[jmanq3039]

So today, I wake up excited to look at my score for FAR hoping it’s the last time I ever have to take it. I go on NASBA’s website, put my section id and DOB in, click the SCORE button, and…..I see a 74. My stomach dropped and I could barely contain myself to go into work this morning. Before this, I got a 73 on FAR in November and another 73 in late January. I seriously just couldn’t believe it that this had to happen again.

I almost just wanna give up, but after reading all these stories on this forum over the past few months, it really puts my situation in perspective and strives me to keep going. In addition, I just really want this CPA license BAD and I know I CAN’T quit.

I just bought the Ten Point Combo after the 2nd time I failed FAR, and I don’t know if it was tax season or what, but I must’ve not studied as effectively as I could seeing that I failed it again this time around. Currently, I work full-time at an accounting firm and my routine consists of reading the NINJA Notes for a particular section during my lunch, do the NINJA MCQs for that section after work, and write notes from the MCQs I get wrong into my NINJA Notes.

I was just wondering, is there a more effective study routine I should be doing utilizing the 10 Point Combo? Pleasee, I need somebody’s help desperately to get out of this funk I’m in! Thanks!

[Anonymous]

Want to hear the same advise! How to raise another 5- 10 points!!!!

[jmanq3039]

I may have answered my own question by browsing this website a little longer lol. Below is a video that Jeff posted in a couple threads that better illustrates how to study using the 10 Point Combo once new materials were added (like the NINJA Books)…

https://www.another71.com/cpa-exam-study-plan/

If anyone else has any other tips though to boost an exam score by a couple points, please help. The more help, the better.

[Determined CPA]

jmanq3039 – that is so awful and I feel terribly for you. No one should ever have to experience a 74, let alone following two 73's. I say take today to be sad, angry, bitter, hate NASBA, etc. Then, tomorrow, wake up with a fresh mind and buy yourself another FAR NTS.

Don't let too much time pass before you pick up the material. You are so close, but you still need to restudy and learn everything for your next exam. The last thing you want to do is give up! You can do this!! Trust me, if I can do this, YOU can do this!

FAR is a beast. Take it slow, chapter by chapter and takes notes. As far as the ninja MCQ test bank goes, I usually do questions in sets of 20 or 30, randomly at first. Then once I get a feel for my weak areas, I focus on those by doing 10 questions just on that topic. Also, are you studying enough during the week? I usually study 4 hours a day (Mon-Thurs), Friday's I have date night and don't even look at a book, and then Saturday and Sunday, depending on if I have any family obligations, are pretty much study days. I try to get 5-7 hours of studying in each of those days. Of course, this is just me and everyone is different!! I remember for BEC is studied from 7-11 without fail every Mon-Thurs and Sat and Sun 8 hours a day. I didn't hang with friends, cancelled with family a lot and just studied. I also read the ninja notes, no joke, 100 times and I add my own notes as well. I make flashcards, I put the book on my lap and try and recite a section out loud (i find that helps – they say if you can teach the material, that's when you really know the material). Do whatever it takes!! It takes a lot of commitment to pass these exams, Wanting it isn't enough. You need to put in the hours.

I wish you the best of luck! Just remember, this is a marathon, not a sprint. Also, you know your body better than anyone. If you are exhausted and think studying will be pointless one night, take the night off and pick it up the next day. A bad study session can destroy your trending score and hurt your morale, both of which you don't need.

Stay positive! Know you are not alone. Most of us fail a test! It doesn't make us ‘failures'.

A - 75
B - 78 God is good.
F - 77 Answered prayers.
R - 84! Done!!

Paperwork sent - waiting for license!!
Still on a cloud and in shock. Through God, all things will happen.

[Susan Walker]

Really needed to read this post today – I'm in about the same boat. I made a 69 on FAR in 2012 – then I gave up and retook it last month and made a 70.

I just keep telling myself if I hadn't had given up last time I would have already been done by now.

We can do this – I'm planning to take it again in July and just drill the NINJA MCQ. This was my first time w/ the 10 point combo and I really think if I hadn't had that I would have been way worse off. I'm planning to reset my stats for FAR after taking BEC on 5/28 and go into the test with at least an 80% average score on my FAR questions.

I went into the test with 55% avg and 62% trending and 2,348 question attempts – I don't plan on rereading the NINJA FAR book since I just read it last month and I'm just going to do as many questions as I can keep my score up.

I'm so thankful for this site!

FAR: 69 (10/2012), 70 (4/2015), July 2015
BEC: May 2015
REG: August 2015
AUD: November 2015

[159357]

I am in the same boat. I took FAR 3 times and scored 69, 74 and 74. I used Becker study material, did all the MCQs and simulations. Should I add a new review course? I just don't know what to and how to prepare anymore. And because of the 74 yesterday, I lost my credit for Regulation as well.

