[rdrunner]

Becker FAR Study Tips:

I took FAR this quarter and used Becker as study material. This was my first time sitting for a section of the exam and didn’t know what to expect when studying. It seemed overwhelming going through all those MC and SIM questions when studying. Took the 2 practice exams and didn’t do very good on either one. At this point I was certain I wasn’t prepared for the exam but decided to take it anyways just to see what it was like.

To my surprise the exam was VERY similar to the Becker MC questions in the HW’s. So for those of you that were stressing out like I was, just pound as many MC questions out as you can. Over and over again until you are sick of them. Then do some more.

Hopefully this will give you a little boost in confidence in studying. If you do the Becker MC questions and do as many progress test’s as you can to get more questions that you haven’t seen before I feel like you will be well prepared for the exam. The exam isn’t even close to the difficulty of the Practice Exam’s of Becker. If those didn’t give you much trouble then you are probably very well prepared.

A couple more study tips that might help. Or at least I feel like they helped me. When going through the MC questions, talk the problem out loud to yourself. When you see the question say the question out loud and follow up with the answer and why that was the correct answer. I think the material sticks with you better when you actually say it out loud. Then when you are taking the real exam you can reflect back on similar questions that you have done before and will probably remember a least a little bit of something to help you answer the question. Looking back I wish I would have done this more than I really did. It would have helped me on several questions that I thought I would know and just read through the topic problems and answers and moved on to the next one real quick.

Also be sure to read the chapters at least once but don’t spend too much time going back through and reading over and over. The MC questions do a good job of explaining the main topics in the question solutions. You will spend too much time going back through and re-reading chapters when going through the MC will probably be better quality time studying.

The best thing I think I can tell you all is to study hard and study fast. Don’t spend several months studying if you can help it. This test is more like a cram session test in that you need to be familiar with the all the topics not just really good in a few particular topics. Think about it this way, if you spend months studying a good portion of the material will be old news to you when you go sit for the exam. The fresher the material is on you mind the better you will do. There will be many many questions that you get that you will flip flop back and forth on the answer because it isn’t fresh on your mind and you aren’t confident in your answer. It is easy to talk yourself out of a particular answer when you don’t feel confident in it.

No matter how much you study you won’t ever feel like you are completely confident in your understanding of all the material. There is just too much on FAR to ever be completely comfortable with.

There is no better feeling than getting through that first testlet of questions and feeling like you are doing pretty good cause you remember at least seeing over all those different topics at least once only a week or two prior.

So remember folks, this exam isn’t impossible. Just study as much as you can in the shortest amount of time possible and go get this bastard done with the first time around. Worst case scenario you don’t pass it the first time but take that experience with you and use what you know now and develop better study skills. You can do this.

Goodluck

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[vancy]

Thank you so much rdrunner. I will be following your guidelines since I was just wondering if I should do all the MCQs. They are pretty hard and there's just so many questions per chapter. But I can see that it will be worth it. I really like the idea of reading the questions out loud!

Best of luck to you for the rest of your exam journey!

FAR (05/06/13)

[rdrunner]

Good choice in deciding to do all the MC. The MC questions in Becker I found to be more difficult than those on the exam, but not by much. If you do what Becker is asking you to do I think that you will be prepared. I got so frustrated with Becker when I was going through it. Mainly at the lack of consistency between the difficulty of the HW compared to the practice exam. I just knew that if the real exam was as bad as the practice ones I was doomed. After sitting though I was so glad that I just stuck with it and went through as many questions as I could. Don't take me saying that Becker is more difficult as me saying that you can get by with doing less though. Do as much as you possibly can. While I haven't received my scores back yet I feel pretty good that I passed. If I didn't pass I feel like it won't be by much. I have a new sense of motivation to knock these next three exams out now that I know Becker will prepare me well.

It felt like a lost cause after reading all the horror stories about FAR. Yes, it is difficult but I wouldn't say it is anymore difficult than any exam you had in Intermediate or Advanced accounting classes. None of the topics are inherently hard to understand. It just becomes difficult because of the vast amount of topics that can potentially come up on the exam. Keep that in mind and just take each topic one at a time and make sure that you understand it the best you can before you move to the next topic. This way when you start to do a final cram a week or two before the exam you are just refreshing your memory,not having to relearn or learn for the first time each topic.

Don't get too frustrated when studying, it will only hurt you. Keep a positive outlook on the exam as a whole and I believe you can get it knocked out.

[Tncincy]

@rdrunner,

This is very encouraging. Yes FAR is a beast!!! but it is doable. Sometimes we can blow things up in our mind so much until we will accept defeat before we try. Thanks for the encouraging words.

It begins with a 75
Been here too long as a cheerleader....ready to pass

[Author]

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