[LIZZ]

NINJA Question –

I want to pass all 4 sections in the 1st qtr. I have had this CPA monkey on my back for 10 years and I’m sick of it. I wanted to see if there were any other crazy people out there who wanted to help keep me accountable?

Yes i know it’s crazy but here is my situation:
-I have sat for all 4 exams at some point in my life using Becker average score in the 70’s
-I took FAR 10/2016 got a 70.
-REG scheduled 01/06 – I am in final review now (feeling confident)
-No Kids, live alone and own my own espresso machine
-Job allowing me to work from home 1x/week with max 40 hours, I have plenty of PTO time, Boss really wants me to pass
– I conditioned myself to study 4 hours/day weekdays and 6 weekends

Plan of attack:
I just cant stand watching another BECKER video so I’m going all NINJA and Wiley.
-REG 01/06
-FAR 01/27 (rematch)
-BEC 02/24 (weakest subject)
-AUD 03/10 (lost credit)

This is an Hail Mary attempt to pass I’m just using the April cut off date as my motivation to just get it done.

FAR - 05/2015
AUD - 75,11/2014
REG - 07/2015
BEC - 09/2015

[Mary]

Good luck to you! I am taking AUD and FAR in Q1 and am panicked enough at having enough time to properly study FAR in 7 weeks. I also have no kids and no significant other and can't imagine how you all do it with all of that distraction. 🙂

[LIZZ]

@mary.

It's going to be hard. I've taken all the exams and have great notes. My plan is to skip the lectures and go directly to MCQ and SIMs . It's about 3 to 4 weeks for 3 exams. I also plan on picking up some type of final review course.

I have a small social life. I can make a whole list of things I either cut out or just do the minimum to make time for either sleep or study time.

FAR - 05/2015
AUD - 75,11/2014
REG - 07/2015
BEC - 09/2015

[Jdn9201]

Well what you are trying to do is kind of crazy, but like you said, you are in the perfect situation to try and pull this off. I haven't read all of the responses, but I thought I'd chime in with some tips I learned and/or followed when I passed FAR. I didn't plan on doing this, but I passed FAR after 19 days of studying in February of this year. I hope some of what I share can help you. Good luck!

1. Focus on study quality and not quantity. What I mean is countless hours studying don't mean as much if you are tired and burned out. I, like you, had few personal obligations (not married nor have kids) and was working about 45 hrs/per week. I didn't take much PTO but I estimate I studied about 75 hrs/week for the 3 weeks I studied. This was split into 3 hrs/4 days week with 6-7 hrs per day on the weekend.
2. I listened to lectures on my computer at work (while working, of course 🙂 ). I didn't remember everything and had to rewatch some of them at home, but this helped because I was able to spend much more of my time at home actually working MCQs and SIMS rather than listening to lectures.
3. Prioritize your time spent on each chapter/section by the Content Specific Outline. If a chapter or section was less than 5%, I moved on when I felt like I could narrow down an MCQ to the 2 best choices. My time was better spent being stronger in other areas that were a larger % of the exam. I think Roger's book had 32 chapters, so my goal was to hit 2-3 per day.
4. MCQ – Focus on quality, not quantity. I can't remember how many MCQ I did, but I didn't get to all of the ones from Roger's test bank. I'm not a fan of doing MCQ till your eyes bleed. Slow down and understand WHY an answer is correct or incorrect. Think about how the question could be asked differently. I had a time budget for the MCQs but I didn't stick to it until I started doing actual practice exams.
5. Get familiar with the authoritative literature. Maybe I just got lucky, but the AL really helped me on the actual exam. The problem is there is so much information, you have to know where to find it in a timely manner.

BEC - 88 8/29/15
REG - 82 11/14/15
AUD - 83 1/8/16
FAR - 80 2/29/16

[Meg267]

People think this is crazy, but to be honest, it sounds somewhat do-able. You've already passed one of the exams before and you've taken another one or two and scored close to the 75. It's not like you're starting completely from scratch, never have taken an exam before. It's going to be a lot of review, but I think you can do it! Prove the others wrong! Even if you end up passing only 1 or 2, at least you passed those ones! Then try for the remainder in Q2.

I'm going for two in Q1. A REG retake and then AUD at the end of the testing window. I've never done two in one window before.