[Anonymous]

@OP, do you have a book? You mention the Ninja Notes but not the book. You really need a book if you don't already have one.

My method was divided to two sections: at home and on commute. On the commute, I read the book and took notes. Afterward, I started with the AICPA recently released questions. At that point, I started the MCQs at home (at least 1 month before the exam date). Since I only had a few years of the AICPA questions, I used the questions in my text where I did every third question.

I listened to the audio while walking and doing chores for the entire time.

At home, I exclusively did MCQs with a separate note book for what I learned from the MCQs. I think computer time should be spent doing MCQs and understanding the answers, right or wrong.

I started my final review two weeks before the test. During the commute, I re-read my notes and redid all the AICPA questions. At home, I hit all the MCQ topics that I had low scores in to get my trending score to a point I was ok with. Around 4 days before, I started redoing all the MCQs that I missed.

Random:

Be sure to put zeros in all empty fields in the SIMs. It can't hurt.

Don't spend too much time on the notes. You can't take them with you, so don't obsess.

As you can see, I passed FAR by the skin of my teeth; I'm sure if I were using the Ninja MCQs, I would have done better like I did with the other exams.

Specific to the OP, think about it this way…the difference between passing and failing is understanding and applying that understanding to just a few more questions. Try to get just 10% more of the material understood and you'll be golden.

[jmanq3039]

Yeah I have to take REG by the end of May because my NTS for that expires 6/8. Right now, I have it scheduled for 5/30. That's one thing I learned from this whole process is to only apply for one NTS at a time. Because if it wasn't for my REG NTS expiring 6/8 (I applied for FAR and REG back in December), I'd probably give myself a week break or so to clear my head from this last 74 I got, and then I'd start from scratch restudying for FAR using Jeff's strategy laid out in the video above. But instead, I have to rush and study for this REG exam on 5/30, and then only be able to have a month or so to restudy everything for FAR. I already did apply for a new NTS for FAR and I'm gonna try scheduling that for the very beginning of July. That way, I can hopefully fit in another exam at the end of August, one in the middle of October, and one at the end of November. I'm probably dreaming though if I can finish everything by this December lol.

[jmanq3039]

@Battler Yes, I have the whole 10 Point Combo. So I have the NINJA Book, Audio, Notes, MCQs, FC's, etc. For this next REG Exam I'm taking, I plan on reading all of the NINJA Book (before doing any of the MCQs), rewrite the NINJA Notes, and then drill the MCQs. My REG Exam is 5/30, so 25 days should be a decent amount of time to study, but I'd probably like a little more time. Nothing I can do about it now though since my REG NTS expires 6/8….

[Martin]

I followed the following tips, and went from a 71 to 85.

Not to brag but I thought I would share my experience. Having to retake a section sucks so hopefully this will help people to do it right the first time.

I got a 69 the first time I took FAR. I think I made the mistake of focusing only on MCQ questions on my first attempt and I didn't have an effective study plan to focus on J/Es or sims–my score report reflected weaker on sims and stronger on everything else. I have seen too many people with a score report that says they were stronger on every section except for sims and too much advice that has told people to ignore having a focused study effort on simulations which really hurt me the first time I took FAR.

So, here is what I would suggest that helped me slay FAR on my second try as well as some other things I wish I had known when I started.

Take FAR as your first exam and follow it with AUD! These two have a lot I was able to roll into AUD right after my miss on FAR and pass it easily. Then I was able to roll back into FAR studying without forgetting too much. I really don't know how people can leave FAR for one of their later exams. If I was going to throw in the towel, I wanted to know early and have the toughest test first! I seriously think FAR was 3-4 times more difficult than AUD so I would have hated to have to do that one later.

Get the Wiley Test Bank and only answer MCQ questions until you get to about an 80% for each section of FAR, The reporting on this test bank is nice because you can see graphically how you are scoring on all of the sections so you have the proficiency you need. If you are trying to get higher much higher than 80%, you are getting to a point of diminishing returns and you need to divert your attention to studying J/Es and Simulations. Until you are at the point where you are scoring in high 70s or 80s consistently on the MCQs you may not even want to schedule your exam date because you are just wasting your time. Sometimes I wonder if the people who get tons of failures in a row are using the real exam as a diagnostic exam–if you can't score in the 75+ on the test bank, you probably have no business taking that section at all yet.

Also, one thing I notice about people posting about doing MCQ questions is they say they do an ungodly number of MCQ questions during their study sessions and then complaining about not passing. Don't fool yourself about MCQ–the number of questions attempted doesn't translate into a actual learning. Sometimes it would take me hours to get through 20 questions because I was spending a ton of time trying to figure out what I didn't understand in my book. The point is that you shouldn't confuse blowing through a ton of MCQ question with studying–you are just blowing through questions and not learning.

