Summary of Actuarial Exam Information for Calendar Year 2010
(for both the Society of Actuaries (SOA), and separately, the Casualty Actuarial Society (CAS))

Note: At some point in your actuarial education journey, you'll need to decide whether to join the SOA or the CAS; fortunately, you can postpone this important decision until your senior year, since most of the early exams are common to both Societies.

Introduction

Whether you decide to become a life/health actuary (SOA) or a property/casualty actuary (CAS), there are two levels of designations you could get. For each Society, the lower- level designation is Associateship (ASA for SOA and ACAS for CAS) and the higher-level designation is Fellowship (FSA for SOA and FCAS for CAS). These days, very few students stop at Associateship as there isn't too much additional to accomplish (after obtaining an ASA or ACAS) in going all the way to FSA or FCAS. Because no undergraduate student can possible hope to complete all the Associateship requirements (in either Society) by the time they graduate, or hence start the additional Fellowship requirements, the information below focuses only on the Associateship requirements.

Preliminary Mathematical Exams Needed to Become ASA in SOA

Exam P - Probability/Calculus (3 hours, 30 questions, offered 6 times in 2010, Computer-Based Testing only).
Exam Fee for students $200, Drake Class: STAT 131 (Spring/Fall)

Exam FM - Financial Mathematics (3 hours, 35 questions, offered 4 times in 2010, Computer-Based Testing only).
Exam Fee for students $200, Drake Class: ACTS 140 (Spring/Fall)

Exam MFE - Financial Economics (2.5 hours, 24 questions, offered 2 times in 2010 - Traditional Paper/Pencil only).
Exam Fee for students $160, Drake Class: FIN 150 (Fall only).

Exam MLC - Life Contingencies (3 hours, 30 questions, offered 2 times in 2010, Traditional Paper/Pencil only).
Exam Fee for students $240, Drake Classes: ACTS 150 (Spring only) and ACTS 151 (Fall only)

Exam C - Construction of Actuarial Models (3.5 hours, 35 questions, offered 3 times in 2010, Computer-Based Testing only).
Exam Fee for students $300, Drake Classes: STAT 132 (Spring/Fall), STAT 141 (Spring/Fall), and ACTS 160 (Spring only).

VEE Requirements Needed to Become ASA in SOA

Given below are courses that you have to complete with a grade of A or B to get VEE credits.The Student Fee is $150 for all VEE credits combined.
Note: These are distinct from Drake's graduation/major requirements.

ECON 1 - Macroeconomics
ECON 2 - Microeconomics
FIN 102 - Advanced Corporate Finance
STAT 142 - Applied Statistics (Modelling and Data Analysis II) ;
**ECON 107 is an alternative to STAT 142.
(Note that students need either STAT 142 or ECON 107, but NOT both)
Note that if you pass any of these 4 classes with a C or a D, although you can receive Drake credit for them, you CANNOT receive VEE credit from the Society of Actuaries, and will then have to retake these classes (and then get an A or B the second time).

Additional Requirements (post-Drake) Needed to Become ASA in SOA

The last two requirements for Associateship in the Society of Actuaries (A.S.A), after having completed the first 5 preliminary exams and the VEE requirements, are:

• Fundamentals of Actuarial Practice Modules, Exercises, and Assessments (FAP)
• Associateship Professionalism Course (APC)

Note that for almost all Drake undergraduate students, you will not get to the FAP or APC until after graduating from Drake; this actually works well, as both are extremely expensive (the FAP alone costs $2,100), which is an expense covered by your future employers upon your successful completion (and not by Drake University)

For more information on all of the above requirements, refer to the SOA website:
http://www.soa.org/education/exam-req/edu-asa-req.aspx.  

Preliminary Mathematical Exams Needed to Become ACAS in CAS

CAS Exam 1 (see SOA Exam P above)

CAS Exam 2 (see SOA Exam FM above)

CAS Exam 3F (see SOA Exam MFE above)

CAS Exam 3L - Life Contingencies and Statistics (NOT the same as SOA Exam MLC, 2.5 hours, 25 questions, offered 2 times in 2010, Traditional Paper/Pencil only).
Student Fee $260, Drake Classes: ACTS 150 (Spring only), Statistics part not offered
Note that passing SOA Exam MLC will get you credit for passing CAS Exam 3L; however, passing CAS Exam 3L will NOT get you credit for passing SOA Exam MLC

CAS Exam 4 (see SOA Exam C above)

VEE Requirements Needed to Become ACAS in CAS

CAS VEE Requirements (see SOA VEE Requirements above)

The last four requirements for Associateship in the Casualty Actuarial Society (A.C.A.S.) after having completed the first 5 preliminary exams and the VEE requirements, are:

• CAS Exam 5 - Property & Casualty Insurance and Ratemaking (4 hours, Essay format, offered once in 2010, Traditional Paper/Pencil only), Student Fee $460

• CAS Exam 6 - Reserving, Insurance Accounting, Reinsurance, and Enterprise Risk Management (4 hours, Essay format, offered once in 2010, Traditional Paper/Pencil only), Student Fee $460

• CAS Exam 7 - U.S. Law, Regulation, Government/Industry Programs, Financial Reporting, and Taxation (4 hours, Essay format, offered once in 2010, Traditional Paper/Pencil only), Student Fee $460

• CAS Course on Professionalism

Note that for almost all Drake undergraduate students, you will not get to any of these additional requirements until after graduating from Drake; this actually works well as Essay exams are extremely time-intensive to prepare for, and you will neither have the time nor the applicable classes at Drake to fit this into your schedule.

For more information on all of the above requirements, refer to the CAS website:
http://www.casact.org/admissions/syllabus/summary.pdf

Send mail to Rahul Parsa with questions or comments about this web site.
Last modified: November 1, 2009