[Anonymous]

Just curious for those with several years of hands-on experience in the field of Accounting and now tackling these exams – how was your experience with FAR? Were you able to apply your knowledge from being in practice to the exams? Did your prior experience help or hurt? Did it change the way you studied?

Appreciate the responses.

[OtherGuy]

FAR was the easiest of all the exams for me. It was the exam that most closely related to my curriculum while I studied accounting. I'm a financial accountant, so it also related to work the most.

FAR was the only one that actually felt like a “CPA Exam Review.” All the other sections felt more like “CPA Exam Learn Everything From The Ground Up.”

Passed all sections.

[OtherGuy]

FAR was the easiest of all the exams for me. It was the exam that most closely related to my curriculum while I studied accounting. I'm a financial accountant, so it also related to work the most.

FAR was the only one that actually felt like a “CPA Exam Review.” All the other sections felt more like “CPA Exam Learn Everything From The Ground Up.”

Passed all sections.

[KBinMN]

Having experience helps in every exam. Mostly because you can relate the stuff you are learning to stuff you've already done.

[KBinMN]

Having experience helps in every exam. Mostly because you can relate the stuff you are learning to stuff you've already done.

[Anonymous]

I was hoping that having experience helps.. I prepare SEC filings for my company, so many of the items in FAR I work with often.

Still, I don't want to rely on the experience I have too much – there are certain answers the exam wants to see, so I definitely need to work on those.

[Anonymous]

I was hoping that having experience helps.. I prepare SEC filings for my company, so many of the items in FAR I work with often.

Still, I don't want to rely on the experience I have too much – there are certain answers the exam wants to see, so I definitely need to work on those.

[Anonymous]

I think that having expereience helps in some areas, but no matter what your experience is I doubt you'll be able to just fly through a section without studying. There will always been something that you don't do in your job that they test for. You may just need minimal studying/review though. Only you can judge that once you look at what is covered on the exam and compare it to what you know from your job.

[Anonymous]

I think that having expereience helps in some areas, but no matter what your experience is I doubt you'll be able to just fly through a section without studying. There will always been something that you don't do in your job that they test for. You may just need minimal studying/review though. Only you can judge that once you look at what is covered on the exam and compare it to what you know from your job.

[Anonymous]

I think FAR throws in a couple of wrenches for those that have some experience in financial accounting. Governmental and NFP are areas that many don't have a lot of experience with. Even fewer have hands on experience with IFRS concepts.

I've found my work experience most helpful on FAR when thinking about control environment concepts, journal entries, and financial statement presentation. I agree with what KB said: having experience helps in every exam.

[Anonymous]

I think FAR throws in a couple of wrenches for those that have some experience in financial accounting. Governmental and NFP are areas that many don't have a lot of experience with. Even fewer have hands on experience with IFRS concepts.

I've found my work experience most helpful on FAR when thinking about control environment concepts, journal entries, and financial statement presentation. I agree with what KB said: having experience helps in every exam.

[yourmomsaCPA]

I'm a financial controller. Studying for FAR felt like I was learning the majority of the material because it takes into account every kind of entity (from personal financial statements to the biggest public companies plus gov't/nonprof) and every single transaction. Pensions. Jeez. I still hate even thinking about that mess. Anyways, I think it helps conceptually though.

And I think it REALLY helps on the SIMs. I had a ton of JE SIMs on my exam and my real world exp definitely helped. I even had a JE SIM on my auditing exam yesterday and it helped there as well.

FAR - 87 2/18/14
AUD - 84 4/2/14
REG - 87 7/23/14
BEC - 78 8/26/14

I'm finally an *official* CPA - TX

[yourmomsaCPA]

I'm a financial controller. Studying for FAR felt like I was learning the majority of the material because it takes into account every kind of entity (from personal financial statements to the biggest public companies plus gov't/nonprof) and every single transaction. Pensions. Jeez. I still hate even thinking about that mess. Anyways, I think it helps conceptually though.

And I think it REALLY helps on the SIMs. I had a ton of JE SIMs on my exam and my real world exp definitely helped. I even had a JE SIM on my auditing exam yesterday and it helped there as well.

FAR - 87 2/18/14
AUD - 84 4/2/14
REG - 87 7/23/14
BEC - 78 8/26/14

I'm finally an *official* CPA - TX

[StephAV]

I started with FAR because I thought it was the “hardest” but the exam my work most closely relates to. I work in the NPO industry so a lot of the stuff covered, was not things I deal with ever. Bonds, stock, stock options… To name a few. I found my experience helpful but it was still difficult. Still a LOT to learn. I'm glad I got it out of the way. I started taking the exam back in 2005, registered for all 4, sat for 3, no showed for FAR I knew there was just no way. I had this idea of it in my mind. I've been using some of the stuff I learned (relearned) from FAR on the job and blowing minds over here at work. 🙂 We have a frozen DB plan and I had to write a memo yesterday about a fluctuation and referred to the “projected benefit obligation.” Our COO isn't an accountant, just a really smart guy, he was impressed. I'm sure it was that term that did it. haha.

Oh yeah, the SIMS were the “easiest” for me, I'd prefer SIMS over mcq. I think Mom is right! 🙂

FAR - 7/13 - 72, 11/13- 74, 2/14- 82!!! Best score ever (for me)!!!
BEC - 1/14 - 75!!! Perfect score! First Pass! YAY!!!
AUD - 8/14 - 80!!!
REG - 5/14 - 72, 10/14 - 66, 1/15 - 78 - DONE FOREVER!!!
I did 5 of the UNA and CPAExcel classes to earn units.

[StephAV]

I started with FAR because I thought it was the “hardest” but the exam my work most closely relates to. I work in the NPO industry so a lot of the stuff covered, was not things I deal with ever. Bonds, stock, stock options… To name a few. I found my experience helpful but it was still difficult. Still a LOT to learn. I'm glad I got it out of the way. I started taking the exam back in 2005, registered for all 4, sat for 3, no showed for FAR I knew there was just no way. I had this idea of it in my mind. I've been using some of the stuff I learned (relearned) from FAR on the job and blowing minds over here at work. 🙂 We have a frozen DB plan and I had to write a memo yesterday about a fluctuation and referred to the “projected benefit obligation.” Our COO isn't an accountant, just a really smart guy, he was impressed. I'm sure it was that term that did it. haha.

Oh yeah, the SIMS were the “easiest” for me, I'd prefer SIMS over mcq. I think Mom is right! 🙂

FAR - 7/13 - 72, 11/13- 74, 2/14- 82!!! Best score ever (for me)!!!
BEC - 1/14 - 75!!! Perfect score! First Pass! YAY!!!
AUD - 8/14 - 80!!!
REG - 5/14 - 72, 10/14 - 66, 1/15 - 78 - DONE FOREVER!!!
I did 5 of the UNA and CPAExcel classes to earn units.

[Author]

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