[lucky hunter]

I am studying FAR right now for my test on 5/31. I was wondering what are the main things that I need to focus on? Right now I am on marketable securities, held for sale, held for trading etc that kind of thing and it is not making much sense to me so I am kind of blowing through it. Is this a major part of the FAR test or should I not worry too much about it?

[kevinmalone]

Sorry I haven't taken FAR yet. I take it on 7/3 but I've heard that the first three lectures are HUGE so yeah I think you need to understand it. Side-note from what I've learned in studying for the CPA is that you can't really “blow through” anything. That's just me though. Some people can get away with it and still pass but I'm the type of person that is very thorough and I'm 3/3 so it has worked out for me so FAR! You'll do great just be confident and study your ass off.

[brokeonbecker4]

I took FAR a week ago today. I can only speak from personal experience, but I thought bonds, pensions, non-monetary exchanges, leases, foreign currency stuff, cash flows, stockholder's equity were the huge areas that I'd be hit on on the actual exam. That wasn't the case for me at all. I'd know NFP and Governmental for MCQ. That's the consensus from everyone I know that took it last week (~100 people because we're all doing Becker together through our university). My theory is that those sections are no longer being testing on the TBS, so the MCQ feels crazy weighted towards NFP and Governmental, when in reality, if you take the entire exam into consideration, that's not the case. TBS is just luck of the draw. I've heard of friends saying they had a TBS in a section that was a strength of mine, and friends also said they had a TBS in a section that is a weak area of mine so I'd have struggled with it. Know how to work the authoritative literature, not just for the authoritative literature question. I couldn't for the life of me remember a detail I needed for a TBS, and I quickly looked it up in the authoritative literature, and boom…there was the rule I couldn't remember.

[justa75pls]

@nola-girl5: did you find the NFP/Govt MCQs more or less difficult than Becker?

[Anonymous]

@nola – what are your thoughts on the reconciliation portion of the govt wide F/S? I feel like I'm going to spend a ton of time mastering what is only 14 questions in the Becker materiel (F10-M6). Do you think this would be a good use of my time?

[brokeonbecker4]

@justa75pls On my first testlet, I'd say easier. High-level stuff. Second testlet got noticeably harder, and I'd say about the difficulty on average for Becker MCQ. I personally thought the MCQ on Becker's mocks were pretty hard, but I overall felt the MCQ wasn't as hard as that, more comparable to just the plain ole Becker MCQ overall.

[brokeonbecker4]

@C.P.A the third In my opinion, just know the high level stuff for that. It's also kind of stated in other chapters. For example, governmental funds don't record depreciation so obviously when you reconcile you're going to have to subtract depreciation. Know that. But the journal entries and preparing a reconciliation? Meh. FAR has way bigger beasts you should tackle.

[Author]

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