Are You Superstitious?

By Steven D. Armstrong, FCAS
Student Liaison Committee

On exam day, after my morning shave, the bathroom mirror broke. As I was walking out to the car a black cat darted past me. I noticed as I drove into the exam site that the mileage on my car turned to 13,000. As I made my way across the parking lot, I stepped on every crack in the pavement. Nearing the exam room, I walked under a ladder. Right before the exam, my umbrella popped open indoors. All of this bad luck and I still managed to pass the exam!

Real actuarial students have cited the following exam superstitions to ward off any bad luck that exam day may bring.

• Drinking chocolate milk during the exam.

• Attending a worship service the morning of the exam.

• Using new pencils and erasers for the exam as they have never written or erased any mistakes. Alternative superstition: Using hand-me-down pencils from someone who passed the exam at the prior sitting.

• Taking three Mountain Dews, two calculators, and new pencils to the examination and playing the theme from Rocky in your head.

• Not showering the day of the exam (sure puts you at a competitive advantage for those test takers right near you).

• Wearing the same sweatshirt and pair of jeans for every sitting.

• Getting a well-deserved haircut after the exam (the Samson theory).

• Chewing four sticks of Big Red gum: one for every hour of a four-hour exam.

• Never opening exam results the same way twice.

Note: This is by no means a paid advertisement for Big Red or Mountain Dew!

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