A Little Update

Wow, havn't updated this blog in quite a while. Below is a list of what happened since my last post:

• I did end up getting the job at Costco. This is currently my 6th month working there. Man time flies!
• I managed to find a cheap apartment by my school. Total rent is 1350 per month for a 12 month lease. I'm withing with another student so my monthly rent is $662.50. Not bad AND I get my own room.
• Took financial accounting over the summer at a junior college and got a B
• Currently taking managerial accounting, business law, macroeconomics, information systems, and business communication.

I'm working very hard at maintaining a B in my macroeconomics class in order to gain VEE credits for the Economics section. I've already registered for next semester's classes, one of which includes a Probabilities course. I aim to sit for Exam P sometime in late Feb. to early March. If all goes well, I hope to land an internship in the coming summer.

End of the Semester

Finally, the semester has ended. I managed to pass Art History class with a C+. I also found out that I received a sold B in Microeconomics. That is important since that means that I am halfway there in passing my Econ VEE credits. I also received B's in 2 of my other classes and am currently waiting on my Business Calc class. Hopefully I got an A in calc since my gpa would not look too great due to Art class. Whatever happens, I'm going to make it my personal mission to get at least a
3.3-3.5 gpa every semester. On a side note, I am currently looking for jobs for the summer. I've landed an interview with Costco for a front end position and have completed 2/3 of the interview process. The last interview takes place today and according to their manager, my chances of landing the job are pretty good.

Finals Week

Yup, so far I have completed one final and have two more to go. Two of my classes do not have finals so that gives me a much needed relief. The final I just finished was Art History. That was probably the hardest final I have ever taken. I'm crossing my fingers hoping that I passed the class. The last two finals are Microeconomics and Business Calculus. I have all the confidence in the world that I'll do well on the calc final. On the other hand, I'm a bit worried about the econ final. In order to have it count as VEE credit, I need to obtain a B- or better grade in the class. As of right now, I am getting a B-. For the past couple of days, I've been constantly studying for econ. Hopefully, I'll get my B-.

The Infinite Actuary

I've studied the ASM Manual a few times now. I must say, I am still a little bit confused at some of the topics covered in the manual. Therefore, I am considering subscribing to an online seminar called The Infinite Actuary. I've seen members of Actuary.com and Actuarial Outpost talk about how the seminar helped them pass their exams. From the information I gathered from the site and informed forum members, the seminars will help me better understand the fundamental concepts of probability that will be covered on the exam. The only downside is that it costs 375 dollars for a subcription. They did say that it costs 187.50 dollars for full time students. That's still a kind of pricey. But considering the benefits of passing the exams, its a small price to pay. I'm still deciding whether or not I should subscribe to the seminar. But it looks more and more likely that I'll be subscribing since I'll be very busy with classes and work during the summer. The seminar would save me some time from having to self study the materials that I do not understand. Below is the link to The Infinite Actuary website.

http://theinfiniteactuary.com/

Math Project Due Tomorrow

At the very moment of this writing, I am in the process of procrastinating and waiting until the very last minute until I complete my calc project. I must say, these past couple of weeks have been pretty draining on me. Term paper after term paper, exam after exam, traffic jams after traffic jams, scorching hot days after scorching hot days, etc.... But I've survived through all that thus far. Now, I'm on my last legs in this long marathon of my academic year. For this project, I have to write a paper about how I would operate my business. I have to incorporate 3 mathematical concepts/equations into my paper. I have chosen to incorporate price elasticity, definite integrals, and some form of probability into my paper. The paper is a minimum of 5 pages, single-spaced. I think I'll take a nap now and hopefully when I wake up I'll be able to perform during the strech run.

Probability Covered in my Business Calculus Class

So, we have finally reached the probabilities section in my Business Calculus class. I checked the textbook and found out that there are only two sections about probability. Obviously, that is not going to help me out for Exam P at all, but it's better than nothing. Before taking this course, the only thing I knew about probability was figuring out the odds of rolling a 3 on a 6 side dice. At least now I can delve deeper into the subject. The first section, 5.4, deals with fairly basic concepts of probability. It basically talks about the Probability Density Function and the rules that make up the function. We also learned how to construct a Probability Density Function and use it to solve certain problems.


In 5.5 we learned about the Expected Value of a function. We delved a little deeper into the subject by learning how to calculate the mean, variance, and standard deviation. I vaguely remember learning about this in a Statistics class I took during high school. But whatever I learned in that class has certainly gone by the wayside.


We also learned about the Normal Distribution in section 5.5. Overall, the concepts of probability we learned in this class seems pretty simple. Based on what I have seen so far in the ASM manual, this is the most basic of basic probability concepts. But since I was not all that familiar with probability in the first place, this is a great start for me. At least now I am more familiar with looking at probability notations that I have never previously seen before.

Unbelievable.....

I was intending on declaring a math minor today. But it turns out that I'm missing one class that would allow me to declare: precalculus. PRECALCULUS! I'm already taking a business calculus course and now they said that the business calc course is different from their regular calc course, therefore I need to fulfill the precalc prerequisite. That is extremely frustrating. Now I'm debating whether I should take a precalc class over the summer or I should just self-study my way through the Actuarial exams. Without a math minor, I won't be able to take a lot of the classes that will help be become more familiar to the material on the exams. What a bummer.

Edit: I've just realized that I can take a placement test in order to become exempt from taking that class. I am definitely going to sit for that exam.