IFoA CS2 study guide
IFoA CS2 · Work through your exam, one topic at a time.
CS2 - Actuarial Mathematics is a Core Principles subject in the Institute and Faculty of Actuaries (IFoA) Curriculum 2025, as listed on the IFoA site under Qualify → Curriculum → Core Principles. It is aimed at candidates progressing through the IFoA qualification who need the mathematical and modelling foundations that underpin later specialist practice. The IFoA describes the Curriculum section as "All the information you need under our current curriculum," and the Exams section as "Key info for exams including dates and essential resources." This page is an independent study resource; it is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or produced by the IFoA. Important limitation: the IFoA's CS2 curriculum page could not be read when this page was compiled - it returns only the notice "This page has been archived." The exam timetables page returns the same notice. As a result, the current CS2 syllabus breakdown, exam duration, number of items, pass mark, fees, sitting dates and booking deadlines are not confirmed here and are marked for review rather than guessed. Candidates should verify all of these directly before planning. Topics on this exam: Actuarial Mathematics - core modelling and risk content (domain breakdown not enumerated in retrieved source). The IFoA CS2 study guide has 1 section and about 457 words.
01Actuarial Mathematics - Core Modelling and Risk Content (CS2)
This domain carries the modelling spine of CS2: survival and multi-state models, ARIMA time series, aggregate-loss and ruin theory, dependence/extremes, and Monte Carlo simulation. Questions rarely ask for a definition alone - you are expected to specify a model, derive a quantity, and then interpret it in actuarial terms, so method marks usually exceed the final-answer mark. The Kaplan–Meier estimator is the non-parametric survivor curve; Nelson–Aalen gives the cumulative hazard. Both handle right-censoring, not left-truncation.
457 words, about 2 minMore study resources for IFoA CS2
- Practice questionsIn a Markov jump process used to model the health states of an income protection policyholder, the transition intensities are assumed constant over each policy year.
- FlashcardsSurvival function S(x). Probability a newborn survives to age x: S(x) = P(X x).
- Cheat sheetSurvival function and force of mortality: S(x) = exp(-∫₀ˣ μ(t)dt), f(x) = S(x)μ(x); curtate expectation eₓ = Σₖ≥₁ ₖpₓ.
- Key termsMarkov chain. A stochastic process whose next state depends only on the current state, not on the sequence of states visited before it; states and transition probabilities are summarised in a transition matrix.
- Study planDefine the core CS2 modelling vocabulary: state variables, transition intensities, and cash-flow functions, and write one-sentence definitions in your own words.
- Common mistakesCandidates practise interactively and forget that the exam deliverable is a single self-contained script that must read provided data files by the exact filenames given and run top-to-bottom without manual intervention.
- Exam-day guideCS2 is delivered through the IFoA's online assessment arrangements, but the exact platform, proctoring vendor, and permitted software change over time.