[jms10101]

Greetings! I am new to this forum and a recent college grad using Becker to study FAR. Oh goodness…it is tough. I am in a bad job and need to keep at it for the money and experience. I am not able to study aggressive but am trying to study about 10 hours a week I am re-reviewing F1, F2 and F3 before moving on. I am planning to take this section of the CPA in November. I graduated Summa Cum Laude but am finding some of this material to be challenging.

Any suggestions about what I am doing and what else I can do? I think that reworking homework problems and some book review of the concepts is good, maybe some review of the simulations. I need to carefully allocate time as time is lacking.

Also, I heard that the CPA MC questions are not as bad as Becker but that the simulations on the actual exam are worse.

Any pointers given my position would be greatly appreciated. I truly want to get my CPA but I am not in a good spot now with work.

Thank you all very much! Happy to be here….

James

[Anonymous]

It sounds like you're on the right track.

I think it's good to review the book as much as possible. It certainly never hurts. I reworked every simulation before my exam. Review the simulations if you can, but I would definitely prioritize studying the book and reworking the homework problems.

The Becker multiple choice can be a bit lengthy and wordy, you probably won't see questions as involved as that. They won't ask you to do as much in a given question.

I'm not sure there's any special prep you can do for the simulations. They were certainly way harder for me and that seems to be other people's experience as well. What helps the most is understanding the material, and being at least somewhat familiar with working simulations (Becker will help there).

On a final note, if you're taking it in November, I would just try to make sure that you review earlier sections often enough that you don't start to lose the early material towards the end. It sounds like you're doing that though, so you should be fine in that regard.

Good luck!

[Kayla123]

I just sat for FAR using Becker. I would honestly try to up your study hours from 10 hours a week- doing 8 hours on the weekend already puts you up to 16 hours, then just try to do 2 hours during the weekdays. I don't think 10 hours a week will be enough.

With that being said, I would agree that the MC questions for FAR weren't horrible. Some were hard, but I would say I felt pretty confident overall. Going into the simulations for FAR, I was confident. I felt good about the MC portion and I was excited to be done with the exam. The simulations I was given were 10x harder than the Becker ones, and 2 of them weren't even covered in the Becker book. I don't have be score back, but I feel like I failed because my simulations. However, I knew someone who took the exam the same day I did, and she said her sims weren't bad but her MC were hard. I think it all just depends on the test you are given and if you are lucky enough to get sims on topics you are comfortable with.

AUD- 99
FAR- 93
BEC- 90
REG- 94

[kyle.brown]

I am attempting my FAR retake after getting a 60 on this first one because i took 4-5 months to study and forgot so much information. I just took AUD sunday and now i have about 40 days to study for FAR to take it August 29th. I am trying to do 2-3 hours during the week and 14-16 on the weekends i hope this will give me enough time. First time around i used CPA Excel and this time i am using Ninja Book/Ninja Notes, Ninja Audio/ and Ninja MCQ.

FAR - Passed 4/2016
AUD - Passed 11/2015
REG - ?
BEC - 05/28/2016

[Tscape16]

@kyle.brown

I would suggest up'ing your study game. Are you working until 10pm every night? 2-3 hours per night during the week and 8 hours on the weekend is an average amount of studying. I work 7am-5:30p, get home and study for 3-4 hours each night. It sucks, but it is what you have to do to pass while working. You don't want to pass one and then have it run out because your 18 months was up.

FAR - 90 ✔
BEC - 86 ✔
REG - 82 ✔
AUD - 92 ✔
ETHICS - Passed

*Licensed CPA

[kyle.brown]

@Tscape i wish it was that easy for me lol i have a one year old i watch since my wife works retail right now. I agree but i thought i was doing pretty good for getting 25-30 hours a week worth of studying. I would not be having to do it this way if i had not already paid for my exam but my NTS expires in September so i can push it back. Depending on my AUD score i believe i have a much better study plan this time around then i did the first time.

FAR - Passed 4/2016
AUD - Passed 11/2015
REG - ?
BEC - 05/28/2016

[Anonymous]

I think I needed more time than most people but I agree with what others have said. If I had to study 10 hours a week, I would have forgotten the entire first half of the book by the time I reached the end. Any little bit you can get done during the week, even an hour, will help. For REG (the only exam where I had a real time constraint), I did a few hours per weekday and ALL DAY on the weekends and it still took me 3-4 months.

[Author]

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