MAS I

[doctuary]

Just failed MAS 1 for the third time and am feeling super discouraged. I received a 1 and have no idea how. This is the lowest I have gotten on any of my attempts and I felt much more prepared than the other sittings. I used TIA for the first attempt, then used ASM for the last two attempts. I feel i might got back to TIA and try reading source material.

For those who have passed, What material did you use?

[FCASplz]

Tia for me, took me 3 tries. Its a tough one but you’ll get it if you stick with it

[ChrisH]

I used TIA for everything before regression.  Then switched to Mahler for the rest.  I passed on my second attempt (Fall 2019).  Waiting for Exam 5 results now.

[doctuary]

Thank you for your reply. I am going to give TIA another shot.

[doctuary]

Congrats and all the best with exam 5! fingers crossed

[Olmstead]

Mahler was the most significant in helping me pass. Given that you’re on your third try now I would just get the Mahler Seminar slides rather than the whole manual. It will give you the final boost to pass this thing.

[Desire_Young]

This is first and I passed. I tried the GOAL, Mahler’s study aids and Mahler’s practice exams. It should be cognized Mahler’s aid was hard to the most of candidates. It has 5000+ pages. Indeed, I had read it but I don’t think it’s necessary.

I think you should focus on the question of aids. It includes some fixed type of questions. The part of stochastic model was relatively certain question type. I suggest the GOAL. It can help you establish a conditional reaction. When you see some keywords and you will react how to calculate.

[jcabrams21]

For those of you that used Mahler, do the study manual and the seminar slides hit on the non-calculation questions/topics in the exam (types of regressions, splines, etc.)?

I took and failed MAS-I last fall and am retaking in April. I used ASM last time, and I feel like it prepared me very well for the problems that required actual calculations, but for the word problem questions, I was very unprepared, as the ASM manual hardly touched on those topics. I didn’t expect there to be so many word problems on the exam, and I ended up leaving about 10 or so blank because I really had no clue. Any suggestions or words of wisdom would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

[Olmstead]

For qualitative questions Coaching actuaries is quite good. I would get a short subscription on it and just filter on qualitative questions in their question bank

[jcabrams21]

Thanks for the advice. I’ll definitely look into coaching actuaries. Do you know if Mahler touches on the qualitative questions well? Only asking because the Mahler study guide is much more cost effective than a coaching actuaries subscription.

[Olmstead]

Not sure about full manual . Only got Mahler Seminar slides. It explains concepts well but it doesn’t have as many practice qualitative questions as Coaching actuaries.

[jrmichels]

First time taking MAS-1, I just noticed that Pearson gives us a scratch pad to use during the exam, which is basically a simplified Excel. Is this at all useful or relevant? Will I be fine just solving problems with pen and paper like I’ve been practicing?

[doctuary]

The spreadsheet is indeed useful. TIA provided quite a number of great examples with their online seminar.

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