[LIZZ]

@JDN9201 – Great advice and I will use it. do you have any tips on how to avoid burn out? I am trying to use this blog to keeps my motivated and focused. I do a set of MCQ's then review the blog. Just to give my mine a break.

@MEG267 – Don't give up MEG… I lost 100 pounds a few years ago by becoming Vegan and exercising 3 hours a day. I like crazy challenges the more people who call me crazy motivates me to want to try harder. I decided to submit myself to the CPA process and if i do this for the next 3 months and pass 2 that will be success for me. Honestly the real goal for me is to take the exam and keep taking the exam. I know I can pass, i usually just give up before I do.

FAR - 05/2015
AUD - 75,11/2014
REG - 07/2015
BEC - 09/2015

[Anonymous]

@financelady Your plan sounds very similar to mine. I skipped the lectures and focused on mcq's and making good notes on what I didn't understand. I have Wiley so I tried to go through the excel class for all sections but BEC, hence the fail lol. I had scheduling problems and ended up with only 10 days for that section, if you can spread them out more evenly you have a great chance of getting them all!!! I started with AUD which I studied before and tested in early Oct, it has always been my weakest subject so my pass really helped to keep me going. My next section was REG and as a tax accountant I skipped alot of material that I was familiar with and focused on what I didn't know for 3-4 weeks, it worked well for me. Then I scrunched in BEC, that didn't work very well, I needed at least another week or so. I left 5 weeks for FAR and tested on the last day of the window Dec 10th for FAR and pulled it off…journal entries and t-accounts galore, but again I do alot of gl work so it didn't seem too bad, it was another section that I really focused on my weak spots like govt and obscure things that we don't do in a small firm. I know it's completely doable, and if I could do it again the only thing I would do differently would be to give myself a little more time for BEC, which I severely underestimated. I've been out of school for 8 years too so others saying it can't be done know nothing about perseverance and how it feels to truly want those letters. Good luck, you won't need it, I believe in you!!!!

[CPA2BEE]

All 4 in one quarter is an appetite for failure. You'd either be extremely lucky or a hell of a test taker to pass all the parts in one quarter, but that approach would result in failure for just about any candidate out there. Maybe split it two in Q1 and two in Q2, even that would be tough but you'd be more likely to squeak out a couple passes rather than cramming them all in one quarter where you're likely to fail all of them.

FAR - 80
AUD - 82
BEC - 80
REG - 85

ETHICS - 90
EXPERIENCE - COMPLETE
Application for California license mailed 8/4/2016

[LIZZ]

@CPA2BEE it is really just 3 exams.

I have been preparing for REG for a little over 2 months now. I am doing a rematch for FAR I am giving myself 3 weeks to study for that. I am a little nervous about BEC and I have passed AUD I just lost my credit. I only work 4 days a week, I dont work more than 40 hours and I have plenty of PTO days.

It is a hail mary but if anything I will get over my test taking anxiety and If i can NOT study and score in the 70's I know i can Actually study and get 75 eventually. My job paid for my study materials and my 1st round of CPA exams. I have nothing to loose.

FAR - 05/2015
AUD - 75,11/2014
REG - 07/2015
BEC - 09/2015

[Jdn9201]

To edit my post, I meant to say I studied about a total of 75 Hrs for FAR, 25ish/week. 🙂

Anyhow, I tried to avoid burnout a couple of ways. One, I'm a nightowl. I function in the mornings enough to work, but my brain really doesn't wake up until 10am or 11. So, even on the weekends I tried to avoid studying in the morning. I also studied in different places because at least I'd have a change in surroundings. Sometimes I'd study after work at the office or I'd go to McDonalds, Starbucks, and even on campus at the college I attended for grad school. I'd also try and listen to myself – if I caught myself listening to a lecture or reading and having to go over the same information multiple times, I'd either study another chapter, take a break, or cut my time short and push it to another night. I did the latter sparingly, but it goes back to being efficient – there's no sense in trying to study if it's just going in one ear and out the other.

BEC - 88 8/29/15
REG - 82 11/14/15
AUD - 83 1/8/16
FAR - 80 2/29/16

[Anonymous]

I'm giving you tough love.

