[Anonymous]

Hi guys!

I’m new to this forum, though I’ve been reading through a lot of the posts and topics for a few months, as the community here as provided me with great reassurance before my exams.

I took FAR in October and found I got a 59 right before Thanksgiving (ugh), but by that point I was deep into my AUD studying and wasn’t about to retake FAR in hopes of getting 16 more points after not studying it for a while. So then I proceeded to take AUD last week and just found out I got a 68 -__-

I’ve already scheduled to take BEC in January (wanted to get that out of the way since that’s going through a lot of drastic changes in April) and my retake for FAR is in March. I guess what I’m wondering is… how the heck am I supposed to gather up the motivation to keep studying when I’ve failed my first two exams already. I feel like I’m not off to a good start, so I should probably at least change my studying habits / environment at home. But other than that, I guess I just need some good advice on how to continue this because having two failing scores under my belt is not how I wanted to go into the holidays and 2017.

I’ve been using the Becker review, which I’ve heard great things from coworkers and college friends, but it seems to get mixed reviews on this forum. I’d like to avoid purchasing new study materials if at all possible. I know people can pass with just Becker, and I’d like to see if I can still do that too. Though I know the Ninja materials seem to be getting great feedback so if anything I’d look into that, I’d just like to push it off if it’s possible to just use Becker.

I also work full time, which leaves me 2 hours to study during the week and about 6-8 hours on Saturday / Sunday.

I appreciate any sound advice on how to pick yourself up and continue and how to get a good study routine going! Thanks all!

[Finally_a_CPA]

I'm really sorry to hear that! I can imagine what you are going through. You did say you study 2 hra a day on weekdays, but for how many weeks have you studied for each section?
I don't know yoir situation at home but maybe you can consider studying before work? I know I started out studying after work but was always too tired to grasp the material. I am by no means a morning person but the last couple of months, I try to make it to the office by 6am and get a good solid/productive 2 hrs of study time before Im too exhausted from a long day at work. I usually study for an additional 2 hrs after work but those hrs are usually not very productive.

Maybe yoU can try that for a bit if your situation allows for it. This is a hard journey but you will eventually pass!!
I reallt wish you the best of luck!

[Goingallin]

Curly: I use Becker only as well. Considering I passed FAR with simply studying the multiple choice questions, I think Becker is more than sufficient. However, regardless of which study material you use, you really need to put in a minimum of 140 -150 hours (unless you have an extremely sharp memory). Ive been out of college for 15+ years so studying isn't as easy for me as someone fresh out of college and in their 20s. Plus I have a toddler. I always put in 180+ hours before sitting.

[Anonymous]

@GSD512 – Thank you for the advice! I'm not really a morning person either haha. My commute is an hour to and from work (sometimes longer after due to rush hour). And since I'm trying to get 7-8 hours of sleep, getting up earlier might not be ideal but I guess it certainly wouldn't hurt to try! I also studied for FAR for 3.5 months, started in July and took the test in October. I think for that one, it was really the quality of studying rather than quantity since I think I was just going through the motions of lectures, answering MCQ, and filling in things for SIMS. But AUD took me by surprise because I thought I had done well on the exam, but apparently not well enough. I started studying right after FAR and took the exam last week, so that's about 7 weeks of studying.

@Goingallin – So you never did the lectures? I'm wondering if for my retakes if I should even bother with looking at the lectures again and maybe just going through MCQs and SIMS over and over?

[hasy]

It only has mixed reviews because it's so expensive and we're here trying to pass the CPA exam for cheap. Anyhow, I think you can pass using Becker because BEC needs as many details as you need. I hope you mean, you have at least 2 extra hours per day to study for this exam.

It's tough getting the fails but also look how you're studying and see whether you're truly grasping the material too. In May, I failed FAR and REG in the same month. It can be overcome. Faith.

Character cannot be developed in ease and quiet. Only through experience of trial and suffering can the soul be strengthened, ambition inspired, and success achieved - Helen Keller

-

BEC 80 (10/23/15)
FAR 72 (4/2/15); 83 (7/11/16)
REG 52 (4/28/15)
AUD (9/9/16)

Roger + NINJA MCQ + WTB

[Alex]

I would not waste time with lectures. Looking over the book once over a week might be useful but other than that do tons of mcq. I passed FAR with an 84 only using ninja and ~85% of my studying with with the mcq.

I did a quick read through of the book and then straight on to non-stop mcq. I did take notes on trouble questions and key concepts while doing the mcq. I mostly just copy/pasted ninja explanations into evernote to save time and reviewed them periodically. Key is to do all questions at least once then move onto getting trending score up and try to get to review phase.

Here are my stats:

Question Attempts – 4340
Average – 75%
Trending – 95%

At $49 ninja mcq is a steal

TLDR: Quick review of Becker book and non-stop Ninja MCQ for $49

[Ginja_CPA]

Honestly, depending on your home life, waking up an hour earlier might help a lot. Jeff has a good guide to working full time and being able to study for 4 hours a day. It involves waking up an hour earlier and studying. You have everything laid out the night before, coffee ready to go, and sit down for quality study time. You also study over lunch while eating (again the lunch is prepared the night before). Then you study when you get home. That can bring your 2 hours up to 4 hours a day.

