[Anonymous]

Now that I am through, I thought I would provide what little useful advice I can for those who are struggling–all based on my experience.

First and foremost, this is a second job and needs to be treated as such. I figured it up this morning that I probably spent between 1,000 and 1,250 hours in total on the four parts over the past 11 months. I would be the first in the office to study for 2-3 hours before work, I blocked off my schedule at lunch in my calendar, and I studied after dinner each night for 11 months. I basically scheduled my study time so that there was no question of when I would study and to ensure that I had enough time to execute my plan. I see so many people I work with who are making a run at it and they sleep late, have lunch with friends, and study a little in front of the TV at night. That will not cut it. I know because my last exam was my 26th section. Doing it my way, I was 4 for 5 on the sections. Doing it their way, I was 2 for 21. I tried fitting the exam into my schedule and life and as you can see it didn’t work. I had to rearrange my life around it.

Okay now for the study plan. I’ll be right up front that I am not a fan of the review courses. Of the courses I have seen, Becker is the best solely because they give you a ton of MCQ questions to attempt. Yaeger has a good following but I did not like that they only suggest specific questions from the Wiley test bank. CPAExcel, the course I bought, did great with their notes (very thorough and complete) but IMHO their MCQ question coverage was not good. I knew from taking notes on their sections and my previous FAR attempts that they were not including MCQ’s on some heavily tested topics. I would definitely have failed FAR had I stuck with CPAExcel because there were questions didn’t cover much of what was on the exam.

So here’s what I suggest, use it for what it’s worth:

1) Get the ninja notes and read them. They will provide a very good framework for the exam.

2) Rewrite the ninja notes in their entirety before starting any MCQ’s.

3) Take notes on each sections from your review course and then attempt the Wiley MCQ’s for each section. Take notes as you go through on what you missed or those you guessed at.

4) After the first run through the MCQ’s, re-read your notes on anything you missed.

5) Rewrite your notes in their entirety–from both Ninja and your review course.

6) Make another run through the MCQ’s in Wiley. Make notes on any that you missed or guessed at.

7) Reread your notes.

8) Make a third run through the Wiley MCQ’s. Make notes on any that you missed or had to guess at.

9) Go through the MCQ’s from your review course to get a different look at a different test bank.

10) Make a final run through Wiley MCQ’s and this time be sure to work the Research SIMS questions. For REG and FAR, do some of the SIMS on the more difficult sections (leases, pensions, bonds, and governmental / NFP).

11) If you have time rewrite your notes immediately before the exam, do so. You might also want to review any MCQ’s that you missed after the last pass.

It’s a lot of work and it will take a lot of time. But I assure you that if you do this plan, you will most likely be over prepared for the exam. On all four parts, I found that the Wiley printed book was much more difficult than the actual exams I received. BEC and FAR seemed like they were easy compared to Wiley’s printed version. Had I just worked the ‘suggested’ questions by the review courses, I would have failed.

p.s. I am a big fan of the WIley printed book. I was told that the Wiley online test bank was different from the printed book and that the printed book was much more difficult than the online version. I know that the printed book was ALWAYS harder than the actual exams. I don’t like the online because it can have technical problems and requires a computer with batteries, etc. You can take the printed version with you anywhere.

Good luck to all.

[scav17]

Thank you for posting this. I found out the day before thanksgiving that I passed BEC, and the only thing standing in my way from being done with this monster was REG. I got to enjoy being 75% done for all of 2 weeks… It turns out I missed the REG boat again and lost my FAR credit in the process. I was at a complete loss for how to tackle the two hardest exams in 2.5 months until I read your post. It's gonna be tough – okay, I'll be real – it's gonna suck, but with your advice, I think I can pull it off before I lose AUD in February.

Congrats on reaching the end of your CPA journey!

FAR - 75 [expired]; 68; 88 >> finally done!!
AUD - 87 [expired]; 77
BEC - 74; 76
REG - 71; 65; 68; 75

Now waiting on Louisiana license!