Don't waste your money. Pick FAR – you already have done it. Maybe fit BEC in. You can't engineer a passing score pre-prescribing what time frame you are going to accomplish all of your review in. It doesn't work that way. Passing is a factor of the person and amount of preparation. People coming out of top 5 b-schools still need to study.

2 months full time, with giftedness, luck, and a set routine with lots of additional aids may squeeze straight 75s. That's an exception – likely coming after a round of university final exams with everything fresh.

Decide you'll put the time in needed to pass – then you'll pass. Once you accept that you will study how you say you will study – all the time – and do every becker MCQ sim, test, etc – then you'll pass.

It's a 50% pass/fail rate per part – you can't just say you're doing it in a month.

What's in becker exactly 30 chapters? Pick one chapter – tomorrow – in any becker book (how about REG #7 – it's just business law) – give yourself a 14 hour clock (a day) to do all of the lectures (6 hrs) + hw (6 hrs) and then a 60q progress test (2 hrs) @ 75.

If you're not willing to sacrifice 12/24, you won't sacrifice 30 days in a row. If you do that, however, and get a 75 on that progress test…you've got a shot at the 30 day window.

Fast pass, however, is designed for two months…you really ought to AT LEAST stretch it over all of Q1 down to 3/10/17. You can't take them again until 4/1/17 anyway so if you're going to do it…design it (less not) well…

[LIZZ]

@CJ

REG – 01/06
I sat for FAR early October and I started studying for REG right after. I am in the review stage for REG so I am going to take that early January while the information is still fresh.

FAR- 01/31
I have a notebook full of notes for FAR and it almost killed me but I watched all the Becker lectures. I know what I did wrong last time. I did not study for SIMs and I skipped over GOV & N4P (easy points). I scored a 70 on FAR for my last attempt. Although the score card does not tell you much I was comparable on all MCQ's subjects except for GOV & N4P. I honestly didnt practice those to subjects because those were actually my favorite subjects in school. I was also weaker in SIMS My plan is to spend the 1st weekend in January focusing in on GOV & N4P in Becker. After that do mixed MCQ's in Ninja and all the SIMS I can find until the 31st. That will be a little over 100 hours of study time at 4 hours/day and 8 hours on weekends. I also purchased Becker Final review to get me those last 5 points to pass.

BEC – 02/28
I have 27 days to take BEC but again have about 100 hours of study time available and a week off work. I have watched all the Becker videos and purchased the Ninja 10 point combo.

AUD will be my hail mary. I will only have 10 days to study. I plan on taking a week off work to study. I passed this section before and I was stronger in every subject except SIMs. I will be sure to add SIMS to my study schedule daily.

Like I said before my boss really wants me to pass and my job has paid for the the exams and review material. I work in the M&A department and there are rumors that our next acquisition going final in April. After that project starts I will not see the light of day, I am using that as my motivation to get my butt in gear.

For the exams I dont pass I will take 4 weeks and retake them until I do. I decided to submit myself to the process learn from my mistakes and move on.

Good Luck

FAR - 05/2015
AUD - 75,11/2014
REG - 07/2015
BEC - 09/2015

[ALandFARfaraway]

I passed three in one test window and there was still a little time to spare. If you're dedicated to studying you can do it, especially since you've already taken each of them.

It's going to suck for your social life but it's really only three months. Just put in the time and hammer those mcqs and you got this!

Edit: I Hail Mary'd aud too. I wasn't prepared enough for reg so I pushed it back giving myself only 6 days to study for my aud retake. I thought for sure I would fail but wanted to get an attempt in this past test window. What I did in those 6 days was just devote one chapter review a night. No lecutres, just a brief skim through my notes from before and then hammer mcq all night. Hopefully it just comes back to you since you've already passed it.

FAR: 7/23/16 - waiting for score
AUD: 9/2/16
REG: ?
BEC: ?

[Anonymous]

Goodluck u are going to need it!!! 😂😂😂

[merito_123]

It's definitely possible. I passed all four sections within a month, just be confident and stay calm while taking the exam. You don't need to learn everything, just learn about 70% of each topic and you're good to go. I was working 40 hr a week and what I did was I would sneak to the restroom every hour for about 5 minutes and answer about 10-15 MCQs. I focused on the concepts/theory and not on the MCQ.

Good luck!!!

[Author]

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