Good luck!

REG: 80 (02/19/16)
AUD: 83 (04/11/16)
BEC: 78 (05/28/16)
FAR: ?

[Anonymous]

@hasy – Thank you for your response! I'm hoping Becker will be good for BEC since I'm taking that next. And yeah, I study for about 2 hours Monday to Friday and 6-8 hours on weekends. I really appreciate your advice, it's hard seeing the finish line when it keeps getting further away with all these fails :/

@Zanderman – I think you may be right about the lectures. I feel like I spend too much time on them (each one is at least 3 hours which I feel like takes forever to get through sometimes). Did you find that just the Ninja MCQ helped you even for SIMS?

@Ginja_CPA – Yeah, you might be right. Waking up at 5am is not ideal but I might start doing that to squeeze in that extra study time. Thank you!

[ZombieMouse]

Becker is a good program; my husband and I both used it exclusively and passed. The only reason I don't recommend it to others on this forum is that it's ridiculously overpriced. You get a lot of tools as a part of the package, but you really don't need them all (I didn't use the lectures or flashcards; my husband didn't crack the textbooks) so it seems silly to pay for them when there other, equally good options out there that are either a fraction of the price or sold a la carte. Since you already have Becker, though, you might as well make use of it.

I think the key to doing well with Becker (or any study program, really) is knowing how you learn best and adapting the program to meet your needs. For example, I learn best by doing. I am not an auditory learner at all. The lectures were putting me to sleep and wasting valuable study time (I also work full-time and commute) — so I stopped listening to them after REG. I read a section of the textbook, then immediately work through the MCQ's for that section. Everything I get wrong, I flag and work again until I understand both the “call of the question” as Gearty puts it, and underlying concept. Even if I memorize the right answer, I still work through the calculations to make sure “sticks.” After I finish each chapter, I do the sims to help solidify concepts and finally the optional questions for review. Periodically (ideally daily, but not always), I take a cumulative progress test on the material I've already studied to keep it fresh in my mind. If I have any time left after finishing the book once, then I'll go back and reread/rework sections that I feel weaker on, using practice and progress tests to help diagnose those areas if they aren't glaringly obvious (although they usually are).

But all of this ^, is because I learn by doing. My husband is an auditory learner, so his approach to the exact same materials is completely different from mine. He studies almost exclusively with the lectures, using MCQ's to test his knowledge of each section before moving on. (In contrast, I treat the MCQ's as open-book style homework because I know I'll retain more from the process of researching the answer than actually getting the question right.) He doesn't use the textbooks and doesn't touch the sims.

All of this to say: don't feel pressured to study the way Becker tells you to study, because you know you best. You can get through this! Good luck. 🙂

[ruggercpa2b]

I think one thing to remember is that as you go through your retake plan, think about how best you learn. Working just MCQs might work for one person but I know for a fact it would never work for me. I used to think that I learned from watching videos, but then kept failing audit. I finally ditched the lectures and just read my textbook from cover to cover. I also took time to make sure I understood the concepts. What I did not understand, I googled and watched youtube videos. It was a long and painful process but it worked.

AUD - 73, 72 retake 7/2/2016
BEC - 8/20/2016
REG - TBD
FAR - TBD

I am so ready for this nightmare to be over. Been at this way too long.

[Birdman]

I failed 3 in a row and 4 out of my first 5. What changed for me was really jut buying Ninja MCQs and doing a lot of them, reading explanations every time, even if I got it right. Be committed. You can do this.

FAR- 74, 78 (10/15)
BEC- 73
REG- 65, 88 (05/16)
AUD- 7/16

[Anonymous]

@ZombieMouse – Thank you for the great response! That does make a lot of sense. Becker seems to have a very structured way of studying, so maybe the structure is something I will need to tweak for upcoming tests.

@ruggercpa2b – Yeah, I'm trying to figure out if I should rewatch the lectures for my retakes. I feel like that would waste valuable studying time if I watch 3+ hour lectures for each chapter of FAR and AUD again. Just the reading worked for you? You didn't do extra questions / SIMS practice?

@birdman93 – I've heard a lot of good things about Ninja. Based on your scores, it looks like you had good jumps for a lot of your exams. Did you supplement another review program with Ninja or just used Ninja?

[Birdman]

@curly Initially I just had Wiley/CPAexcel, I would read through the lessons online and do the end of lesson MCQs. On my successful takes I did less reading and more repetition with MCQs and NINJA MCQs. I didn't use lectures at all. Everybody learns differently, but that worked for me.

FAR- 74, 78 (10/15)
BEC- 73
REG- 65, 88 (05/16)
AUD- 7/16

[Anonymous]

@birdman93 – That's good to know! I think when I get ready for my retakes I won't bother with the lectures since I will have seen the material at least once already, so at that point I should probably just focus on problems.

[Nutcracker2016]

@birdman93 Great re-scores. Actually you inspire me on Audit. How did you jump to 58 to 87. What material did you use?? Please share.

[Author]

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