[Anonymous]

Taking FAR on the 6th. Are there any topics that people have felt have been tested more heavily? What should I hit before I take it?

[Anonymous]

I compiled a list of things that could be under-emphasized while studying but are important to know..

(edited)

[Anonymous]

Thanks! I'll definitely need to look over deferred tax assets/liabilities again and subsequent events. Anything else people have been seeing a lot of?

[jeff]

Please keep in mind the agreement you make with the AICPA when you take an exam – you can't disclose the ‘nature' of what you saw.

[Anonymous]

My apologies! I didn't realize that was part of the agreement!

[Anonymous]

@Jeff my bad, won't happen again!

[Starved_Wolf]

I'd say study everything in your review course. I studied everything really well except for 2 small topics. They were my weakest areas, I studied them but just couldn't get it so I gave up hoping that maybe being strong on most other areas would help me. Nope, come exam day, I got 3 sims on those 2 topics. They were so hard.. and if i failed FAR, I guarantee it would have been because of those 3 sims.

A lot of what people said they saw on the exam, I never saw on the exam. You just never know what you're going to get, so just be prepared.

[Anonymous]

On point!
I'd say study everything in your review course.

Most of the CPA candidates (and I’m one of those) who have more than one source of review course materials couldn’t manage to finish even the primary review material. So we end up being able to cover 90% of the 1st, 70% of the 2nd, and 30% of the 3rd. So come the actual test date, we see topics that we’re not so polished with. So we get these scores 74 and lower.

Don’t even look at the AICPA blueprint until you finish your primary review course.

[jeff]

All good – people forget … not the first time I've issued this friendly reminder over the last 10 years 🙂

[alloverit]

You know what I did was just look at the number of questions per section in my study materials. The sections in your review system that have fewer questions are likely going to be lightly tested. The sections with the most questions in your review materials will be the MOST tested.

And, since you're taking FAR, I would say that that strategy worked the best for me for that section! It worked for all four, but worked for FAR the best. I suspect that's because there are SO MANY potential questions. They can't really test a lot of peripheral material…mostly meat and potatoes, ya know?

In some ways, it's almost common sense. Hope that helps.

[Author]

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