Exam FAM is the fundamentals exam covering both long-term (life/annuity) and short-term (P&C/health) actuarial mathematics. Introduced in 2023 to replace LTAM and STAM, it takes roughly 300 hours of prep. Upload your ACTEX digital edition, scanned ASM manual, TIA PDF handouts, or your own notes and exclam.ai turns them into a fully guided study plan with adaptive flashcards, quizzes, and a weekly schedule tuned to the breadth of the material.
Computer-based test with multiple-choice questions. Tests both life contingencies and short-term insurance topics in a single sitting. Check soa.org for current length and format.
The broadest preliminary exam — covers both life/annuity and short-term/P&C content in one sitting.
Introduced in 2023 to replace the old LTAM and STAM exams.
Most candidates report it is the hardest preliminary exam due to sheer volume.
Most candidates prep in 16–24 weeks at 15–20 hours per week.
Format details change periodically. Always verify the current exam structure on soa.org before your exam.
The 7 topic areas tested on Exam FAM, with approximate weight bands from the public SOA syllabus. Click any topic for a dedicated study page.
Structure and features of common insurance and retirement products including life insurance, annuities, health, and short-term insurance.
Statistical models for individual loss severity, claim frequency, and aggregate loss distributions including compound distributions.
Maximum likelihood and method of moments estimation for parametric models, including goodness of fit testing.
Life table construction, force of mortality, select and ultimate mortality, and multiple-decrement models.
Pricing and reserving for life insurance and life annuity products using the equivalence principle and benefit reserves.
Pricing, loss reserving, and credibility for short-term insurance products including property, casualty, and health.
Introduction to option pricing including put-call parity, binomial models, and Black-Scholes pricing for European options.
Topic names and approximate weight bands sourced from the public SOA Exam FAM syllabus on soa.org.
Drop in your ACTEX Exam FAM digital edition (full-corpus PDF), scanned ASM pages, TIA handouts, or your own notes. exclam.ai parses them into structured content for a fully guided study plan.
AI generates flashcards for formulas and concepts, plus multiple-choice quizzes targeting each of the 7 topic areas. Edit any card.
Coverage phase, review phase, and mocks — distributed across your ~18-week timeline or whatever you choose.
Pick the timeline that matches your exam date. Each plan covers roughly 300 hours distributed across a different number of weeks.
exclam.ai works alongside any of these vendors. Upload paths vary — ACTEX sells full digital editions as downloadable PDFs (cleanest upload), ASM print manuals can be scanned for the full corpus, and The Infinite Actuary provides downloadable PDF handouts alongside their videos. For ASM digital (app-locked) and Coaching Actuaries (online platform), upload your own notes taken while studying. We do not distribute or reproduce any vendor content — your manual stays with the publisher.
FAM consolidates fundamentals from both LTAM (life contingencies) and STAM (short-term insurance) into one exam. The advanced content from those exams moved into ALTAM and ASTAM. Candidates who previously would have taken LTAM and STAM separately now take FAM, then choose either ALTAM or ASTAM.
Community consensus is 300+ hours, often more. Most candidates prep over 4 to 6 months at 15 to 25 hours per week. Budget more time if you are new to life contingencies or loss modeling.
Opinions vary. Candidates from life/annuity backgrounds tend to find short-term content harder and vice versa. The Pricing & Reserving sections (for both life and short-term) are typically cited as the heaviest.
FAM is a prerequisite for both advanced exams. Take FAM first, then choose the advanced exam (ALTAM for life focus, ASTAM for short-term focus) based on your career direction.
Upload your ACTEX digital edition, scanned ASM manual, TIA handouts, or your own study notes and exclam.ai generates a fully guided study plan: flashcards and quizzes covering both the life and short-term halves. The weekly plan distributes coverage time across the seven topic areas with extra weight on the largest sections. Weak topics get re-surfaced automatically.
Upload your ACTEX digital edition, scanned ASM pages, TIA handouts, or your own notes — exclam.ai builds a fully guided study plan around your exam date.