Five weeks till first exam (FAR)…getting nervous

  • Creator
    Topic
  • #1521405
    HoldMyBeerCPA
    Participant

    Hi all,

    I’m a little over five weeks out on my FAR exam and I’m only 40% of the way through the Roger lectures and my note taking. I’m starting to get mildly concerned that I may not leave myself enough time for re-writing my notes and hitting the MCQs/SIMS. At this point, I’m wondering what I can do to speed things up as I was hoping to leave myself at least four weeks to re-write, review and hit MCQs.

    Just curious how long it has taken others to complete the FAR videos/notes for Roger.

    Thanks!

Viewing 6 replies - 1 through 6 (of 6 total)
  • Author
    Replies
  • #1521486
    A
    Participant

    It took me 32 days to get through lectures, I spent an average of 90 minutes a night on them. The last third of his book is tough, there are over 5 hours on Govt and NFP. I was burned out by the time I hit those topics, and I ended up splitting those across four days.

    As far as speeding up, you can always do an MCQ assessment and reduce time on areas you already know and spend more time on your weak areas.

    It seems like 8-10 weeks is the sweet spot for most people who take FAR while working; your mileage may vary, of course.

    B - 77 (2.27.16)
    A - 81 (4.18.16)
    R -
    F -

    Roger Review + Ninja MCQs

    #1521553
    Anonymous
    Inactive

    I would take a look at the AICPA blue print. Compare what you have left to study with it and study the heaver-tested sections first. Also, take how much time you have left and come up with a DAILY study schedule that will allow you to get through everything. Force yourself to stick to it even if you feel like you need more time on certain items.

    If you have difficult topics left that aren't tested much (defined benefit plans, derivatives, etc.), just make sure you understand the basics on those. And make sure not to skip government and NFP. Also, don't be afraid of rescheduling if you feel like you aren't going to be ready. (But remember that there is never going to be a day that you truly feel ready either)

    Best of luck to you!

    #1521564
    Anonymous
    Inactive

    I started in mid July and was done by mid October (2016) with Roger. Some people spend only 2 weeks studying for each part. Others of us spend 2 months, 3 months, 4 months….all depends on multiple factors, including how much you knew before starting your studies of that section.

    About your nervousness….there's no reason to be nervous. The worst that can happen is that you don't pass. On exam day, I told myself that I wasn't going to be nervous because if I had been, I'd never have finished the exam. I finished with 3 minutes remaining on the clock. Good idea about rewriting notes….I had a ton of them for FAR. I didn't get a chance to rewrite them before exam day and I basically didn't look at them again after taking them (huge mistake).

    #1521886
    007
    Participant

    I don't think you'll have any issues…once you get into section 20+ the chapters get really short minus Cash Flow/Govt/NFP/Consolidation

    #1521976
    Anonymous
    Inactive

    FAR is a beast. I had the same problem… I actually had to push back my test date 3 times because I just did not feel ready when the test week came around. I cant give you a time estimate of how to finish off the remaining sections you have in FAR, but I will tell you what I did. FAR was my first test, so I came at it with no real strategy. I thought just watching the videos, then reading, then doing the IPQs would be enough. This seemed be all good until I was getting to the last sections of the review, and I realized I had begun to forget a lot of stuff from the beginning. After I passed FAR and began to study audit, I realized that I was wasting a lot of time reading and taking notes. There is a lot of clutter in the book that you simply will never need to know for the exam that you will spend a lot of time making notes for and memorizing.

    For FAR you really want to make sure that you watch all the videos and work each sections MCs at least two complete times through. The content you need to know for the exam you can figure out from the types of questions being asked on the IPQs. You'll start to notice that the questions are all centered around certain topics in a section. There will be a few outlier topics that you will see, try not to focus too hard on those. Try to learn from the explanations on the wrong answers, but if you can't figure it out from there, go to the book and/or lectures and figure it out. Give yourself at least one day a week to review what you have learned in the past. I would do 60 questions of what I learned that week, and another 60 that was made up from all the prior sections. The final review weeks I started with 30 questions from each section. I would work like 90-120 MCs per day. Then I shortened it to 15 per section. Then the final 3 days before the exam I would work one practice exam's MCs per day (90 questions on the old format).

    I really believe that the toughest part with FAR is keeping all the concepts fresh in your head given that it covers such a broad range of topic areas. Know your J/E's back and forth for the SIMS.

    I also did Roger, and I noticed, after the test, that his MCs for FAR tend to over prepare you for the exam content, which is good. You really should not discount this fact and should take the time to learn how to get the correct answers. I was freaking out because I was trending a 63% overall the day before the exam and ended out with an 82 in the end.

    Also, don't waste your time watching the final review and intro videos to any of his sections. They are completely useless, just start with the first topic.

    #1522030
    HoldMyBeerCPA
    Participant

    Thanks for the sound advice guys.

    I just started to review the past 12 chapters I learned and I forgot quite a bit, and noticed that some of his IPQs questioned things that were either vaguely covered or simply skipped by myself when taking notes. So far, for the first two chapters I'm at 77.7%…not exactly where I want to be.

    @bigbear, did you supplement Roger's IPQs with anything else like Ninja MCQ? As I'm assuming your trending score was for the Ninja MCQ.

Viewing 6 replies - 1 through 6 (of 6 total)
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