CAS Exam 8 study guide
CAS Exam 8 · Work through your exam, one topic at a time.
Exam 8 - Advanced Ratemaking is one of the FCAS-level examinations in the Casualty Actuarial Society (CAS) credentialing pathway, sitting alongside Exams 7 and 9 in the upper tier of the P&C actuarial syllabus. It is written for candidates who have already cleared the ACAS requirements and are working toward Fellowship, typically actuaries employed in pricing, product, or ratemaking roles who need to apply advanced ratemaking theory rather than recall introductory formulas. The exam is offered during the CAS Actuarial Professional Analysis exam windows; the October 2026 window runs October 19 through October 27, 2026, with registration closing September 29, 2026 at 11:59 pm and a refund deadline of October 6, 2026. The exam fee is 850, or 680 for full-time students. The current scope of the exam is defined by the October 2026 Content Outline published by the CAS, so build your study plan from that document rather than from older syllabi. For preparation, the CAS offers free Exam 8 Practice Items and Solutions (August 2026), consisting of retired items from the Fall 2025 administration, which illustrate exam structure, expectations, and grading practices. Topics on this exam: Advanced Ratemaking. The CAS Exam 8 study guide has 1 section and about 434 words.
01Advanced Ratemaking
Advanced Ratemaking is the CAS Exam 8 domain that tests how indicated rates and risk loads are built from loss experience, classification data, trend and development, credibility, catastrophe models, and reinsurance. The exam expects you to choose a defensible method, document every adjustment, and reconcile the actuarial indication with business and regulatory constraints. Build a loss cost from homogeneous exposures: projected loss cost = developed, trended, on-level losses divided by exposures. Development brings losses to ultimate; trend brings them to the future policy period; on-level factors restate historical losses at the current rate level.
434 words, about 2 minMore study resources for CAS Exam 8
- Practice questionsIn a workers compensation experience rating plan, the experience modification is computed as (A + B) / (E + F).
- FlashcardsLoss elimination ratio. LER(d) = LEV(d)/E[X], the fraction of ground-up expected loss removed by a deductible d.
- Cheat sheetExperience modification: M = (Ap + Ee·w)/(Ep + Ee·w), where Ap = actual limited losses, Ep = expected limited losses, Ee = expected excess losses, and w = credibility weight on excess (w = Ee/(Ee + Ep·k)).
- Key termsExperience Modification. A multiplicative factor applied to manual premium that adjusts for the insured's own loss experience relative to what was expected, crediting better-than-average risk and surcharging worse-than-average risk.
- Study planMap the full Advanced Ratemaking syllabus into a one-page topic tree, tagging each subtopic by expected exam weight and your current confidence level.
- Common mistakesCandidates memorize the LER formula for a single limit but do not internalize that excess ratios require (LEV at higher limit minus LEV at lower limit) divided by (expected unlimited loss minus LEV at the attachment), and they lose track of whether the denominator is limited or unlimited.
- Exam-day guidePrint or download whatever the testing vendor issues for your appointment.