[OnMyWay732]

We can go a lot more in depth, but figured I’d give a high level guide on what it takes to pass.

Now don’t get me wrong…my scores are nothing to really brag about…but I did pass them all on the first try, and I have never been known to be great at tests or studying. I struggled throughout school when it came to exams my entire life, even in grad school…so I think it has to do mainly with mindset.

Tip 1: Do NOT begin until you are ready. Sounds like common sense right? Well, maybe not. Are you in public accounting? Don’t schedule your exam for May then. You still need time to study. I scheduled my first one for July. I began studying in May when busy season started slowing down. Are you getting married? I waited till after the season after my wedding. My mind and wallet couldn’t handle another thing during that time. Get the picture?

Tip 2: Stop thinking about how many hours you need to studying. I’m sure there’s a minimum, but definitely no max. If someone told me it would take 150 hours to study for AUD, and I plan on studying 30 hrs a week, should I wait till 5 weeks out, even thought it’s 8 weeks away and I have nothing to do? NO…As soon as you’re able to start studying, start studying.

Tip 3: Don’t over study. This is not contradicting Step 2. What I mean here is if you’re tired and not absorbing any material, take a break. Maybe even for the night. You can pick it back up tomorrow. You’ll just be hurting yourself otherwise.

Tip 4: Get your spouse on your side. I don’t have the most understanding wife. Hardcore Italian who wants things done her way. But I told her before I started that I can either suck it up and get this done with now, or drag it out for years. We chose to deal with it and let it be done.

Tip 5: ***Disclaimer: Let the one who has not sinned cast the first stone.*** SCHEDULE YOUR EXAM BEFORE YOU BEGIN STUDYING!!! I cannot tell you the amount of times I see people scheduling the exam as they’re finishing studying. You need a time frame and a plan. It WILL help keep you on track and stay focused. If it’s not scheduled, you could be studying for a year by constantly taking breaks since you have no commitment.

Tip 6: The most important. STUDY…A LOT! You shouldn’t have much free time when taking the exam. On Saturday’s, if I studied from 9-4 I would let myself go out that night, but weeknights are for studying. Your morning drive is for listening to lectures. You need to eat, breathe, and sleep the exam.

I hope this helped and I will add any more tips I think of.

Now to go get Meghan Fox and ruin Skynet’s plan of world destruction.

AUD - July 2014 - 76
REG - August 2014 - 82
FAR - November 2014 - 78
BEC - January 2015 - 81

DONE!!!!

Used Becker online. Who needs a text when you can burn your eyes out staring at the screen for months on end?

"Let me tell you something you already know. The world ain't all sunshine and rainbows. It is a very mean and nasty place and it will beat you to your knees and keep you there permanently if you let it. You, me, or nobody is gonna hit as hard as life. But it ain't how hard you're hit; it's about how hard you can get hit, and keep moving forward. How much you can take, and keep moving forward. That's how winning is done!"

[hunter32]

Tip 4 has been the most important to me, as I've seen other people's significant others pretty much destroy their chances of passing by not understanding the time commitment. My fiancé has been super supportive, probably because I gave her control of the wedding.

BEC - 80 (Becker)
AUD - 92 (Becker+NINJA MCQ)
FAR - 87 (Becker+NINJA MCQ)
REG - 90 (Becker+NINJA MCQ and Audio)

[Tcohle]

I don't really have any extra responsibilities like most people here. I'm single, have an 8 hour/day job, weekends free. I've probably been cranking out 30-35 hrs/week for FAR because it's my first test. Been doing this since middle of February. I'm getting upper 80s in Framework and NFP, but 60-70s in everything else. Granted, I haven't started an intense review yet. I'm just getting through the material for government. But I do feel I struggle with SIMS!

Am I on a good track here? I feel like I'm doing okay but then the test is going to hit me like a haymaker punch 🙁

FAR- 5/11/15 76!!
AUD-10/31/15 63, 84!
REG-7/12/16 72
BEC-8/31/15 75!! Perfect Score!

Wiley CPAExcel Platinum
Ninja 10 pt combo for FAR/AUD/BEC

[Anonymous]

Eat, Sleep, and Breathe CPA exam, I have that written down on an index card. Good one!

[ssmagnus]

Study why you got an answer wrong by seeing the correct answer explanation AND why the other answers are wrong. If you are doing the Becker self study I HIGHLY recommend buying another computer screen. One with the Becker interface and the other with a Word doc open. Use the “snipping” tool to capture, copy and paste images on the doc. Copy and paste valuable MCQ information. Copy just the CORE stuff. Not every little thing. You won't know what's core until you do a second pass at the MCQ – because only then will you start seeing the common denominator in a section's questions. DO MCQ until you vomit.

AUD 93 (5/14)
FARE 80 (8/14)
BEC 77 (11/14)
REG 81 (4/15)

[Anonymous]

If you're doing MC in Becker and the same problems keep giving you trouble, you can just save the problem as PDF. (Go to Print and then click on “Save as”) and then you can review at your own leisure. I saved every MC that I had a problem with into a folder for their respective chapter (FAR 1, FAR 2 etc) and I reviewed these questions often, so that I wouldn't forget the concepts.

[Thrawn]

I would say, try to relax, many of the posters here talk about studing hundreds of hours and doing thousands of MCQs and stuff and then failing the test. I studied hard, but I focused on understanding the material. Review questions get into nitty gritty details you may never need but if you can get comfortable with the reason “why” something should be done or a rule exists then you can think about the material logically and be more relaxed because a new topic you didn't study for on the exam can be analyzed based on the theory behind the question.

On this point I would also say, try not to rely on memorization as a crutch (except for certain formulas and the parts of the audit report). It is better to be able to think through the problem than have to remember a trick during the exam. This is especially true for the mutiple choice testlets.

My final recommendation, understand the way the test is administered and scored, and realize what tools you have at your disposal. On all four sections I did the multiple choice quite quickly(while still doing a review to make sure obvious errors were caught) and then I spent more time on the simulations and I used the authoritative literature to try to find things that would help. For one of my audit sims there was an audit report example in the literature that gave me almost the entire answer for the sim. The lit was also helpful on reg as I was able to see what components went into the calculation on something I didn't study for.

BEC 87 Feb 14
REG 84 Apr 14
FAR 82 Nov 14
AUD 86 Feb 15

[Thrawn]

Also, just for general test taking strategy. I knew going into the exam process that the biggest constraint is not the actual exam, as a graduate of an accounting program should have been exposed to 95+% of the material during school, but rather the time limit. So to maximize my time available I studied for BEC and REG (since everyone told me they were the easiest) before I bought an NTS. Then once I was ready for both I purchased the NTS and took one in February and one in April. Since I passed both I was then able to dedicate the remaining 15 months to studying for FAR and AUD (between busy times at work) and give myself plenty of cushion in-case I had to retake.

BEC 87 Feb 14
REG 84 Apr 14
FAR 82 Nov 14
AUD 86 Feb 15

[Author]

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