Mastering stochastic processes is a crucial step for passing the SOA Exam C, which focuses on the financial mathematics and probability theory foundations necessary for actuarial practice. At its core, a stochastic process is a collection of random variables indexed by time or another parameter, representing how a system evolves with uncertainty over that dimension. For an aspiring actuary, understanding these processes is essential because they model real-world phenomena like insurance claims, interest rates, or asset prices that don’t follow a fixed pattern but fluctuate unpredictably.