Download Statistics 98 198 Fall 2012 Syllabus

Actuarial Exam 1/P Prep Course
Statistics 98/198, Fall 2012
Course Facilitator: Eric Chen, [email protected]
Course Assistant: Patrick Liu, [email protected]
Sponsoring Faculty: Professor David Brillinger
Time and Location: Thursday, 4-6PM, 107 GPB (Genetics and Plant Biology)
Prerequisites: Math 1A, 1B, and 53; Recommended: Stats 134
Grade & Units: P/NP, 2
Course Overview:
This course is designed to teach problem solving techniques within probability theory that are
relevant to actuarial science. Subsequently, the class is intended to prepare students for the
Society of Actuaries and the Casualty Actuarial Society 1/P Exam. In this course, students will
learn numerous concepts of probability, including general probability, univariate and
multivariate probability distributions, and other special topics. Hopefully, after finishing the
DeCal all the students will be both confident and ready to ace the 1/P exam!
Attendance:
Attendance to this class is mandatory. In order to pass the course, students may have at most two
absences. These absences, however, cannot happen on the days of the group competition or
mock/practice exams.
General Class Structure:
4:10-4:30: 1 warm-up question, Q&A of homework due that day
4:30-5:20: Interactive lecture on course topics, including examples of real exam problems
5:20-6:00: 5 practice problems on the topics covered that day: students will be divided into 5
groups, and each group is responsible for solving 1 question and presenting it during the last 15
minutes of class.
Group Competition:
Throughout each group competition, one student from each of the five groups will be asked to
solve one problem at a time. The goal of this exercise is to train students in solving exam-level
questions quickly under time pressure. At the end, the winners of the group competition will be
awarded a special prize (TBA ).
4:10-4:30: 1 warm-up question, Q&A of the homework due that day
4:20-4:40: Quick review of important concepts
4:40-6:00: Group Competition
Practice/Mock Exams:
As this course is intended for serious exam preparation, students will have both midterms and
finals. These practice and mock exams will both be cumulative and multiple-choice, and will
cover material presented in lectures and real problems from previous exams.
The exam format is as follows:
(1) A one hour midterm practice exam with 10 questions; and
(2) A two hour final mock exam with 20 questions.
Homework:
Homework is to be handed in at the beginning of each class. No late homework is allowed, but
students are allowed to drop 2 homework assignments. The homework will also be graded more
on effort rather than correctness: students will receive either 0, 1, or 2 points for their homework
grades. Please note that all cumulative grades, homework, and classwork will be posted on
bspace each week.
Grading Scale:
In order to pass this course, students must have:
1) No more than 2 missed or no-credit homework
2) No more than 2 absences from class (No absence on days of group competition and exams)
3) At least 40% on the midterm practice exam and At least 50% on the final mock exam, OR At
least 60% on the final mock exam
Course Schedule (Tentative):
Date:
8/30
9/6
9/13
9/20
9/27
10/4
10/11
10/18
10/25
11/1
11/8
11/15
11/29
Class#:
Class 1
Class 2
Class 3
Class 4
Class 5
Class 6
Class 7
Class 8
Class 9
Class 10
Class 11
Class 12
Class 13
Topic:
Introduction, Exam Logistics, Basic Probability Laws, Counting
Conditional Probability, Insurance Terms, Random Variable, PDF, CDF
Expectation, Variance, Discrete/Continuous Uniform Distributions
Discrete Distributions: Binomial, Geometric, Negative Binomial, Poisson
Group Competition
Hypergeometric, Continuous Distributions: Exponential, Gamma, Beta
Central Limit Theorem, Normal, Standard Normal, Markov's/Chebyshev's Inequality
Midterm Practice Exam (10 Questions)
Joint/Marginal Distributions
Conditional Expectation/Variance, Covariance, Correlation
Transformations
Moment Generating Functions
Final Mock Exam (20 Questions)
Other Exam information: http://soa.org/education/exam-req/edu-exam-p-detail.aspx
Online Text that may be helpful: http://faculty.atu.edu/mfinan/actuarieshall/book.pdf