Blame your brain 

You know when you’re studying and just can’t seem to remember a certain formula or definition, even though you’ve seen it a hundred times? No matter how hard you try, every time it pops up on a flash card, your mind goes blank.  

This does not happen because you aren’t studying hard enough; it has to do with how the human brain works. In psychology, there’s a well-known concept called neuroplasticity, which refers to the brain’s fascinating ability to adapt and to absorb knowledge. As you learn new information, neural pathways are formed to help you store and remember it. Think of these neural pathways like a bridge: the more frequently you travel across (i.e., the more you study), the stronger these neural pathways become.  

A strong neural pathway is like a stone bridge—solid and sturdy. Information is easily recalled, and you only need to review it once in a while. But a weak neural pathway is like a laser beam—thin and unstable. In that case, your brain will likely struggle to connect a concept (e.g., variance) to its corresponding formula (e.g., E(X2)-[E(X)]2). 

Building a strong bridge 

So how do you build a strong bridge? To start, basic memorization techniques like homophones and mnemonic devices can help you remember information. But one of the most effective ways to memorize information is through visualization: creating a vivid mental image of a person, place, or thing. One of my favorite ways to incorporate visualization into my study routine is by using pop culture.  

Pop culture can have many applications to actuarial exam content—you just have to use a little creativity. No matter where you live, we all subconsciously absorb knowledge about pop culture from the activities we engage in everyday: our favorite music, movies, TV shows, news, social media, books, video games, language, and hobbies. Utilizing pop culture as a study tool can be a great way to put that otherwise random knowledge to use. 

Pop culture use cases 

Here are some examples from my own studying: 

Film 

In Exam MAS-II, you learn a lot about decision trees. You specifically learn the Gini index is better suited for tree growing rather than tree pruning. To remember this, I think of the Genie from “Aladdin,” who grants (or “grows”) wishes. The shared sound between “genie” and “Gini” helps with recall. 

Social media 

While studying for Exam 1/P, I had trouble remembering the order of the terms in the integration by parts formula: uv-∫ vdu. I drew on my knowledge of online culture and realized the formula resembled the UwU (cute face) keyboard emoji: the first term is “u,” the next two terms are “v” (which together look like a “w”), and the last term includes a “u.” Now when I need to remember the integration by parts formula, I just think “UwU!” 

Language 

In Exam 5, you learn about the Spalla count-based reserving technique. In Italian, “spalla” means “shoulder.” Knowing this helped me remember the Spalla technique can fit into other frameworks, like the Mango-Allen technique, in the same way a shoulder fits into its socket. 

Music 

When I was studying for Exam MAS-I, it was the first time I encountered an “offset” term in a mathematical context. Before that, the only other time I had ever heard the word “offset” was as the name of Cardi B’s ex-husband, who had been exposed as being unfaithful to Cardi B. The offset term adjusts for different exposure levels, so I used the similar wording as the link to remember the meaning of the term. 

Also in Exam MAS-I, it’s stressed that parsimonious models are best. At least for me, the meaning of parsimonious was not intuitive. To help remember its meaning, I used my knowledge of a word that sounded similar to it. I thought of how “harmonious” melodies often sound better when there are only a few moving instrument lines rather than many (because that can sound too busy). Likewise, parsimonious models perform well because they include the fewest number of variables necessary to achieve an adequate level of predictive power. 

In Exam 5, you learn the Bornhuetter-Ferguson (BF) reserving method combines the expected claims and chain ladder methods by using both an a priori expectation and actual loss experience to estimate ultimate losses. I remember this through Ariana Grande’s song, “thank u, next.” The BF method uses the given a priori expectation (thank u) and emerging experience (next), effectively acknowledging the past while looking toward the future. 

Conclusion 

If you’ve never used pop culture to study before, these examples might sound out of the box, but don’t be afraid to give it a try; our brains are surprisingly good at forming connections between unrelated ideas. 

I won’t encourage you to jettison brute-force memorization entirely, but I have found using pop culture as a supplemental study tool is a useful shortcut to remembering information. Not only does this study strategy help you build stronger neural pathways, but more importantly, it makes studying more fun!