how much maths is involved in actuarial studies? (1 Viewer)

[jason_granger]

i just got accepted into B applied finance and B commerce-actuarial studies, and was wondering how much math is actually involved in the actuarial studies degree. At high school I only did extension 1 maths, recieving a mark of 46/50 which isn't exactly that great.
I am curious to know from any actuarial students on this forum, whether or not you need to be extremly good in maths to succeed in this degree and if they know anyone who wasn't exactly that great in maths yet is good at actuarial studies?
any help/advice anyone could give me would be great

 

[-=«MÄLÅÇhïtÊ»=-]

nah hsc maths and actuarial maths is kinda different...
u learn alot of new stuff in actuarial maths...whether its probability or further calculus stuff...no point describing coz u wont get wot im talkn bout..

but basically ppl who didnt go 4u maths in high skool did math135 in sem1 and math136 in sem2 rather than the math133 in sem2. that mainly covered 4u stuff and more uni lvl maths. i think if u do 135 and 136 u r more ahead than ppl who did 4u maths.

but ye..on the whole, actuarial maths questions r quite different to high skool maths. high skool maths was pretty mechanical..they juz tell u to do something and u do it. like "integrate this". in actuarial, the hard bit it transforming a real life situation into a maths problem. most ppl would get it wrong in that process. doing the integration (by recognition rather than actually integrating it. coz see in acst, u do so mmuch integration u juz do it by recognising it rather than actually doing it =p) is the so called "dog work" coz its trivial.

 

[flyin']

Actuarial is more about thinking/understanding (which is why people always talk about 4U Maths and never really about 3U Maths).

There isn't as much Maths in Actuarial, as there is Maths in Maths.

Can you be good in Actuarial, and not that good in Maths? In short, yes. But depends on what other skills you have... cos Maths can be mindless at times (as described in previous post).

 

[hasterz]

so the maths is heavily based on intergration?

 

[flyin']

no, there is some integration (but it isn't all the maths you do)

 

[jason_granger]

thnx for the advice guys
I just hope i can get through year 1 without having to drop actuarial studies. Also another question - is STAT171 very hard (from what i heard), is it possible for me to do STAT170 instead?... or is STAT171 compulsory?

 

[feng]

actuarial studies is maths based, but its more about a lateral sort of thinking rather than hardcore maths.

once you get into the workforce, being an actuary isnt just all about sitting there and doing hard formulas.

my cousin is an actuary, and the most ive seen her do is like punch some numbers on a calculator, im sure there is a lot more involved apart from that...but i guess the rest is up to judgement based on what we have learnt at uni...

i dunno...maybe some other ppl can confirm this...

 

[-=«MÄLÅÇhïtÊ»=-]

a guy from work came form the uk. he did a degree in maths and got qualified externally for all 3 parts. he says the maths in actuarial compared to maths in maths is much more trivial, ie.easier

and no jason_ganger u have to do stat171. don't even think about running away from stat171 if u wanna finish ur degree coz stat171 really aint too bad... if ur scared of stat171 and want to do stat170 already wots gonna happen when u do stat272 and stat271 in 2nd yr.

 

[flyin']

some of the stuff ive done in math so far is harder than anything ive come across in actuarial (except they never seem to test that stuff)

 

[CrashOveride]

A lot.

PS. CLOUDSTRIFE i see you are in this forum, can you please read and reply to my PM
cheers mate =)

 

[flamin']

Bah.. all these explanations of different types of maths.

Actuarial isn't so much math. Its more statistics and financial maths. Its not liks HS statisics either. If you are quantitatively minded then you won't like this course basically.