Order statistics and hard to remember Dist.

[pmahbobi]

Can anyone tell me it it was worth the trouble working on the oder statistics or
beta or weibull and some of those more difficult distributions?
I am having a very hard time working on the order statistics stuff.


Thanks.

[krzysio]

Can anyone tell me it it was worth the trouble working on the oder statistics or
beta or weibull and some of those more difficult distributions?
I am having a very hard time working on the order statistics stuff.
Thanks.

You should never ask this kind of questions when studying for actuarial exams. The rule is: when in doubt, memorize. When I was taking exams, many times I had this thought: "They can't possibly expect me to memorize this!," and then the stuff was on the exam.

Minimization of effort is the worst possible strategy for studying for actuarial exams. Especially if you are smart. If you are smart and minimize effort, you will almost certainly get a 5. If you are smart and maximize effort you will get a 10 or a 9 on a bad day, or a 6 on a terrible day. And if you are not smart and minimize effort, you will get a score between 0 and 2.

Beta distribution is on the syllabus, although to my best knowledge has not been ever tested. But it is on the syllabus. Order statistics are on the syllabus, although only the first and last order statistic questions have appeared regularly. By the way, the joint PDF of all order statistics is the simplest possible formula you can imagine: it is just n! times the joint PDF of the random sample, you can't possibly mean that you are having a hard time memorizing this -- or are you using a textbook that does not cover this?

If you want to risk it and not memorize it, then you must know that if you get a 5, it will be by your choice. And when you memorize it and get a 6, it will also be a result of your choice. To quote from my ASM exam P manual: "The biggest reward for passing an actuarial exam is not having to take it again."

Yours,
Krzys'

[maryland]

It's def worth memorizing order statistics (or at least max/min). It seems like the probability of seeing Pareto or Beta distributions are pretty low.

[krzysio]

It's def worth memorizing order statistics (or at least max/min). It seems like the probability of seeing Pareto or Beta distributions are pretty low.

I agree: some questions (one or two) on order statistics are nearly certain to be there, and they will be most likely on the first (minimum) order statistic or last (maximum) order statistic. And, yes, Pareto and Beta are very low probability topics, but you might possibly get one question on either one of these, and it would be nice to get that question, as most people attempting this exam will not learn anything about them. But remember, there will be people taking this test who will have memorize these, and you will be competing against them.

Yours,
Krzys'

[leavingharvard]

Flashcards work best....and lots of problems.