on ASM. I feel like the content review was way too short for the solved problems and for the actual textbook portion itself. I was not expecting that the textbook portion would be so short when I ordered and it seems way too short to cover even a standard college level P&S class let alone exam P unless you are already quite good with probability and basically need a review. Having said that it does have 25 full practice exams and it seems that if you can master them you'll be fine for the exam
(something hard to say for practice exams in other texts) but you'll no doubt want to burn the book by then. I'd say it's good for practice problems and practice exams but get something else if you need a good text and/or it's been a while since you took P&S or never took it. It's probably better as a text for someone who's already pretty good at probability (like someone who's fresh out of a junior level P&S class) but needs a little review and to practice for the exam specifically. I have a current version of ASM.

I have not used the recent versions of Actex but have the manual for 2004 exam 1. It gives a better treatment of probability in my opinion than ASM and despite the fact that it's so old and half of it covered material no that's longer on P/1 it was still very helpful but it's not very challenging.

It doesn't look like these 2 will have been enough to get me a pass this time around but I am thinking I will try buying the current edition of Actex.

[DanielSong39]

If this is your first exposure to probability, I strongly recommend buying the SOA recommended textbook and learning the material out of that. Taking a course in probability will help quite a bit as well.

Manuals are great for review and as a source of additional practice problems, but I find them less useful for learning the material in the first go-around.