Professional Certification

Passing the exams of the Society of Actuaries (SOA) or the Casualty Actuarial Society (CAS) is absolutely essential to a successful actuarial career.  Students that have passed one or two exams have much better employment opportunities and salaries for both permanent jobs and summer internships.

Detailed official information on certification and exams is available from SOA and CAS.  This page is an unofficial guide for UT actuarial students to the most relevant aspects of the two credentialing systems.

Education is the basis for certification by the CAS or SOA.  Some subjects are required as background, some are validated by educational experience (VEE) and some are validated by preliminary exams administered by the CAS or SOA.  Our students are able to take classes that help them prepare for all the preliminary exams and VEE courses needed to earn an associate credential from either the CAS or SOA.

Subjects required as background

Background subjects needed for success as an actuary - but not formally validated - include calculus (M 408C/D, 408K/L/M or 408N/S/M), linear algebra (M 341 or 340L), accounting (ACC 310F or 311/312), business law (LEB 320F or 323) and mathematical statistics (M 358K or 378K).  These background subjects are prerequisites for many of the following actuarial courses.
Note: statistics is examined by the CAS as part of its Exam 3L

Subjects Validated by Educational Experience (VEE)

Knowledge of these subjects is validated by passing an examination OR by making at least a B- in a college course accepted by CAS and SOA.  The University of Texas at Austin courses that are pre-approved for validation are: ECO 304K & ECO 304L, FIN 357 and M 349R.  All the UT-Austin approved courses can be found here.

Preliminary Exams - subjects validated by CAS or SOA

SOA Exams P, FM, MFE and C are jointly administered by CAS - which denotes them by Exam 1, 2, 3F and 4.  These joint exams count in both the CAS and SOA certification systems.  The remaining SOA preliminary exam is MLC.  For CAS, the remaining preliminary exam is CAS Exam 3L.  Since these prelim exams are the most likely to be relevant to our students, they are the only ones described here.

Joint Exam P/1 (Probability)
This exam covers calculus-based probability, with many problems set as word problems involving risk.  M 362K (Probability I) covers most of the content for Exam P/1.  Multiple sections of this course are offered each fall, spring and summer.  In addition to the class, students should plan on preparing an additional 150+ hours if they wish to successfully pass exam P/1.  Similar preparation is required for the other exams.

Joint Exam FM/2 (Interest Theory)
This exam covers interest theory and introductory financial mathematics.  ACF 329 (Interest Theory) covers 75% of the content for Exam FM/2.  Traditionally, we offer two sections of ACF 329 each fall and spring semester and we may offer one section during the summer.  ACF 129D (Introductory Actuarial Financial Mathematics) covers the remaining 25% of the content for FM/2.  This one credit course is offered each fall and spring semester.  The faculty recommend that students preparing for FM/2 take this class the semester immediately after ACF 329. 

SOA Exam MLC (Life Contingencies)
This exam covers life contingent actuarial models, including contingent-payment models and survival models and special stochastic processes.  Our two semester sequence M 339U & M 339V covers all the learning objectives for Exam MLC.  M 339U (Actuarial Contingent Payments I) is offered each fall semester and M 339V (Actuarial Contingent Payments II) is offered each spring.

CAS Exam 3L
This exam covers the same general topics as SOA Exam MLC, with different emphases, as well as mathematical statistics.  The CAS grants credit for Exam 3L to anyone passing SOA Exam MLC.

Joint Exam MFE/3F (Financial Economics)
This exam covers financial economics: the basic mathematical analysis of options and other financial derivatives.  M 339W (Financial Mathematics for Actuarial Applications) is offered each fall.

Joint Exam C/4 (Construction and Evaluation of Actuarial Models)
This exam covers simple risk measures; frequency and severity-of-loss and compound models; simulation and its use in modeling; and construction and validation of actuarial models, including credibility theory and estimating and fitting survival models.  M 339J (Probability Models with Actuarial Applications) offered in the spring, and M 349P (Actuarial Statistical Estimates) offered in the fall cover 100% of the content for Exam C/4.