Exam-week studying
Many actuaries have traditions and routines for how they handle the week before their actuarial exam. In my experience, I focused more on relaxing and putting myself in the right mindset – staying positive and confident. Rather than power through several last-minute practice exams, I spread out many short reviews to retain emphasis on the most important formulas and concepts.
Contrast this with popular approaches that focus on ramping up practice exam difficulty before test day. Students use this approach because they think these difficult practice exams will make the real exam seem easier. Yes, this may be true. However, this approach causes you to focus too much attention on non-fundamental problems and obscure concepts.
In doing this, you can overly frustrate yourself with difficult practice tests and review items that may not show up on test day. You may even lose sight of the bigger picture and forget more fundamental problem-solving techniques. It can make more sense to practice easier practice problems that reinforce fundamental concepts and calculations that are more representative of the real exam problems.
These easier questions will also boost your confidence going into exam day, putting you in the right mindset. Once you get to the “one week out” point, you should focus on remembering core concepts and preventing burnout to maximize exam-day performance. It is too late to save yourself if you are drastically under-prepared, so you should attempt to optimize the other factors that influence exam-day performance: nutrition, supplements and overall well-being.
Fueling your body for optimal exam performance
Night Before the Exam
In conjunction with this pattern of light reviews and increased focus on fundamental concepts, you can best position yourself for optimal performance on test day by properly fueling your body. One trick that I swear by is to eat several servings of pancakes and bowls of cereal the night before the exam. Hang with me…there is a method behind this madness.
The brain uses glucose for fuel, and it will need more glucose for mentally-taxing activities…like taking actuarial exams. Carbs turn into glucose, which is used by the body for both physical and mental functions. By fueling yourself the night before with carbs, there is more glucose floating around for your brain to use on test day.
In addition to fueling your brain for test day, the carbs will help you fall asleep easier the night before the exam. This is due to the more rapid rise and fall in blood sugar, coupled with a greater release of tryptophan and serotonin. This leads to a more blissful and deeper sleep, requiring less time to fall asleep. The serotonin will put you in a confident, happy, and upbeat mood when you wake up the next day. Because the high dose of carbs will cause sleepiness, do not do this carb-load during the day of the exam.
When I followed this carb-loading protocol, I found myself firing with all neurons, and everything clicked on exam day. I liken this to playing a sport right after a big plate of pasta – I feel a surge of extra energy and can run much longer. At the very least, carb-loading is a fun excuse to enjoy a big meal as a reward for all your studying leading up to the exam.
Exam Day
For breakfast, I stick to a healthy meal that consists of a protein source (meat, dairy, eggs) and healthy fats (avocado, peanut butter, almonds). Most times, this consists of several eggs with guacamole and almonds. A healthy breakfast like this will further boost the stored glucose saved up from the night before, yet it is lower on carbs to avoid the sleepiness that can from large swings in blood sugar. The protein and healthy fats will help stabilize blood sugar over a longer period in addition to staving off hunger, relative to a higher carb but low protein/fat meal.
Before entering the exam, I double my usual dose of caffeine along with taking my other supplements to boost exam performance. These supplements are the final piece that allows me to function at an optimal level.
For Fellowship exams, my lunch routine mirrors my breakfast. I avoid too many carbs to avoid sleepiness, and I concentrate on protein and fat to give me more sustained energy, allowing the stored glucose from the night before to power me through!
Closing Thoughts
I generally play my best on game day and test my best on test day. This is no coincidence, and I owe a large part of this to fueling up the right way. Pancakes and cereal were my favorite carb sources in fueling my brain with glucose and inducing an excellent night sleep; other carbs like bread, pasta, and pastries will work just as well! Some of my fondest actuarial memories involved huge breakfast food runs the night before my actuarial exams.
Please note, doing this carb-loading multiple days in a row will not necessarily do you any better than fueling up the night before the exam. Several of my friends have also found much success with this approach, but I recommend that you first experiment before a practice exam or classroom exam, before utilizing this trick for exam day. This method worked very well for me, and we are excited to hear how it works for you!
Study Smart, Pass Fast, Live Life
Mike & Roy