Question

ASM for Exam FM

Answer 1

I'd go with CA (videos aren't necessary fyi) for the prelims. Adapt was really good because you can specify the difficulty and type of questions (quantitative and/or qualitative) on the quizzes.

Answer 2

I bought the ASM manual and worked with it for two months. Then I bought Adapt for a month.

Answer 3

I’ve passed P/FM/IFM first time by using ACTEX/ASM manuals and practice exams/online SOA sample questions with one week of Adapt at the end just to get some confidence and look for weak spots. I don’t think Adapt really has anything unique that makes it a must have. You are right about the manual practice exams, though. Some of them bog you down with unnecessarily complex calculations.

I differ from most on here because I don’t really force myself to do the practice exams in a timed and closed book manner, at least not at first. I emphasize repetitions and conceptual recognition, which means I have no shame in identifying the appropriate technique and then checking the answer key to see if I was right and skipping the complex algebra. That’s a big part of why the overly complicated manual exams don’t bother me as much but it’s also a big caveat because most people don’t seem to think they would learn well that way. If you’re a very scrupulous studier you may burn a lot of valuable time on a relatively small number of practice questions in the manual. So just keep in mind what works for me may not work for you.

Answer 4

I used the asm manual only for FM and I passed.   But you can't go wrong with supplemental work like CA.  Not a requirement, but if you can afford it I think getting maybe 1 week of adapt is all you would need

Answer 5

I passed FM, LTAM and STAM with only the ASM manual and SOA released materials. It's doable, especially if you complete all the end of chapter questions.

Answer 6

I also purchased ASM manual, then downloaded eureka app to study on iPad. However, yesterday the manual was arranged by topic, the first of which was about sets of data. After studying and taking notes yesterday, I opened the app today to find the format completely changed! Now it just looks like a textbook, which doesn’t even highlight sets of data. Did this happen to anyone else??