Don't want to encourage anyone to study less, but it sounds to me like you might be overdoing it. The profession recommend between 125 and 150 hours for a CT subject depending on past educational background (see below). At four hours a day you'll cover that in a month!
http://www.actuaries.org.uk/students/help_support/student_handbook/study_hours
A couple of points:
- Your degree should put you into the cohort of students who pick this subject up relatively easily.
- Agree with previous respondants that 60-65% should be enough to pass (so aim for 70%).
- Don't overestimate the competition - especially for the early exams. We get a lot of dross in to the profession, attracted by the high potential earnings, so you shouldn't assume everyone has the potential to perform at a high level.
- For CT1 in particular you'll be up against lots of people with little or no (recent) maths knowledge. Remember that this exam has been opened up to people outside the profession.
- Of those with the potential to pass, many will be being pushed into doing more exams than they want to by their employer and just won't study for some of them. You'll spot these people leaving the exam room 20 minutes in to the exam. Most people do two or three CTs in their early sittings.
- You get no recognition for getting full marks. Better to balance work/life/study more roundly rather than make too many sacrifices at this stage. Remember you'll be at this for a few years - giving over 100% of your free time to study just won't be sustainable.
Good luck!
Last edited by a moderator: Mar 11, 2009