Fellow
Fellow is a free study companion for the IFoA actuarial exams, live at:
👉 https://handsleyd.github.io/Actuarial_Study/
No install, no sign-up required — just open the link.
What's here
- Foundations: maths and statistics from zero — two from-scratch courses for anyone whose maths is rusty or who never studied it: Foundation Mathematics (arithmetic and algebra through logs, series, differentiation, integration, the gamma function, differential equations and matrices) and Foundation Statistics (describing data and probability through distributions, generating functions, the central limit theorem, estimation, hypothesis tests and regression). 16 modules each, and every module opens with a short lesson and worked examples before its flashcards and drills. They aren't IFoA exams, so they never appear in your route or exam plan; instead CM1, CM2, CS1 and CS2 each link to the foundation modules they lean on.
- Flashcards for every module of each subject, with a reveal-then-explain format: see the question, try to answer it (optionally typing your answer out), then reveal the answer alongside a short "why this matters" note that connects it to the wider syllabus.
- Spaced repetition — every card you score is rescheduled: ones you got right come back after longer and longer gaps, ones you missed come back soon. A daily "due today" review pulls due cards from every subject into one session, and a "weak cards" drill targets the ones you keep missing.
- Your own notes and flags — add a note to any flashcard (a mnemonic, a link to another card, what tripped you up) and it shows under the answer every time the card comes round; notes are included in search. Flag a card to save it to a "Flagged cards" deck, from the subject page or the study dashboard, for another look whenever you like.
- AI feedback on typed answers (optional, needs an account) — type your answer to a flashcard and get a Strong / Partial / Weak rating against the model answer, with one sentence on what was missing or good.
- Drills — machine-marked questions in four formats: multiple choice, select-all, fill-the-gap, and click the diagram (find the deadweight loss, the marginal revenue curve, the natural rate of unemployment). Each one explains why the answer you picked was tempting, not just what the right answer was. Scored separately from the flashcard stars, since these are marked for you rather than self-assessed. Currently CB2 and the two Foundations courses.
- Practice exams — original, IFoA-style question banks (multi-part questions, command verbs like Calculate, Explain, Discuss, mark allocations that add up) for exam-condition practice. An optional timed mode gives each question a countdown based on its marks (1.5–2 minutes per mark), and logs how your pace compares with the allowance.
- Self-marking — once a practice question's model answers are showing, give yourself a mark for each part (half marks allowed). Every attempt is kept, and each subject shows your average (using your latest mark for each question) next to its latest real pass mark, on the subject page and the study dashboard.
- Mock papers — sit a full paper under exam conditions: questions drawn from the subject's bank adding up to as close to 100 marks as possible, one 3 hour 15 minute clock, and the model answers hidden until you submit (or time runs out). Then mark every part and see your total against the latest pass mark. The clock keeps running if you leave the page, and past mocks are listed with their scores.
- Search — find any flashcard or practice question across every subject, or a card by what you wrote in your note on it (press / from anywhere).
- Report a mistake — every flashcard (once revealed), drill (once answered) and practice question has a "Report a mistake" link that opens a GitHub issue with the subject, module, item and question text already filled in. Nothing about your progress, answers or notes goes in it.
- Progress tracking — a mastery star for every flashcard you've nailed, a study streak, and real Associate/Fellow tracking based on the actual IFoA qualification structure (not a made-up point scale). Progress towards Associate and Fellow counts your exam results — each subject is Not yet, Passed or Exempt — while module ticks track your revision separately. A two-question welcome (what you've passed, what you're sitting next) sets this up, and once a sitting's results are out the site asks whether you passed, recording it or moving the subject to the next sitting.
- Your route — the home page draws your path to Associate and Fellow as a transit line: subjects you've passed behind you, the sittings you've planned, and suggested sittings (two subjects each, in syllabus order, avoiding same-day papers) for everything you haven't planned yet. Pick your Specialist Principles and Advanced subjects and the line runs on to a Fellow date. Suggestions are never saved; they give way as soon as you plan those subjects yourself.
- Today — the top of the home page says what to do today: the reviews that are due, and how many new cards to learn so you've met every card in your next sitting's subjects two weeks before the first paper, leaving those two weeks for revision. It links straight into the review session and the next module you haven't started. Modules you mark done drop out of the count; with no plan yet, it points you to the planner.
