the beaten, the down, the listless and jaded....aka the ones who didnt pass

[Harp916]

Hello All,

I say, with a heavy heart and bruised ego, that I have failed Exam P for the second time. Now, I am not a "genius" but I am intelligent. I understand Probability Theory and Calculus very well. But as I have not passed the exam, I guess my knowledge of the material is not as intimate as I presumed.

So you all may be wondering to yourself, what did this guy do wrong? Well, I really don't know...

Attempt 1--March 2011-FAIL

I know what I did wrong here, I spent too much time reading about the topics, not enough time practicing the questions. I assumed understanding the theory would be enough....but boy was I wrong. My first attempt earned me a grade of 2

Attempt 2--May 2011-FAIL
Armed with the knowledge of the topics, and armed with a firm grasp of the theory...I devoted myself to practice questions. I figured, what best way to learn how to apply the knowledge than practice, practice, practice.

I did the entire 18 ASM practice exams, some of them I did twice. I did the SOA 152, I did some practice questions that I found online. I did maybe a thousand practice problems. I felt so confident.

People always say, ohhhh its easy just like the TIA exam. MINE WAS NOT!!!

My exam was by far harder than any of the practice things I have seen. I have a few questions that are sticking with me on this matter. If your are brave enough, send me a message and we can discuss these questions.

On my exam, I went though 17 problems with ease. These questions I knew I had right. I encountered 5 questions which I didn't understand at first glance, but then thought my way through them and came to a conclusion. I saw 8 questions that were not like anything I've ever seen. (If you wanna talk about these send me a private message). I was CERTAIN that I was going to have a pass notice, but was so shocked and disappointed

So what do I do now? What path do I go on? Two failed attempts at the entry exam, am I cut out for this?

I would feel so much better hearing from people who have failed the exam multiple times before passing and now they are successful...

For the later exams, is it common to see people taking them multiple times?


So I am tired of TIA, I hate the sound of his voice, and both exams were much harder than what he presented. I like ASM, it was similar to what I encountered. I like adapt, but it uses the same ASM questions. I need original, new questions that I have not seen and that are not a rehash of other questions. Where can I find such a thing?

[alekhine4149]

Hi Harp, I know somebody who failed twice and then got a 10 and went pretty quickly through the rest of the prelims. This person claims P/1 is the 2nd hardest of the prelim exams. It just hits some people the wrong way, I think. So maybe you can transform your experience into something like that.

It sounds like you missed a bunch of the problems you were convinced you had right. So you are falling into traps, and these problems usually have a few snares waiting to grab you. You asked from somebody who had previously failed and then passed, and this is not me, so I apologize if you don't find this useful. But for what it's worth, I don't think you need new questions. I recommend retaking all the exams you've already taken, and continue to retake them until you have 25+ correct on each one. Do not permit yourself any guesses - if you can't reproduce the solution perfectly, leave it blank. With ASM exams 6-end, this will certainly be enough to get your 10, but do it for any practice exam you can get your hands on. Best wishes on replicating my friend's result.

[theironhorse]

Just keep at it. I took a prep course in college for P/1, got a C in it, passed the exam on my first try with a 7.


Then I took FM/2 and failed it. Then I failed it again. And finally I got through barely on the third try.

I personally believe I had much easier questions on my third try than the first two, but still I was unprepared in the previous.

Both times on FM when I failed I thought I understood it perfectly. So how did I clear things up? I used Marcel Finan's manual. It's free, has a ton of practice problems, and I re read multiple sections to the point where I was comfortable with problems that before made me cringe because I hated all the work that I had to do. You cannot just apply "theory" on these exams because not every question will be purely theory.

Dr. Finan has a manual for P.

Finally, I would not discuss with others any problems you had no idea about since this is against policy.

But try to remember them and work them out on paper for yourself. I did this on my second fail of FM. It took me 3 days of scratching my head trying to find the answer but I eventually got it and realized the technique they had done. This will be to your advantage because it is possible that you may get some of those same questions again.

What you find is that while the questions are extremely weird like nothing you have never seen before, they are still FAIR. I mean that you can take apart all the pieces of the question and come to an answer based on the principles you have seen in the manuals and study material.

And yes, higher level exams are much harder. I have talked to an ASA who failed exam C three times before passing.