15 Points - Page 2

I posted this as a reply in another thread but this method has definitely been effective for me. I think it is key to have a primary and secondary source of study materials to be able to see the same concepts presented differently, but here you go. Ignore if/where it says random things not applicable to your post.

I took FAR in early January for the first time and failed with a 73. This was my first exam so I had taken and scheduled inefficiently resulting in about a month wait for my scores in which I had used the time to start studying for AUD. I studied for AUD usnig the following method and scored a 96 at the end of February. After taking my AUD exam I spent around 6-7 weeks re-studying for FAR for a mid-April retake using the same method I used for AUD and have noted below. I scored a 93 on FAR for my retake, raising my exam score 20 points. I used Becker for a primary course but I'd assume you can do the same with any others.

1) I didn't waste time re-watching videos, I don't retain much from them.

2) I read my personal notes from my previous exam while re-working ALL homework problems provided by Becker.

3) After finishing all homework questions in Becker I bought the Ninja MCQ and worked ALL Ninja MCQ questions to where I had seen every question once and then I continued to work troubled areas.

4) Copy and paste problematic questions into a running Word document that you can print and review during down time to help LEARN your weak areas.

5) Pay attention and place extra focus on the journal entries for EVERY MCQ that you work.

6) I used Ninja Audio for my daily commute to and from work, I believe it can really help. Ninja Notes are a good product if you don't have your own from your previous exam. Pay attention and learn why questions are correct AND incorrect.

7) Caffeine and confidence on exam day.

Also, I did not practice a SINGLE SIM during my re-study for FAR which might sound crazy because I BOMBED the SIMs on my first test. However, after bombing the SIMs on my first exam I realized how much luck was involved with drawing good SIMs on exam day and decided to place my focus elsewhere. If you can solidly answer all computational MCQs and write journal entries you should be able to work the SIMs.

I failed FAR with a 70, retook around 8 weeks later (didnt study all 8) and got an 85. I scored on MC above all passing scores so knew i blew the SIMS. I felt like i had a good grasp on the concepts but was having trouble putting it all together. For my second time around i picked the 2-3 topics i knew i weak on and mastered them, and what i think really made a difference was looking at the financial statements from the view of an investor. i.e. how does one transaction flow through? If you have a B/S, how do those items flow to the other statements? How is everything related? By understanding generally how the F/S work together, you could take any question and have an understanding of the general effect it was going to have.

Retakes are hard becuase the natural thing to do is to focus on your weak areas. Then you neglect the other areas which become weak. The best advice is to start fresh and review everything from beginning to end. This will strengthen your weakness areas as well as maintain your strong areas.

Doing MCQ's over and over and over until your tired of them is the only way to go. You will learn how the questions are structured, what facts in the questions are irrelevant and are distractors, and you'll know what concepts to apply to problem based questions. You'll see the benefit immediately when you begin to read through a question and your brain says, “Hey, I know what this question is looking for” instead of “what is this question even asking?”

If you do enough MCQ's you will start to recognize the patterns in the questions. The best part of MCQ's is that they give you the answer. You just have to be familiar enough with the information to recognize the right one.

For my FAR retake, my plan was to spend 6 weeks studying as I work full time. I planned to do 50 MCQ's a night (about 2 hours) after reviewing the material (1 hour). 50 MCQ's x 6 nights a week = 300 MCQ's X 4 weeks = 1200 MCQ's. That left me with 2 weeks to review and focus on my weak areas. I used the detail reporting feature to track my progress and dumped it into an excel spreadsheet that modified my statistics and highlighted areas of weakness. Its a nerdy strategy, but it allowed me to break down the topics into manageable parts and customize my study time. Use the NINJA MCQ's because you can print them out which make great review sessions.