I am a senior majoring in actuarial science at a major university in China. I have passed 5 exams from the North American Society of Life Actuaries and 4 exams from the China Association of Actuaries as well as the GRE/TOEFL exam. What do you think now? The situation is similar to mine at that time, let me answer you:

1. The North American actuarial exam must first determine the direction, which is divided into life insurance (SOA) and non-life insurance (CAS). Generally, teachers and classmates in school You will be asked to take the SOA exam because it is relatively simple and many people take the exam. The associate actuary stage is specifically divided into 5 written exams P/FM/MFE/MLC/C, 3 VEE and 1 FAP.

P and FM require a good foundation in probability theory and mathematical statistics, MFE involves financial markets and investment, MLC is life insurance actuarial science, and C is non-life insurance actuarial model, which is required in university courses. If you take these courses as electives or self-study, the review time for the last three courses is about 2 months each, and the review time is about 8 hours a day.

VEE is a certified course. You need to take specific courses at a domestically certified school to get credits. In view of your situation (secondary school), you cannot get these credits. Therefore, you can exchange credits for passing the exam, or CAS (see SOA regulations for details)

FAP is an online course. You need to pay a certain fee, and then you can accept online learning and complete the exam invigilated by a certified actuary. It is recommended to complete it during the working phase. After completing the above exams, you will be qualified to become an ASA (North American Life Insurance Associate Actuary)

2. If you want to go abroad, you only need to complete the IELTS test in the UK, and a score of 7 or above is preferred. In the United States, you need to see the school preparing TOEFL (required) and GRE/GMAT (depending on the major you are applying for). English proficiency cannot be measured by Level 4 or Level 6. Generally speaking, Level 6 requires 55 points to prepare for the TOEFL, which is relatively easy, but it also requires 2-3 months of full-day review.

The main part of English learning is GRE, and the main part of GRE is vocabulary. The fifth edition of the Little Red Book I memorized at that time had 9,70 professional vocabulary words. I used Yang Peng's 17-day memorization method. It took about 16 hours to memorize the words a day. Then there is the training of long and difficult sentences. After completing these two trainings, it is recommended that you review the reading and vocabulary questions. Generally, the total time is about 4 months. The composition needs to be completed before these tasks, and it takes 1-2 months to review. I was very hasty and reviewed for 10 days, so my grades were average. My final score was 1393

3. The process of going abroad can accept the suggestions of some training institutions. Generally, American schools require a personal statement, letters of recommendation, GPA and English scores. The proportions of the four parts are approximately 30, 30, 30, and 10. If you have PAPER or a good CASE, you can get a lot of extra points in PS. This depends on how hard you work in participating in activities at school. Recommendation letters are divided into two types: academic and professional. Academic letters must be written by teachers at the current school. The higher the professional title, the better. Career recommendation letters depend on your social connections. If you are a computer major and can get a recommendation letter from Bill Gates, you will understand. However, regardless of fame or not, honesty comes first, and the deceitful things in China will not work abroad.

The North American Actuary Certificate (FSA) is unrealistic for an undergraduate student, and it is no better abroad than at home. A certificate can only show that you have worked hard enough, and has little to do with your ability and qualifications. Again, PAPER and CASE are the last words.

In the end, applying to schools was very troublesome, and I gave up in the end. However, you can pay attention to the forums of Taisha or Zun, which have many experts’ experiences that will be very helpful to you.

Finally, work hard, boy. I type so many words and don’t care about the score. This is the first time I use this account. It’s just that I saw that I was so confused in the past. No one helped me so much at that time, so I am in a desperate situation now.

I just want to say something to you and your past self: Don’t let your future self regret it, go for it