This Actuarial Exam P cheat sheet distills the SOA's calculus-based Probability exam into a printable rundown of the formulas and distributions examiners test most. It's a premium cheat sheet built by Capital Prep — the one premium prep we trust — and it's yours free. Reinforce it with the rest of your free Exam P toolkit: the practice test, study guide, and flashcards.
Actuarial Exam P exam at a glance
- Questions: 30 multiple-choice (5 options A–E), plus a few unscored pilot questions
- Time: 3 hours (computer-based test at Prometric)
- Result: Scaled score 0–10; a 6 or higher is a pass (SOA sets the mark by scaling)
- Cost: $275 exam fee (verify the current amount at SOA.org)
- Sponsors: Society of Actuaries (SOA); recognized by the Casualty Actuarial Society (CAS) as Exam 1
What’s on the Actuarial Exam P cheat sheet
- General Probability (23–30%) — the axioms, addition and complement rules, permutations vs. combinations, conditional probability, independence, the law of total probability, and Bayes' theorem.
- Univariate Random Variables (44–50%) — the largest block — pmf/pdf/CDF, every named discrete and continuous distribution with its mean and variance, moments and MGFs, variance transforms, and insurance payments (deductibles, coinsurance, limits).
- Multivariate Random Variables (23–30%) — joint, marginal, and conditional distributions, covariance and correlation, linear combinations, the Central Limit Theorem, and order statistics.
How to use it in your final week
- Front-load Univariate Random Variables (44–50% of the exam) — the discrete and continuous distributions plus expectation, variance, and insurance payments are nearly half your points, so master this block from the sheet first.
- Drill the distribution table until each mean and variance is automatic — Poisson has mean = variance = λ, exponential has mean = sd = 1/λ, binomial is np and np(1 − p), and the uniform on [a, b] has variance (b − a)²/12.
- Rehearse the Bayes and total-probability workflow: build the tree, sum cause × conditional for P(A), then divide the target branch by it — the single most repeated General Probability pattern.
- Read the sheet the morning of the exam for a final pass on the memory hooks — memorylessness (exponential and geometric), z = (x − μ)/σ, Var(aX + b) = a²Var(X), and answer every question since blanks are scored incorrect.
The cheat sheet is your review layer — your Actuarial Exam P practice test drives the exam-readiness ring at the top of this page. Download it, review, then take a full practice exam (or drill with the study guide and flashcards) to see where you stand.
Actuarial Exam P cheat sheet FAQ
Yes — the Exam P cheat sheet is 100% free to download as a PDF, with no sign-up required. It's part of Career Employer's free Exam P toolkit alongside the practice test, study guide, and flashcards.
It condenses the highest-yield probability facts into a quick reference: the axioms and counting rules, conditional probability and Bayes' theorem, every discrete and continuous distribution with its mean and variance, moment and variance transforms, insurance payment formulas, and the Central Limit Theorem — organized by the three topics the SOA weights the exam around.
Yes. It lists the pmf/pdf, mean, and variance for Bernoulli, binomial, Poisson, geometric, hypergeometric, uniform, exponential, gamma, beta, and normal, plus the memoryless property and standardization z = (x − μ)/σ. The standard-normal table itself is provided on screen during the exam, so you don't need to memorize it.
No — Exam P pairs calculus-based probability with roughly six minutes per question, and recent pass rates hover near 50 percent, so the sheet is a review and last-week cram aid, not a substitute for working timed problems. Use it to lock in formulas and the practice test to build your readiness. Your result is a scaled score from 0 to 10, and a 6 or higher is a pass.
Click the download button (or the preview card) at the top of this page to open the PDF instantly. Bookmark this page so you can find it again in your final week before your Prometric appointment.
References
- 1.Society of Actuaries. “Probability (P) Exam.” SOA.org, 2026. ↑
- 2.Society of Actuaries. “Probability Exam — 2026 Syllabus.” SOA.org, 2026. ↑
- 3.Society of Actuaries. “Grading — How Exam Pass Marks Are Set.” SOA.org, 2026. ↑
- 4.Casualty Actuarial Society. “Exam P — Probability.” CASact.org, 2026. ↑
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