This online course is designed to meet the needs of students preparing for
the SOA / CAS Exam P / Exam 1. It will be like a regular academic course except that you won't have to travel and you
won't have to be at a certain place at a certain time to attend the class.
How does it work?
Every week I will send you a reading assignment, some explanatory notes,
a write-up summarizing the basic concepts, illustrative exercises, and a quiz. You may ask me questions at any time and I
will try to respond as promptly as I can. Also, I will put up discussions of common interest on the web site or send them
to you by e-mail. This interaction is the most important part of the course. There will be a forum page on this web site through
which you can hold discussions with other students.
There will be a week of very intensive review. Students registered for this course will have
access to 10 full length onlline practice exams.
During the course there will be three exams They will constitute excellent
practice for taking the SOA/CAS exam.
How will the exams be given?
I will send out the exam by e-mail and/or post it on the course web
site at 9 A.M. Central time. You take the allotted time and send me your answers. Then I will send you complete solutions
and we will discuss any questions you might have.
If something comes up and you are unable to take the exam at that time,
that will not cause any problem. You may take it later, but not earlier. The reason is that I keep refining the
exam until the last minute, based on the students' questions and performance in most recent quizzes.
PREREQUISITES:
A thorough grasp of Basics of Calculus (as taught in a three semester
sequence in Mathematics Departments) is an essential prerequisite for this course. Some familiarity with the basic notions
of Probability will help. Even though the SOA/CAS exam will not test Calculus directly, it will be tested through Probability.
You should be thoroughly conversant with the following topics:
- Absolute value function, exponential logarithm functions
- Limits, one-sided limits
and continuity
- Product, Quotient and Chain rules for differentiation
- Integration by substitution and by parts
- Geometric and exponential series
- Double integrals, repeated integrals
- Basic notions of Probability, random variables, expected value and
variance.
Required Text for the Online Course:
PROBABILITY : A Study Guide for SOA/CAS Exam P/ Exam 1, by
G.V. Ramanathan (For description and sample pages please click here )
Below is a sample assignment for the online course:
Registered students should complete this assignment preferably before starting the course and definitely before attempting
the first assignment in the course.
In order to read the files I post and send, you will need Adobe Reader,
which you can download from
Please make sure that you are able to read and print the test.
Schedule
(There may be minor changes)
