Dr. Weishaus is the author of the ASM manual for Exam C/Exam 4 and also teaches a university course for this exam.

Description of Manual

The solutions to the relevant questions from all released SOA Exams M and C have been added to the 8th edition. Also, corrections of all known errata have been made.

This manual offers comprehensive coverage of the syllabus for SOA Exam C and CAS Exam 4. In its 68 lessons, the following topics are reviewed:

• Parametric distributions, including discussion of the lognormal distribution as a model for stock prices
• Coverage modifications, including deductibles, claims limits, coinsurance, and inflation
• Discrete distributions
• Compound models
• Aggregate deductibles
• Ruin theory
• Empirical estimators, including ogives, product-limit and Nelson-Aalen
• Kernel smoothing
• Parametric estimation, including method of moments, percentile matching, and maximum likelihood
• Cox model and other models with covariates
• Hypothesis testing
• Limited fluctuation credibility
• Bayesian credibility
• Buhlmann credibility
• Empirical Bayes methods
• Simulation using the inversion method
• Special considerations for simulating stock price changes
• Bootstrap approximation
• VaR, CTE, and other risk measures.

The manual has over 1250 pages, about 220 examples, and over 1380 end-of-lesson exercises, including both original and old exam questions, many of them taken from pre-2000 exams, which are not easily available, all with worked out solutions. In addition to these exercises, there are seven full-length (40-question) practice exams. An appendix has a cross reference to help you track down lessons corresponding to published 2000 and later exam questions, and there is an index. Many students have found this manual adequate by itself for exam preparation, but the Klugman and McDonald textbooks for the exam, as well as the other text options where available, are referenced in each lesson if you wish to use them.