Do you get a formula sheet on Exam P?

Do you get a formula sheet on Exam P?

Keep reading or watch the video above to find out!

A common question I get from members of my Study Strategy Program is “Do you get a formula sheet on Exam P?” and the answer is no, not really.

When you write the probability exam, you’ll get a sheet that gives you the Normal (1,0) distribution table, as well as a definitions of some of the notation that is used on the exam.  Here’s a sample of the formula sheet you’ll get currently (as of March/May 2018).  You can get the Exam P tables for your exam sitting by going to the syllabus and finding the link to the “Exam P Tables”.

As you see, there are no formulas! (OK, well they do generously give you the mean formula, but you’ve probably seen that one a million times)

Don’t memorize formulas!

BUT don’t make the common mistake of memorizing all the formulas while you’re going through your study materials for the first time. Generally, if you’re studying the right way (like I teach Exam P candidates how to do in my Study Strategy Program) you’ll do so many practice problems during the last 2 months of your study period that you won’t need to dedicate time to memorize most of these formulas.

You’ll just use them so many times that they become second nature to you.  Many of them you should be able to understand intuitively which means you won’t need to memorize anyway.

While you’re going through your study materials for the first time, what you SHOULD do is create your own formula sheet for Exam P or make sure you print off the one provided with your study guide (Coaching Actuaries, ACTEX, ASM all have one for sure.. TIA probably does too). Then whenever you’re doing a practice problem refer to that sheet only when you need to (ie try it yourself first and use the sheet only if you can’t remember).

As you do more and more practice problems, you’ll become less reliant on the sheet. The 2-3 days before your exam you may want to go through the formula sheet and try to memorize any rare formulas that you haven’t been able to memorize along the way just in case an easy question using them pops up on your exam.