- Readiness — each planned subject gets a readiness %, shown with its breakdown on the subject page and as a badge on each upcoming sitting in the route map and exam plan. It's a simple blend of module coverage (modules with at least half their cards scored, 35%), cards starred (35%), drill accuracy where you've answered drills (15%), and cards scored and not overdue for review (15%). It's a gauge of how much study you've done, not a pass probability. The formula lives in
docs/readiness.js.
- Study dashboard — cards due today, a 14-day review forecast, a 12-week activity heatmap, the modules and cards you miss most, your self-marked practice-question averages against each subject's pass mark, your exam pacing, and mastery by subject and module.
- Exam Hub — for each subject: the dates of the next sitting (papers, entry deadlines and results day), and historical pass marks and pass rates from the examiners' reports. Exam dates are refreshed weekly from the IFoA website.
- Exam planner — on the study dashboard, place your remaining subjects into the April and September sittings. It flags papers that clash on the same day, subjects not on a sitting's timetable, and sittings with more than three exams; shows the modules-per-week pace each sitting needs; and projects when you'd reach Associate and Fellow if you pass as planned. Just sat an exam? Until its results are out you can still add it to that sitting, and on results day the site asks how you did.
- Add to calendar — download an
.ics file for Google Calendar, Outlook or Apple Calendar from the exam plan or the Exam Hub: each paper, exam entry opening and closing (with a reminder a week before), and results day, for the subjects in your plan — or, with no plan yet, for the next sitting of the subject you're viewing in the Exam Hub. The file is built in your browser; nothing is sent anywhere. Importing a newer file updates the events already in your calendar instead of duplicating them.
- Works offline — after one visit the site (cards, questions, maths rendering) is cached, so you can review on a train with no signal; scores are saved on the device and upload when you're back online. On a phone, use "Add to Home Screen" to install it like an app.
- Keyboard shortcuts — Space to reveal, 1/2 to grade, arrow keys to move, / to search.
- Light/dark theme — cream paper by day, deep navy by night — and a mobile-friendly layout.
Subjects currently covered span the Core Principles (CB, CM, CS), Core Practice (CP), Specialist Principles (SP) and Specialist Advanced (SA) parts of the IFoA syllabus — see the subject grid on the site for the full, current list.
Your progress, your account (optional)
By default, your progress (mastery stars, review schedules, drill results, flashcard notes and flags, streak, module status, exam results and exam plan) is saved only in your browser on that one device — nothing is sent anywhere. Everyone starts from a clean slate: the site never shows anyone else's progress. If you'd like it to follow you across devices, click the account icon (⚙) in the top right and create a free account. That's it — no personal data is collected beyond your login email, and your study data is private to your account (row-level security enforced at the database). If you use AI feedback, the question, model answer and your typed answer are sent to Google's Gemini API to be marked; nothing else is.
Skipping the account is completely fine too — the site works fully without one.
Your data stays yours either way, from the same account panel:
- Download my progress saves everything the site keeps for you (mastery, review schedules, drill results, flashcard notes and flags, self-marked questions and mock papers, module status, exam results, exam plan, streak, daily activity, last session and exam pacing) to a JSON file. Restore from file merges one back in, keeping whichever copy of each entry is newer. Neither needs an account, so this is also how to move progress between devices without one, or keep a backup.
- Forgot password? emails you a link to choose a new one.
- Delete my account and data permanently removes your account and everything synced to it from the server, and clears that account's progress from the device you delete it on. Progress you made on a device before signing in stays on that device.
About this project
Fellow is a personal, self-study project — original content written to mirror the structure and topic weighting of the official IFoA syllabus, not a reproduction of any copyrighted IFoA past paper or study material. It isn't affiliated with, endorsed by, or produced by the Institute and Faculty of Actuaries, and shouldn't be treated as a substitute for the official Core Reading or a qualified tutor. Corrections and suggestions are welcome via issues: the quickest way to report a content mistake is the "Report a mistake" link on the card or question itself, which uses the content error template.
Repo structure
docs/ — the study site itself (published via GitHub Pages from this folder)maths-study/ — the underlying study workspace (notes, concept indexes, past-paper work) that feeds the site's contentsupabase/ — optional cloud-sync setup (schema, numbered migrations, and the AI-feedback edge function), see supabase/SETUP.md if you're running your own forkscripts/ — content validation, unit tests, and the generators behind the Exam Hub data; .github/workflows/ runs them in CI and on a scheduletests/e2e/ — browser tests that click through every page of the site in Chromium (Playwright); npm ci && npm test runs everything locally, see tests/e2e/README.md
License
Released under the MIT License — reuse and adapt freely, with attribution.
