Secondtime/AlmostDoneinFL,
I definitely didn't study anywhere close to 250 hours for FAR. Probably about 120-150 hours. I agree, my test seemed to be kind of weird. The questions didn't focus on the things that I would expect a CPA to know and seemed to focus a lot of time and attention on items that as a senior auditor (5 years experience) I rarely (if ever) encounter. In addition, the content of the simulations was ridiculous, from the perspective that the skills I felt they were testing were more “one-offs” rather than “accounting truths”, which I think would be more useful to CPAs. I'm not trying to knock the exam or any takers, but I just find it frustrating to study important, difficult topics only to not have many questions on them. Same with Auditing though. There was a particular chapter in Becker which was barely mentioned, which to me is a pretty glaring omission.
As a side note, I finished both simulations, however I find it interesting that people can pass FAR or any other section by leaving simulations totally blank. How exactly does that work unless you nail pretty much all the MCQ? If it was me, I wouldn't want my CPA to pass if they have poor time management or don't have any cursory knowledge of some topics.
AUD - 99 (10/4/10)
FAR - 92 (11/29/10)
BEC - 87 (1/24/11)
REG - 90 (5/30/11)