[splinter1643]

Thanks for posting this! It does work! Instead of rewriting I actually re-recite the notes, like I'm preparing for a super long presentation on each section. When you get to a point where you know the material well enough, you can actually analyze the question and the answers and how good they are given instead of just picking an answer without thinking about it.

CPA license in progress....

[Anonymous]

Splinter hit it on the head.

At some point, you will likely remember the correct answer. However, when your mind doesn't have to struggle to figure out the correct answer, it begins answering WHY the answer is correct and why the other answers are wrong. On computational questions, you will become an expert on the computations and will find out that the setup becomes easy and then you get into the deep analysis of the logic behind the computation.

I used to go through the questions and hope that if I see them on the test, I'd be okay. I also used to only do the questions once and tried to just hit some representative questions. On this try, I found the most difficult questions I could (Wiley Print) and worked them until I was sick of them–all of them. Then my actual tests were less difficult than Wiley.

[Anonymous]

Thank you for this. I just found out Friday I failed FAR with a 74. I had only used CPAexcel and I completely agree that while the videos are good (I actually like them WAY more than Becker), the MCQ and SIM banks are not up to par. I'm kicking myself now for not buying a different question bank in order to drill MCQs before my last attempt.

Just bought the 10-point combo for FAR and I'm printing your list of study steps because it seems really thourough. Rematch in early January.

[William_777]

What do you mean by —> my last exam was my 26th section. Doing it my way, I was 4 for 5 on the sections. Doing it their way, I was 2 for 21. —

How are you defining a section?

[Anonymous]

@William_777 I believe he took 26 total sections of the exam (i.e. repeated each section multiple times). Then once he figured out what worked for him it only took 5 attempts to get through the 4 exams.

[Anonymous]

@CPApending Sorry if all the he/him should have been she/her. Can't tell from your username and I couldn't remember anything from past posts that would have answered that for me.

[Anonymous]

@William,

I took 26 individual sections.

I started back when the exam was paper and pen (no calculator). I passed auditing and missed BEC by 1 point. The next attempt, I passed BEC and missed auditing by 1 point. The third time I passed auditing and BEC. I attempted FAR and REG half heartedly, studying when I couldn't find anything else to to. But hey I was young and dumb. I then left accounting all together, largely because I couldn't pass this exam. There was the draw of the IT salaries that had a little to do with it as well. 😀

I picked back up again in Dec of last year after getting laid off from IT in July and rejoining the Finance world immediately thereafter. Then I went 4 for 5, only failing REG but that was right after my Mom passed away so my head wasn't in the game.

It's been a long road but well worth it. Just makes the victory that much sweeter.

[Anonymous]

@k917, I'm all HE! 😀

[Anonymous]

@CPApending So I got it right!!

[pacific1]

@cpapending….thank you for taking the time to write this all out, I will take your advice and see how it goes!

[jenuno01]

Ok so I think it's important to point out how much you struggled with the exams. Not saying your advice is bad, I would just hate for the newbies reading this to be misguided. At the end of the day, we all learn differently and it's important to establish our own strategy.

Class of 2012

[jeff]

Misguided by what? It's how he passed.

Jeff Elliott, CPA (KS) | Another71 | NINJA CPA | NINJA CMA | NINJA CPE

[splinter1643]

@jenuno01: I agree that we have to find a study plan that works for us. For the longest time I used a strategy that clearly didn't work for me, even though it worked for everyone else I knew. Me being the way I am, I stuck with it anyway in the hopes that things would change. I continued to score in the 50s-60s until I decided enough was enough! I had to think hard about how I studied back in school for exams I did extremely well on, added another review (go Roger CPA Review!), and switched up the order of the material and the questions in a way that made sense to me. As a result, my scores improved by 10-20 points.

CPA license in progress....

[jenuno01]

Misguided as to thinking the method is fool-proof and will work for everyone.

Class of 2012

[Author]

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