[Keith]

Hi all. First time poster – nice to meet you all. I just took FAR for the first time and got my score (81). I honestly thought that I was going to do better on the exam than the score I received, but I will take it. I have a couple of questions and/or a request for advice from those who have been successful:

1. When does the 18 month window start? Is it my test date (10/17) or the date I received my score (12/19)? I originally had the exam planned for September, but had to reschedule to October due to Hurricane Irma – this pushed my score receipt date all the way back to December.

2. What order would you suggest I complete the remaining parts? At first, I had planned to do REG to get the most difficult ones out of the way, but I am now considering AUD since there are financial reporting concepts that can be leveraged for this exam.

3. Going into 2018, what would you recommend in terms of timing or months that I should schedule the remaining exams? How long would you say I need to prepare for each of the remaining exams?

As background, I did not study accounting during undergraduate – I got my degree in Finance. I only recently went back to school and took the minimum number of online accounting courses to meet state requirements. I’ve been working in Internal Audit for about 10 years now and I am a CIA so this could benefit the AUD section (however, it is a huge misconception to think that Internal Audit and External Audit are similar fields). To prepare for FAR, I basically spent every Saturday from June – September watching study lessons. During the work week, I spent time working MCQ’s, but did not do very many sims in actuality. I have to learn the concept – memorizing has never done me well in test taking.

Goal is to defeat this beast before the end of 2018. Thanks for any guidance you may have.

[Anonymous]

I also passed FAR today on my second try, so that's a huge albatross off the neck. Actually I don't know how that's even possible, after scoring Weaker on sims.

I think it was a mistake to tackle the easiest first (BEC). The exams are too different to build on the success of any one section. In fact, passing BEC on the first try only encouraged me to be even less prepared for what was to follow.

The expiration dates should be shown next to your scores in your CPA exam account.

[Anonymous]

1) It is generally the date of your exam, so it would be the October date.

2) Did you study for anything after FAR? Do you feel you still have a good understanding of the FAR material? If so, I would say do AUD because they definitely overlap. If you can't remember anything at all, take REG because that has a good amount of material in it too.

3) I generally tried to take two in a quarter, one exam in the beginning and one exam in the end of the quarter. AUD and BEC are shorter so about 5-7 weeks should be good. REG may need 6-8 weeks. This all depends on how much time you have to study of course.

Good luck and congrats on FAR!

[Keith]

Just checked my account and saw it expires June 30, 2019. With this in mind, it must be based off the date you received your score.

[Author]

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