[foreseeableCPA]

Hey guys,

This past saturday was my first beckers live class. I decided to start out with FAR first since it seemed closely related to what was taught in school. After doing F1 and part of F2, the information is overwhelming. I find myself getting frustrated all the time. In school, it was hard enough to remember 3-4 chapters of information for a midterm and now we have to know all the chapters. So far, F2 questions have been a pain and am not getting a high percentage score. If you guys could chime in and let me know what % score you guys were getting the first time around that would be great. Look forward to hearing from you guys.

CPA - Class of 2013
CIA - Class of 2016

[nfs480]

My first time through i'd get about 60-70% correct. On my second round for final review that number would rise to somewhere in the eighties. When I took the real exam the questions didn't seem nearly as detailed or difficult as the ones featured in Becker and I passed with a 93. Just keep working through it all and you'll likely do well.

FAR 93
AUD 89
REG 81
BEC 87
Ethics 100

Becker 2012 Self-Study

[foreseeableCPA]

Thank for the reply.. Do some of the questions in Becker actually appear on the exam? I'm trying my best to try to understand each MC question that I get wrong but I feel like if I ponder way too long it'll be wasting time. One thing that is frustrating so far is the cash basis to accrual accounting questions. In school, it was always accrual accrual accrual and now they expect us to convert cash basis into accrual like its nothing. Also, in the exams that you passed were there a lot of IFRS questions?

CPA - Class of 2013
CIA - Class of 2016

[foreseeableCPA]

Thats comforting to hear. I am a recent college grad and most of the information does sound familiar. It must be extremely hard for those who have been out of school for a while. Another thing im worried about is audit. I didn't take an audit class in college so it will be my first time learning this subject. Any tips?

CPA - Class of 2013
CIA - Class of 2016

[nfs480]

I would say just do a lot of practice problems for Audit. I just graduated this past spring as well and while I did take an auditing class it was a fairly worthless class in my opinion and I really didn't learn much. I didn't see anything on my exam that wasn't covered by Becker. Just reading the material can seem confusing and overwhelming at first, but once I spent some time working the practice problems things started to make sense.

FAR 93
AUD 89
REG 81
BEC 87
Ethics 100

Becker 2012 Self-Study

[Anonymous]

FAR is overwhelming and your feelings seem valid…everyone goes through that phase.

I would recommend reading the chapter by bits and pieces. Read a section, do its MCQs, read next section, MCQs, and so forth. The first time around, it's always the hardest and takes the longest. I was scoring 50-60% (F2 was huge pain, trust me, it gets better). I went through each chapter and took progress test as much as I could. I fell short on those though. However, I always understood the chapter as much as I could before moving to the next.

For the final review phase (10-12 days): I read each chapter again and did all the MCQs/SIMs again, scoring in high 80s.

I really think looking at the book second time around really brings everything together and makes a lot of sense. Hang in there and you will get there.

PS: If it makes you feel better, FAR is the most curved. Everyone gets overwhelmed with it, so you aren't the only one:) Good Luck!

[foreseeableCPA]

Can you explain a little more about the exam being curved? Lets say that if you start doing bad, does the computer start giving you easier questions or something like that?

CPA - Class of 2013
CIA - Class of 2016

[shiggity80]

I like to compare studying FAR like working out at the gym or going on a diet to get that ripped body.

If you take a picture of yourself while fat, out of shape, and flabby at the beginning of the program…and you start working out hard, eating right, etc, you probably won't notice anything significant day to day. However, after a few months, if you take a picture of yourself again and compare it to the beginning picture, you'll see a huge difference in muscle/tone/definition.

Studying for FAR is a lot like that. It is extremely overwhelming at first and your initial thoughts are “this is impossible, there's no way to remember everything”. And as each day passes by, you may not see much difference in what you knew yesterday and what you know today. However, if you work hard at it and believe you are getting better at it every day, then when you are near the end of your studies, you will realize that you do know so much more than you did on day #1.

When you get to the end of the lectures and begin doing 100 question quizzes, you will realize that you have made progress.

Good luck man. I feel your pain on FAR. It can be done.

FAR: 87
AUD: 86
BEC: 86
REG: 84! Officially Done!

[foreseeableCPA]

Thanks for the words of encouragement. I'm almost finished with F2. Currently im working on the optional m/c questions and am doing much better. First time around is a joke and I look at answers most of the time. The sim is ridiculous. I'm having trouble with cash basis to accrual. Is this hard for you guys too? Did you guys do this in college? I went to a UC quarter system school and felt that they only emphasized on the main points of accounting.

CPA - Class of 2013
CIA - Class of 2016

[KassiusKlay]

I just started F4 today. Do the multiple choice questions over and over. Do the ones you got wrong over and over and do the ones you got right over and over. If you get them wrong I would make a note and look at what page the information is on. Just keep plugging along! If it was easy everyone would be doing it : )

Form is temporary, class is permanent.

Audit 4/19/12 - 77
BEC 5/31/12 - 75
FAR 8/30/12

[shiggity80]

ForseeableCPA, just wanted to also point out that the sims i got on my exam were a lot more difficult than the ones becker uses. I feel like they don't bring enough challenging sims in their software for FAR. Just wanted to give you a heads up so you won't be as surprised when you get to the exam sims.

Maybe it was just my exam, but some of my coworkers that I talked to also said that becker sims were no where near what the actual exam sims were like.

FAR: 87
AUD: 86
BEC: 86
REG: 84! Officially Done!

[foreseeableCPA]

Shiggity, the sims in beckers review for FAR arent as hard as the real exam? I am improving on the MC questions but the sims seem out of my league. After looking at the answers they seem manageable, but a first time around I would probably only get partial credit.

CPA - Class of 2013
CIA - Class of 2016

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