[DiscontinuedOps]

Hello all,

I took FAR on tax day and passed with an 87. I studied for about 2 weeks (~25 total hours). I have a year left in my accounting (MAcc) program and did a winter internship with a B4. I’ve been reading this forum for a while and thought I’d finally chime in. Here are some thoughts:

– Take it ASAP. Sitting fresh after Intermediate I and II was very helpful. To the seasoned pros out there: I don’t know more accounting than you but I probably remember some more obscure IFRS bullshit. Tis the nature of the beast… Students: take advantage!
– Becker MCQ‘s are really close to the real thing. I’ve seen Gleim‘s and they also look good.
– Reading the book and taking some brief notes is best. Forget the lectures and skill practice.
– When I say brief notes I mean a couple pages of reminders on how not to mess up the same way twice. More than that and you might as well read the book again.
– I had the Becker final review but didn’t use it. Who has the time.
– Focus on topics you hate. You probably don’t like it because you suck at it. For example, I liked and was good at leases, pensions, and deferred taxes. Rather than focus on that and do well (and not learn much) I focused on things that I didn’t like (intercompany eliminations).
– I thought the test was very balanced. I see stuff on here like “my exam was half government” or “why did I study consolidation only to get 0 questions on it.” I did not experience this.
– Not everyone can pass in 25 hours. I get that… But more than 80 can’t possibly be necessary.
– People often say this is a test of discipline. I agree to an extent but test-taking skills play a big role as well (kind of like the SAT).
– When I left I was sure I failed. It’s a hard test. Stay optimistic and start studying for the next one before you get the results.

Thanks for reading. If anyone has any questions or advice for a soon to be auditor, let me know!

[famh110]

Congratulations! Amazing score! You are definitely a good test taker. I wanted to ask how many questions and sims you attempted? I need to find a more efficient way to study as I only have 3 weeks left so please share how you structured your daily study sessions and how many hours you studied per day.
Thanks!!

[mtlgemini]

I agree. I just passed with a 75. I should have listened more to my intermediate accounting professors when they said that the stuff we were learning will prepare us for the CPA exam. I graduated 4 years ago so I was pretty rusty with all of the information. I think this is a big part of why I had to sink so many hours into studying for FAR. If I had taken the CPA exam right out of college, FAR would've been much easier to understand. The same goes for BEC. I probably could've passed BEC with little to no studying if I took it right out of school. It seems like each chapter is just a review of a college course I once had. I also agree with you about focusing on the topics you hate. As painful as it can be to sit, take notes, and thoroughly read through a hard section, it is absolutely a must. Don't procrastinate running through those Dollar Value LIFO problems if you really dislike the topic. After you grind through it a couple of times you might get it, but just make sure to keep reading those notes each day to keep it fresh. My first FAR attempt didn't seem balanced. It had a lot of Governmental MCQ's. It also did not have anything about Leases, DVLIFO, and some other topics which I can't recall right now. My 2nd exam was definitely a little more balanced which I think helped me.

[PNS2CLT]

A few comments:
-FWIW, all review companies license the lion's share of their MCQ from the AICPA, so whether you use Becker or Ninja or Yaeger, you'll see the same questions. The difference is in the quality of explanations, which are prepared by the review company. Also, some review companies better vet questions for relevance. E.g. when I used Becker to prepare for BEC beginning nearly two years, it asked questions about floppy disk, ZIP and magnetic disk drives, as well as identification of mice, keyboards and monitors — perhaps questions asked in the 1990s, but welcome to 2019.
-Excellent job in passing with minimal review, but please understand there are many forum participants who've studied for hundreds of hours and took the exam multiple times before they received credit for FAR. Becker suggests 120-160 hours. Feel blessed for your academic gift.
-Everybody learns differently – some people do best from reading the text, others watching videos, a few from blindly hammering MCQ, etc. You have to use the method that words best for you.

[Jimmy Dugan]

Cool write up and congrats. I also believe practically everyone can pass in less than X hundred hours, it just takes focused effort on the things you don't like or aren't good at yet. I also think the exams are balanced. If you are weak in a major subject area (like governmental), it means you don't have much of a chance on 17-20% of the exam. When you don't know WTH to do on 1 out of every 5-7 questions, it probably seems like it was half the exam.

Good luck on the next section.

[Asja]

My one and only question for you is…

what type of diet do you eat?

[DiscontinuedOps]

FAMH – I started studying a couple weeks after my internship ended in mid March. I wasn't working anymore and have no class again until the Fall semester starts. My plan was to take advantage of this by studying 40+ hours both weeks leading up to the exam. That didn't happen. I didn't have the stamina to spend more than a few hours per day studying properly – I imagine most people are similar. I concluded that a few hours of intense and undistracted studying is more valuable than 8 hours of checking my phone every 38 seconds. Sounds cliche but staying focused was the hardest part for me, not the material itself. It's amazing how much you can learn in 3 hours in the right conditions. Get the 3 hour (or so) session done well and then continue living life.

As for actual study methods – this will vary by person but for the most part I thought that alternating between reading and answering questions at a fairly regular interval (every 30 minutes or so) was effective for fighting fatigue and retaining information. I did not practice SIMS but I think it is valuable to do so on occasion but not for every module. The SIMS on practice exams should give you an idea.

Finally, based on all I have read and experienced so far, my (possibly ignorant) theory about why many people study for months and fail is two fold:

1) “250 hours” is more like 50 hours of good studying and 200 of wasting time or studying redundant information.

2) people who study that much probably know a lot but then proceed to “choke” on exam day. My advice to avoid this is to realize that every question has the potential to put you over the edge. Shake off the bad ones and move on. Also, do not rush through SIMS. Take the time to read through and understand the purpose of every exhibit before inputing a single response. It feels like a waste of time but it is how you will get them correct.

Thanks to everyone for their responses!

[famh110]

@DiscontinuedOps…Thanks for the reply. I agree with you…quality over quantity!! The idea of switching up gears with questions and reading is a good idea as well. I will try it out! How did you allocate your time for all the chapters in these two weeks? If anything else comes to your mind, please do share. I get about 2 to 3 hours studying in on weekdays and more on weekends…wanted to study sooner but life got in the way so have to make it happen now somehow. Your post gave me lots of hope. Not all is lost!!Thanks again!

[DaKine256]

@DiscontinuedOps Congrats on passing and thanks for giving me some hope! I'm taking FAR on June 7 and will have studied for just over a month. I just graduated last week. I've been panicking a little since I studied 10 weeks/130 hours for BEC. Don't really need a 96 on this one though… Hoping for the best!

[DiscontinuedOps]

Famh- I didn't really allocate time to individual chapters. You never know what will come easily and what will require extra time. I just tried to set broad deadlines and stick to them. For example, I made myself finish all of the material with three days to spare so that I could take a couple practice exams.
DaKine – Looks like you'll be just fine. 96 is a rare score! I agree with not stressing over getting a high score. Unless you're going for the EWS award, who cares. Don't over study. Use the extra time to learn something more important for your job (excel, etc) or just enjoy life.

[Author]

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