As for the actual exam, though, you need to move through the MCQ questions like lethal Ninja from Shinobi–30 minutes per section should be your goal. I was at 30 minutes, 40 minutes, 40 minutes for mine because the testlets got harder. Your 80% on the test bank should give you confidence to know you are prepared to tackle them quickly. Start chopping off heads of the MCQ questions as quickly as possible and keep moving like you are in a Bin Laden compound or something. If a couple of foot soldier MCQ questions get away with just a flesh wound DON'T spend time chasing them. Remember you are there for the BOSS at the end of the level AKA the sims. Whenever the test tricks you to spend too much time on an obscure MCQ, think of Arnold Schwartzenegger or some other action star saying…”GET OUT..GET OUT NOW” with whatever movie scene you can think of where some dumbass is trying to get everyone killed because they freeze when the grenade is in the foxhole! LOL

You MUST, MUST, MUST go through and write down every journal entry entry in your FAR book and you have to do try to work through every FAR sim in your book. You will have to do it on pencil and paper because the Wiley test bank isn't good enough to prepare you for the sims based on what is in the software. For my final review, I completely ignored doing multiple choice questions since I already had an 80% on all sections and only focused on sims and journal entries. Of all the stuff I said before this is the ONLY thing that improved my score so much. Even if you can't predict the sims that will show up, having confidence in how to tackle that type of problem will pay dividends. Furthermore, you will better learn the more advanced content that you will see in the MCQ questions. This is the area where I was able to improve my score.

40% of the scoring on the exam is sims so you have to spend time preparing for them. Trying to increase your score marginally by continuing to pound MCQ questions after you have gained proficiency at 80% isn't going to translate into a lot more points on your exam. The amount of effort for the amount of marginal increase in score isn't worth it. However, if you can take your sim score from a 50% to a 75% by putting in a little more effort on preparation will make a huge difference in your final score.

If you have just failed with a high 60s or low 70s, I wanted to give you my experience how I raised my score to help, if possible. To summarize here is the gameplan…80% on all sections of Wiley, schedule your exam, spend your last 40 hours of prep time doing nothing but journal entries, extended examples, and sims from your book on pencil and paper. (mine was a gleim book).

Through God all things can happen!

“You never fail until you stop trying.”
― Albert Einstein
When I was young, I used to admire intelligent people;as I grow older, I admire kind people.
“Just keep swimming, just keep swimming.”

FAR= 72-84
Audit= 73-82
BEC= 74-75
Reg=77

[Anonymous]

Hey jmanq3039 – sorry that you have to take FAR three times, I can imagine how frustrated it is now. However, besides how you prepared your exam, have you ever think about how you actually take the exam? I believe you already gone through the material several times and I think the issue may not be you are not familiar with those topics, it might be the techniques for how to take the exam.

Are you really nervous on the exam? Or do you have the idea that I must pass this and I do not want to take this exam again during the exam? If so, I think you should first relax yourself during the exam. I used to think like “ok, i will just relax and enjoy this test, i will have indefinite opportunities to pass the exam so I will just do it as a regular sample test”. The result is actually pretty good. The first time I took AUD and pass with 79. I was really nervous and I even forget to use the AICPA Guide Tab to search for help!!! I felt like I can easily hit 80 with that. The second time I pass FAR with an 86. I think the test went well and I figured that I was pretty relax when I met some MCQ that I did not know how to do them.

Also, when you are having trouble with several MCQ (which means you did well in the previous section and they increase the difficulty) in a row, relax. Think what you do know and go from there. You will have a better chance choose the correct answer. EVEN IF YOU ARE GUESSING!

I know it is not easy to do because if you are being too relax you might be missing some question. The point is, you have to control the tests by relaxing and focus on what you know, do not let the test lead you. You need to have the confident that this MCQ or simulation is testing something that i have been reading over and over again and I just need to figure out what are they really want to test here.

As far as prepare the test, I like to remember the title and index for each chapter. This sounds silly, but it really helps to organize your memory. For each test you will be able to know which chapter it belongs to and which sub-topic it belongs to (for example, chapter x section x). I don't recommend to get in too detail, but it will help you think in the exam.

Hope you will past it the next time!

[Gabe]

I passed FAR on my 4th take. Honestly the only difference for me was using ninja and knowing the journal entries (t accounts) for every mcq I worked. If I could do the entry, I truly understood the question… Even with governmental /nfp questions! Don't give up. You can do this!!

CPA, CFE
CISA- Experience will be completed by August 2016

[Author]

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