Rising Fellow Testimonials

The Course and the Cookbook for Exam 5 helped me succeed with the exam. The course helped me understand in-depth both the basic reserving and basic ratemaking, and provide the “core” foundation of how to fully understand the different methods, instead of just memorizing formulas. The team are always quick, effective, and patient to respond to questions and I always felt welcome and treated professionally. All in all, I highly recommend the online course, or at least the Cookbook, to improve the chances of passing the exam.

-   Albert T.

I used the Exam 5 Cookbook and it was a game-changer for finally understanding some of the difficult concepts. I was unable to grasp a critically important section of the material prior to using the cookbook. In addition, Steve and the team were super responsive whenever I had a question, which was very helpful for my study style. I went from 6's and 7's on earlier exams to a 9 on exam 5 due to the cookbook. I highly recommend the Rising Fellow materials for this exam!

-   Sam R.

Rising Fellow has the best actuarial study materials available. These came highly recommended to me and truly lived up to the high praise they received. I used the Rising Fellow Cookbook to study for Exams 7, 8, and 9. These are the most time-efficient way to learn the material and will make sure you are well-prepared on exam day!

The authors at Rising Fellow are truly lifesaving! I was able to pass my first two fellowship exams on my first attempt and have just purchased their study materials for my last one. Their original problems make you understand concepts at a deeper level that helps so much on exam day.

This was my first attempt at Exam 7. Michael was very clear in his explanation of topics and he broke things down in a way that was easy to follow. He also pointed out exam tips along the way. Perhaps most importantly, Michael was very quick to answer my questions whenever I sent him any. It seemed like he wanted me to pass almost as much as I wanted myself to pass! I highly recommend Rising Fellow.

[Michael] is probably the best video teacher I've ever had. He actually explains things and makes it more conversational, as opposed to essentially just reading you the study guide like the last few instructors I've had have done. I hope the rest of the videos are just as good, but so far I would highly recommend!

I think the Cookbook is a great addition to a study guide to help me prepare for an exam. The detailed steps and solutions definitely help when studying.

-   Vincent

As far as the cookbook - you covered everything and in a way that makes it easier to understand. The formulas in general wording and not the author’s notations made it easier to memorize and replicate. The practice problems and exam contained enough variations to really grill down the topics for each reading.

For the last two weeks prior to the exam, I concentrated on your cookbook - going over it multiple times to make sure I understood everything.

I felt your cookbook and practice problems covered the material well and was an excellent supplement to have - one that I will definitely recommend to everyone.

-   Saleh Lalani

I recently purchased the Cookbook for the Spring 2016 sitting of Exam 7. I was very impressed with the product overall. The recipes have a very clean look that is easy to follow along. It helps you prepare in less time but it is not a “shortcut.” It doesn’t just go over the main topics or otherwise cut corners on material. Rather, it goes through every testable math problem in an efficient and intuitive manner.

Exam 7, perhaps more than any upper level CAS exam, has a number of problems that aren’t necessarily extremely difficult, but there are a lot of steps. The cookbook makes those steps appear highly logical so it is less of a strain to memorize everything. I understood how the different pieces and inputs fit together so I was better prepared for the curveball questions in what was a tougher than usual sitting for this exam.

Steve is also very helpful and available to the students. He thinks about the exam like a test-taker, which makes all his material very approachable. Anyone sitting for Exam 7 would be foolish not to purchase The Cookbook.

-   Matt Fredette

The Cookbook was amazing for drills and making sure I had all the mechanical skills down pat. The practice exam was a wonderful prep for the real thing, comprehensively testing almost every conceivable type of question. In fact, there were several questions on the real exam that I know I crushed because Rising Fellow had very similar questions on their problem sets/exam! On exam day I felt like I knew exactly what I was doing on 90% + of the questions, and mostly what I was doing on the other 10%. Most importantly... I passed!

-   Nate Yankelev

This was my first attempt at Exam 7. I came out of the exam sitting feeling like I crushed it! I owe a big thanks to Steve and his Rising Fellow product. The question pack of 150 original practice problems and 2 original practice exams was a great resource for me in the last month or two of my studying. Steve also provided a number of “high level summaries” and “cheat sheets” that really helped me reinforce my understanding of different topics.

Perhaps most importantly, Steve was very quick to answer my questions whenever I sent him any. It seemed like he wanted me to pass almost as much as I wanted myself to pass! I highly recommend Rising Fellow.

-   Chris Wunderlich

Thanks for your responsiveness to questions and your problem sets. Together they helped me really go from concepts to exam type problems in a clear way. The cookbook was great, and having all the past problems in there listed out was extremely helpful. I was actually recommended to use your materials by someone who passed both those exams in the same sitting last year, and I would definitely also recommend your materials for anyone taking 7 without a doubt.

