[Anonymous]

I took the FAR this morning. The time management is a big factor.

I finished the 1st testlet in 30 minutes. I didn’t feel the 2nd testlet is huge difficulty, but it was more time consuming. By the time I finished the 2nd testlet, I had 2 hours and 45 minutes left.

My big unhappiness was now in the 3rd testlet. Two sims, one was ok. I finished within my budgeted time. The other one took me almost 40 minutes, and the stuff was not difficult and was my strong part because one of my responsibility of my real job is to do that. Why it was time consuming because there were one screen and lots of tiny numbers. I checked the sim three times and I still could not make the balances tied. I even thought if there was any document that was not loaded. I think I might get 50% credit on this sim. The time clock was ticking and I had 2 hours left. I was starting nervous, so I decided to move on. Used restroom at this point and must go to release it from my body.

The 4th and last testlets were not difficult though 5 of them were sims with lots of documents. Still they were just time consuming.

I finished my exam with 10 minutes left. At that point, I was not happy and thought I should give 3rd testlet more time. But there was no regret. Who knows what I would get in 4th and last testlets.

I use Gleim as my review course. I would say it is really perfect for me. Everything in my exam was covered by Gleim. The AICPA sample test is just for the candidates to be familiar with the format of different. The real sims are long, long, long.

[plewpaasdfasd]

Currently using Gleim as well and am planning to take FAR in about a month. Following the study planner, I should have about a week to review. Hoping that I have time to grind out Govt/NFP but am anxious/excited for my first exam. There's times where I feel like the material is overwhelming and worry that I am starting to forget previous chapters, but glad to hear that the process works and you were able to make it through! 🙂

[Anonymous]

@plewpaasdfasd

FAR was my first exam and I followed the study planner as well. I even finished the first round of review two weeks before the planner so I gave myself 2 weeks to do final reviews.
1st round of study, followed the study planner to finish all study units. Wrote notes in the review material.
2nd round of study, did a lot of test prep MCQs (Custom Quiz). I liked the practice exam session better than study session. I chose 33 MCQs each time because the real FAR exam has 33 MCQs in each testlet. Rewrote notes on a blank paper, even draw tables/T accounts — any tools that can help me to understand and remember better.
3rd round of study, followed the Gleim final review to do the practice and read my own notes (from the 2nd round) and made it more cleared.

If you do not work, 1 week for final review should be enough.

[Wannafree]

@ckcpa18 , it seems you have nailed the FAR very well.I am sure you knew the answers very well for that long question but still couldn't finish that question in budgeted time.That's what I have been telling in any other post of exam experience ,even if you know the answer challenge is reading so many documents .Doing 1st testlet in 30 minutes is awesome.2.45 Hours is really good.
Let me make a disclaimer here for public at large and admin,not at all interested to know the questions.You have posted the exp very well without violating the disclosure rules.
Okay now let me ask this you said SIM not difficult but lot of documents in last testlet , how much time it took you to finish the simple SIMs with documents ? how many average minutes you took (one part of SIM ) ? Now coming to difficult question ( long questions with 15 parts ) ,I am sure you knew the concept otherwise you would not have done 33 mcq in 30 minutes ,how you decided time to move on ?
I am asking because I was able to solve the problem and knew the answer so didn't move on and ultimately can't even touch last testlet.
Trying to learn some test taking techniques.It's irony I am good in FAR compared to other sections and not able to pass due to this too long SIMs.

[Anonymous]

@Wanna,
I would say my average time to finish the sims is about 15 minutes. Thanks to Gleim's hard sims. I did a lot sim practice in Gleim. When I did my final review with Gleim, I can finish 5 sims within 50 minutes. Practiced my speed and ability to react quickly. Back to the real exam, when I move to last testlet, there was about 1 hour left and I finished all with 10 minutes left. Some sim I finished with less than 10 minutes, one finished with less than 5 mins, some took longer. Last sim took 25 minutes because I checked twice of my answer and the wording of the instruction is a little confusing. Every sim has many documents than I expected but some of them MAY be distractor, you need to identify what is useful and what is junk.

I feel Gleim's MCQs are mostly harder. I did red flag one MCQ in the second testlet. I spent 2 minutes at first then I decided to flag it and move on to other MCQs. Thought maybe just give up (just one). Then I found I have a little bit time, so I went back to finished that MCQ. So, don't stick with one forever, move on and even prepare to give it up.

For sims, after the testlet was loaded, the first thing I did was I clicked each one to browse how big and estimated which one was easiest for me (estimate which one would take my least time), so I did that one first. Easy to hard. For MCQs, I finished MCQs in the order displayed until I met one that I can not make choice after I spent about 2 minutes.

[Wannafree]

Awesome.it will help.

[Wannafree]

Ckcpa18 thanks a lot.

[Anonymous]

@WannaFree

You are welcome. Hope you pass this time and hope myself as well. I did feel good for most part, but two sims let me worry about.

[Earla Riopel (NYCARE)]

@ckcpa18
As to:
“I finished the 1st testlet in 30 minutes. I didn't feel the 2nd testlet is huge difficulty, but it was more time consuming. By the time I finished the 2nd testlet, I had 2 hours and 45 minutes left.”
…and
“I would say my average time to finish the sims is about 15 minutes. Thanks to Gleim's hard sims. I did a lot sim practice in Gleim. When I did my final review with Gleim, I can finish 5 sims within 50 minutes. Practiced my speed and ability to react quickly. Back to the real exam, when I move to last testlet, there was about 1 hour left and I finished all with 10 minutes left. Some sim I finished with less than 10 minutes, one finished with less than 5 mins, some took longer.”

That's superfast! Your 2017 Q4 FAR sounds like the 2017 Q3 FAR I took in late August. I'm still no where your speed, but working on a 45-50/45-50/25-20/60-55/65-65 testlets time allocation. Even this allocation for the 2017 Q4 FAR is still slow.

My last 2017 Q3 FAR was 60/60/30/45/45. I was killed big time. Landed me on a 58%. Partly done the last 2 testlets, and had problem with the ‘0s' and ‘blanks' – more like not sure with the instructions. I don't know if that affected my marks, for the 2017 Q3 & Q1.

Anyway, past is past. Looking forward with my 2017 Q4 exams. This time, I studied at least more than two days. LOL!
Seriously, I am putting 2 months full-time studying, 8-10 hours a day.

No social life, except visiting my daughter, she's doing the ‘Turkey – Happy Thanksgiving – Canadian style' this year. She's in business school too, near undergrad graduation, before heading to master.

Again, thanks for sharing your 2017 Q4 FAR experiences. Good luck with your other sections. It seems like you have a excellent study plan.

[Author]

Replies