Free Exam ASTAM Sample Questions: 20 Constructed-Response Items with SOA Rubrics (2026)

Exam ASTAM Sample Questions, Free and Interactive

ASTAM is the only SOA preliminary exam that is mostly writing. You do not pick a letter from A through E. You derive the answer, justify your method, present every intermediate calculation, and write the result in prose that gets graded against a published rubric. Math is necessary but not sufficient. Presentation drives the score.

The SOA has published 20 constructed-response sample items for ASTAM in the November 2022 Sample Questions and Solutions PDF. These 20 items are the only publicly available training set for this format. FreeFellow hosts all 20 inside an interactive simulator. You read the stem, work each sub-part, type your written answer per part, submit, and compare against the SOA reference solution with rubric point weights visible.

Start practicing the 20 ASTAM sample items

What the 20 Sample Items Cover

The full ASTAM syllabus, surfaced through the constructed-response format:

Topic area	Approx. items featuring	What you write
Frequency and severity modeling	~6 items	Method-of-moments and MLE fits, goodness-of-fit tests (chi-squared, Kolmogorov-Smirnov)
Aggregate loss models	~5 items	Compound Poisson manipulation, Panjer recursion, stop-loss premium calculations
Credibility	~4 items	Bühlmann and Bühlmann-Straub setup, credibility-weighted predictions
Ruin theory	~3 items	Adjustment coefficient computation, ruin probability bounds, surplus process analysis
Loss reserving	~4 items	Chain ladder, Bornhuetter-Ferguson, Bühlmann-Straub triangle reserving
Reinsurance	~3 items	Quota share, excess-of-loss, stop-loss premium and expected recovery
Risk measures	~3 items	VaR, TVaR, comparing risk measure properties (coherence, subadditivity)

Items routinely combine two or three topic areas. A single item might begin with a severity fit (frequency-severity), proceed to an aggregate loss calculation (aggregate), and conclude with a reinsurance premium computation (reinsurance) using the aggregate distribution from the prior sub-part.

Why ASTAM Samples Are the Only Available Training for Constructed-Response

The 20 SOA-published sample items are the only publicly-available training set for the ASTAM written-answer format. No commercial provider has released a competing set of 20-plus written-answer items with point-weighted rubrics. The closest paid product is the Coaching Actuaries ASTAM Manual, which contains the same 20 SOA-published items plus original written-answer items their team authors. The SOA's own samples are the only source where the grading rubric reflects exactly how the live exam grades.

The math content of ASTAM is no harder than the FAM-S half of FAM. The format is harder. A candidate who can solve every ASTAM math problem but can not write the answer in the structure the rubric rewards routinely scores 50 to 60 percent, far below the 70 percent threshold most expect for a passing score.

Three Tactics for the 20 Items

Practice the writing deliberately, not just the math. Treat each sample item as two passes. First pass, solve the math. Second pass, rewrite your solution to mirror the structure the SOA reference solution uses: state your assumption explicitly, justify your model choice with one sentence, derive the formula or apply the relevant theorem with named steps, present the intermediate values, interpret the result. This is the structure rubrics reward.

Map your answer to each rubric point. After submitting, render the SOA reference solution alongside your written answer. Each rubric point in the published breakdown is worth 1, 2, or 3 points. Map each rubric point to a specific sentence in your response. If a rubric point has no matching sentence, you did not earn it, regardless of whether your final numerical answer was correct. This mapping exercise is the highest-leverage self-grading you can do.

Allocate time proportional to point weights. ASTAM sub-parts carry explicit point weights. Allocate your minutes proportionally: a 5-point sub-part gets roughly 5x the time of a 1-point sub-part. Practicing this on the 20 sample items builds the time-management muscle the six-hour live exam demands. Most candidates over-invest in early sub-parts and run out of time on the high-value late sub-parts where the bigger point gains live.

What the Samples Don't Cover Well

Honest gaps for ASTAM:

• Newer Lee-Carter mortality model extensions. The 2024+ syllabus addition is sparse in the 2022 sample set.
• Catastrophe-modeling style aggregate loss problems. Heavy-tail severity models with explicit catastrophe layers are light in the samples.
• Inflation-adjusted reserving. Chain ladder and BF methods under explicit inflation indexes are not heavily featured.

For these gaps, supplement with the FreeFellow original ASTAM bank (963 questions across the syllabus, multiple-choice format for drilling the underlying computations).

How ASTAM Practice Compares Across Free and Paid

Source	ASTAM Sample Items	Format	Cost
FreeFellow	All 20 in interactive simulator	Type-submit-compare with rubric weights visible	$0
Coaching Actuaries ASTAM Manual	All 20 plus commentary plus original CR items	PDF in manual	$400 to $500
ACTEX ASTAM	Selected items	PDF in study guide	$200 to $300
SOA only	All 20	Static PDF on soa.org	$0

FreeFellow is the only free interactive product for ASTAM constructed-response practice. The Coaching Actuaries ASTAM Manual adds original CR items, which is genuine value, but the SOA-published 20 items are the canonical training set and the rubric calibration source.

Start Practicing

Practice all 20 ASTAM sample items in the simulator. For the FAM precursor that builds the math foundation ASTAM tests: Free Exam FAM Sample Questions. For a direct comparison with Coaching Actuaries pricing across the SOA exam family: FreeFellow vs Coaching Actuaries (2026).