Hi forumI am about to start the actuary course. Just wanted some help. I intend to take up stochastic modelling in the Oct / Nov exams. Can anyone recommend text books for stochastics for beginners that contains adequate number of problems with solutionsAlso if there is a web-site where study material of the Institute of Actuaries London is availablemany thanxciao

Hi Opan,"Introduction to Probability Models" by Sheldon M Ross is quite good for discrete state stochastic processes (eg Markov chains in discrete and continuous time), but the section on Brownian motion, stochastic calculus etc is a bit sketchy. You should probably get the notes offered by ActEd because I believe you also need to know time series etc. www.acted.co.uk

QuoteOriginally posted by: opanHi forumI am about to start the actuary course. Just wanted some help. I intend to take up stochastic modelling in the Oct / Nov exams. Can anyone recommend text books for stochastics for beginners that contains adequate number of problems with solutionsAlso if there is a web-site where study material of the Institute of Actuaries London is availablemany thanxciaobest preparation is to follow the acted notes to the best of your ability, otherwise you'll end up wasting time on stuff you don't need to know. Also, if they do practice questions then buy them too. I found that Intro to prob by Sheldon Ross is abit laborious. It covers everything in great depth but if youre working to a deadline then you can't use it a primary reference.

QuoteOriginally posted by: brontosaurusQuoteOriginally posted by: opanHi forumI am about to start the actuary course. Just wanted some help. I intend to take up stochastic modelling in the Oct / Nov exams. Can anyone recommend text books for stochastics for beginners that contains adequate number of problems with solutionsAlso if there is a web-site where study material of the Institute of Actuaries London is availablemany thanxciaobest preparation is to follow the acted notes to the best of your ability, otherwise you'll end up wasting time on stuff you don't need to know. Also, if they do practice questions then buy them too. I found that Intro to prob by Sheldon Ross is abit laborious. It covers everything in great depth but if youre working to a deadline then you can't use it a primary reference.hi guys..thanx for ur responsesthe dilemma is that I am not studying for the sake of a qualification but because I want to study something sufficiently mathematical. Hence I wanted to study from textbooks to understand the subject and its underlying concepts thoroughly.Studying from study notes becomes a case of "Monkey See Monkey Do". You can answer the questions but really do not understand the concept. That is why I wanted texts for beginners where I can understand the concpet thru self study solve a lot of problems and then take up study notes so as to get the requisite exam orientation.by the way are there any text books written keeping in view the actuary examinations???thanxciao

QuoteOriginally posted by: opanQuoteOriginally posted by: brontosaurusQuoteOriginally posted by: opanHi forumI am about to start the actuary course. Just wanted some help. I intend to take up stochastic modelling in the Oct / Nov exams. Can anyone recommend text books for stochastics for beginners that contains adequate number of problems with solutionsAlso if there is a web-site where study material of the Institute of Actuaries London is availablemany thanxciaobest preparation is to follow the acted notes to the best of your ability, otherwise you'll end up wasting time on stuff you don't need to know. Also, if they do practice questions then buy them too. I found that Intro to prob by Sheldon Ross is abit laborious. It covers everything in great depth but if youre working to a deadline then you can't use it a primary reference.hi guys..thanx for ur responsesthe dilemma is that I am not studying for the sake of a qualification but because I want to study something sufficiently mathematical. Hence I wanted to study from textbooks to understand the subject and its underlying concepts thoroughly.Studying from study notes becomes a case of "Monkey See Monkey Do". You can answer the questions but really do not understand the concept. That is why I wanted texts for beginners where I can understand the concpet thru self study solve a lot of problems and then take up study notes so as to get the requisite exam orientation.by the way are there any text books written keeping in view the actuary examinations???thanxciaodon't know what stage of your life youre at and if you have the time to go thru the whole of sheldon ross's book then go for it, but its an exhausting task, and i'm not sure its neccessary. Also I don't really know acted, I'm doing the SOA one (truing to do it I should say), and the questions are good.