Should I take Calculus and Stats again??

[flossinlo]

Hi All -

First post here. Like many others, I am considering a career change and need some advice.

My background: Graduated 20 yrs ago with a BS in ECON with a minor in Business. 10 year career in finance with a Series 7, Insurance and Annuities and Options licenses. Then started a landscaping company and sold it after 10 years in business. Always been good in math but not a "math whiz".

As I mentioned, I graduated about 20 yrs ago, so needless to say, my Calculus and Stats is very very rusty. My question: Should I bear down and try to re-learn Calculus and Stats through the P Exam study materials or would I be better off taking the courses again at community college? Obviously, I am trying to take the most direct route without wasting too much time.

Thanks in advance for the help and opinions.

ML

[trsspidey]

Hmmm... IMO the calculus you need to learn you can just give yourself a crash course in (integration by parts, derivatives, etc) And the "stats" you'd need is just really some more calculus (calculating expected values and variance)

I think devoting a semester with that material might be a little over board. For many it might be their first time seeing the material so it might progress a little slower than you'd like. But 20 years is a long time and if you'd love to be back in school and aren't on a budget and are in no rush it doesn't hurt.

If you popped open a few SOA problem solutions and looked at the level of calculus there you might have a better idea if you remember any of it or if it's like a foreign language now. IMO though math is a lot like riding a bike! Hope it all comes back to you!

[latebloomer]

was in the same position, career changer, minus the series 7, entrepreneurship, etc etc. but a 6 year gap instead of 20. i actually just used the internet to brush up on my calc and stats. i did however just concentrated on the calculus that will be needed on P, such as derivatives, logs, exponential functions, e^x, integrals, double integrals, partial derivatives, etc.

i just didn't have time to take a course. but if you get the The Infinite Acutary course on Exam P, I heard you learn all the calc you need from them. I'll be purchasing their course soon for P.

Here is what I used:

[url]http://patrickjmt.com/[/url]

and the khan academy on youtube is what i mostly used to brush up on calc.