Recommended Textbook to prepare for Exam P Could anyone recommend a good textbook to prepare for the actuarial Exam P? 
I'm looking for a textbook that explains concepts clearly, provides detailed proofs, and gives difficult questions that are similar to or reflect the difficulty of the questions on Exam P. 
I used mathematical statistics and data analysis by John Rice and it was horrible.
 A: If you've already studied a lot of the material for the exam, your best bet for preparing for the exam would now be a study manual.  And, even if you haven't studied the material, it still may be a very good solution.  A study manual will cover all the material on the exam and will have a large number of exam level problems, many of which are actual old exam problems, as well as solutions to all of the problems.
For most of the preliminary exams, I have heard that the ASM study manuals are the best.  And, I have used ASM manuals for MFE and C and feel they are very good.  However, the one exception is for Exam P, where the Actex study manual is commonly thought of as the best.  You can buy these at ActexMadRiver.com.
Most textbooks will not have problems at the level of the exam unless they were specifically made with the exam in mind.  Now, I know that the book Probability and Statistics with Applications: A Problem Solving Approach by Asimow and Maxwell does have old exam problems in the book.  I didn't use it for Exam P, but did use it for Exam 3L (it was created to be used for both P and 3L).  I liked it a lot and thought it was clear, though it did have a lot of typos.  But, it's an actual textbook with proofs and such.
Another option is a study manual by Marcel Finan.  He is a professor who made study manuals for all the preliminary exams.  I have used his Exam FM book but not Exam P.  But, what he did for Exam FM was use a textbook and a study manual and combined them into one book that covered everything on the exam, gave proofs like a textbook, but had exam level problems.  Just google him to find the free PDFs.  I'm guessing his Exam P manual is similar to what I described.
A: Graphth's post offers some solid suggestions which I would say is similar to the advice my peers would offer. My approach was a bit different, so I figured I would share.
Since you mentioned proofs, I used Introduction to Mathematical Statistics (7th Edition) by Hogg, McKeen, and Craig. I believe chapters 1 through 5 cover much of the material on P. I very much enjoyed the textbook, and some of the later chapters touch on later exams. I am under the impression it is a more advanced version of the Hogg textbook currently listed on the P Syllabus' suggested readings. However, this text is a bit more theoretical and does not delve into payments and deductibles. 
I also used The Infinite Actuary (TIA). This isn't a textbook, but I found this to be a very useful resource because they have video lectures on every topic, a discussion forum, formula sheets, and a problem system with tons of problems, many from past exams. The videos on how to use the multi-view calculator were especially useful.
I had two gripes with TIA's P Course. The first being that the material wasn't always very rigorous. It seemed they watered down some of the material so it was accessible to people who may not have a strong foundation in calculus. Second, you couldn't cache the videos on your device to watch without internet or change the play speed.
Regardless of those two gripes (the latter which I believe is being addressed in an upcoming update), I highly recommend TIA. I used their product for FM as well (and recently passed) and I plan to use them for future exams. 