-   Tim

Rising Fellow has the best actuarial study materials available. These came highly recommended to me and truly lived up to the high praise they received. I used the Rising Fellow Cookbook to study for Exams 7, 8, and 9. These are the most time-efficient way to learn the material and will make sure you are well prepared on exam day!

-   Greg Karabinos

I found your study material (the cookbook, flashcards, and practice problems) to be the highest quality I’ve ever used. I also appreciated all your thoughtful responses to questions I sent you. Your dedication to preparing people for Exam 7 is awesome and unmatched. Thank you.

-   Sean Fakete

I have been using Rising Fellow for Exams 7, 8, and 9. I highly recommend all the study manuals.

The cookbook helped me better understand the key concepts in the course syllabus. The step-by-step explanations clearly outlined how I should tackle and solve each question. The clean layout gave me the advantage to review all the covered questions and concepts multiple times before the exam. This strengthened my muscle memory and helped me to answer questions quickly during the actual exam, especially under time constraints.

Lastly, I highly recommended going through the study strategies from Steve. I used to struggle with the fellowship exams. Ever since I adopted his exam strategies on how to study and how to take the exam, I was able to pass exam 7 to 9 on a streak. Thank you for putting in so much effort and time in helping others to succeed.

-   Cindy Chou

I want to sincerely thank you for the cookbook and questions that you have prepared. It has really helped to reiterate many of the key concepts and strengthen the processes of solving exam-style questions!

-   Jing Yean

Thanks for making awesome study materials -- I used the [online courses] to study for exams 7 and 9 and passed them on the first try! The explanations in the manual and seminar videos always helped the concepts click for me. I feel like Rising Fellow did a great job pulling out the most important concepts to review and had well-written examples in the manual. I especially liked the essay-type questions and flashcards, which were my go-to resource for review leading up to the exam. The Excel problems were also helpful to see how questions might be worked out in the spreadsheet environment. I’d recommend Rising Fellow for any exam it is available for!

-   Emily

I just wanted to say thank you for the materials you offer. I recently passed Exam 8 in the fall and Exam 7 to the spring and I know your cookbooks were absolutely the deciding factor after previous unsuccessful attempts. The steps are clear and concise and often explain information that I found very confusing. Plus several questions provide a new way of asking about the material that I just felt really prepared me for the style of questions the CAS asks. I could really tell that you truly care about us through the products you develop.

-   Mike Ruggiero

The Rising Fellow course was very comprehensive and the instructor support I received was unmatched as compared to The Infinite Actuary.  The study manual is very well put together and this, along with practice questions, is what enabled me to blaze through most of the exam in about 3 hours. Steve and Michael answered all of my questions in a timely and detailed manner.  This really solidified my understanding of the source material.

In general, there's no other product out there like this course.  This was the only attempt I needed to pass exam 9 and the results speak for themselves.  I would highly recommend this seminar!

-   Dmitriy Korogodskiy

Your study guide is honestly amazing. Even though reading the source material is recommended, it wasn’t as concise and user-friendly as your study guide. Looking forward to using Rising Fellow for 7 if I pass 6. I can’t thank you enough!!

Results are out today and I just want to let you know that I passed Exam 7 on the first try!! I couldn't have done it without your study guide. It provided very detailed summaries of the OP, more examples and explanations than required to fully understand the material, and plenty of exercises to fully master it! I really love the way the guide was structured and the attention to details that was put into making it! It is really an amazing guide and I would recommend it to all my colleagues who are sitting for Exam 7 in the future!

Rising Fellow has the best actuarial study materials available. These came highly recommended to me and truly lived up to the high praise they received. I used the Rising Fellow Cookbook to study for Exams 7, 8, and 9. These are the most time-efficient way to learn the material and will make sure you are well prepared on exam day!

Thanks for your responsiveness to questions and your problem sets. Together they helped me really go from concepts to exam type problems in a clear way. I was actually recommended to use your materials by someone who passed [their] exams in the same sitting last year, and I would definitely also recommend your materials without a doubt.

I used the Rising Fellow course for Exam 6. The study guides really draw your attention to the most important topics and minimize the amount of time spent reading through stacks of source material. The problem videos guide you through complex calculations and Michael is always quick to provide additional help when requested. Thanks to Rising Fellow, this was the first time I walked out of a testing center confident that I passed.

The CAS exams are not to be taken lightly and my path to FCAS was certainly not without failed attempts, but when I finally hit the upper levels, a few friends told me to use Rising Fellow and I couldn't be more thankful for that advice.  I purchased the online course for Exams 7 and 9, and the Exam 8 Cookbook for Exam 8, passing all 3 in a row.  I can't recommend their study materials enough.

-   Patrick Wells

You’ve truly developed an inspirational study program. Just yesterday, I saw my candidate number on the pass list, making me a Fellow. Your study materials played a large part in that achievement. I can’t thank you enough.

-   Eric Blancke