Actuarial Exams

Information about the actuarial exams is available at Be An Actuary. Look under the actuarial exams/preliminary exams for information and complete syllabi.

LSU students should try to have the first two exams behind them when they graduate. In the present job market, two exams is likely to secure a position. Students should take Exam P/1 shortly after completing Math 3355 and Exam FM/2 shortly after completing Math 4050. The order is not important.

• Exam P/1 is on probability. The full exam syllabus should ideally be covered in Math 3355, but this varies with the Math 3355 teacher. Actuarial students should take Math 3355 at their earliest opportunity. The syllabus for Exam P/1 is available at Be An Actuary (see above). The typical level of Math 3355 is less complex than Exam P and students need to devote time to preparing for Exam P/1 after they have completed Math 3355. I usually recommend at lest two weeks of intensive work preparing for the exam after completing Math 3355. Students should also be sure to download “Risk and Insurance” by Judy Feldman Anderson and Robert L. Brown.
• Exam FM/2 is on financial mathematics: interest theory and derivative securities. The entire content is presently covered in Math 4050. Math 4050 should ideally include practice with exam level questions. The syllabus for Exam FM/2 is available at Be An Actuary (see above). Students need to devote time to prepare for Exam FM/2 by immersing themselves in studying the proper level of questions.
• Exam MFE/3F, Exam MLC/3L, and Exam C/4 include material that is not covered in LSU courses. The mathematical background required for these exams is covered in the program. The required mathematics background is on basic stochastic process and is covered in Math 4058. There is not a preferred order to these exams. One can prepare for either MFE/3F or Exam MLC/3L after Exam P/1, Exam FM/2 and Math 4058. I recommend that you also have completed your VEE statistics courses before you prepare for Exam C/4.