<p>I don’t know the specific statistics of how quickly people pass but there is specific statistics on the [SOA</a> - Society Of Actuaries](<a href=“http://www.soa.org%5DSOA”>http://www.soa.org) that shows you specifically the passing rate for each exam (it average around 50%). People who first time take it are usually juniors or seniors in college and who major in math so the population of test takers are quantitative inclined and not general like the test takers in the SAT or GRE. </p>
<p>In US, math/statistics majors who graduate tend to have 0 or 1 exam passed; however you might see some extraordinary people who pass 2-3 exams before they graduate (the president of actuarial club at UCLA passed 3, for example) and you will rarely or may never see someone with 4 exams on the belt before they graduate. In Canada, I heard that students do much better with 2-4 exams passed before they graduate (competitive there i guess).</p>
<p>For the exam requirement, please take a look at this:
[SOA</a> - Exams and Requirements](<a href=“http://www.soa.org/education/exam-req/]SOA”>http://www.soa.org/education/exam-req/)</p>