I took FAR 2 days ago so I don't know my score, but I did feel well prepared for the exam. I wasted time doing some things that didn't help much, but the combination of the Wiley book for 2010, Becker book for 2011, and Wiley 2011 test bank really helped.
I'd planned to take the exam last year but was prevented from doing so by some family crises. I'd purchased the Wiley books last year and initially thought that I could manage with those and the Wiley book re the 2011 changes. However, I was really struggling but then had the opportunity to get a copy of the Becker 2011 books pretty cheaply. While Wiley does a good job overall, there were times that the material is too brief or confusing in its presentation. In many instances I found Becker to be clearer. For example, IMO the Becker explanations of governmental and NFP were far better than Wiley. Also, Becker has a list of the relevant IFRS vs. GAAP comparisons at the end of each chapter which was helpful for review. However, I didn't have access to the Becker software and the questions at the end of the lectures weren't sufficient.. Wiley, on the other hand, was great in this regard – lots of questions that thoroughly cover the material.
What I did when reviewing the material was to read Wiley, read the associated Becker sections, work the Wiley MC questions, and then review the ones I'd missed or guessed at. I then wrote a few notes about things I needed to work on and proceeded to the next section. I decided I still needed more practice so I I purchased the test bank. This helped both get me used to the feeling of doing the problems at a computer as well as providing additional material to learn from. (I found very little overlap between the book and test bank). What I also like about the Wiley questions is that you become familiar with the wording and tricks you're likely to see on the exam. I ended up working every MC and most of the simulation problems in the test bank, and it helped enormously.
The last three days before the exam I read through the notes I'd received along with the Becker books, my earlier notes when initially going through the material, and the IFRS/GAAP comparison charts and identified the topics I needed more work on. I reviewed the weak items, did some MC in each area, and wrote notes (e.g. journal entries for bonds) for some of the ones I was still struggling with. For some reason, writing these things out by hand got them etched into my brain. I then worked one final sample exam with the Wiley test bank.
The most important advice I can give about the exam itself is time management. My ideal had been to complete each of the MC testlets in 45 minutes, allowing 1 3/4 hours for the simulations with a more realistic goal of having 1 1/2 hours. At a minimum, though, I wanted to have 1 1/4 hours. The 2nd and 3rd testlets were much harder than the first and I got bogged down in a problem on each of them. I kept an eye on the timer, though, and forced myself to pick an answer and move on when I spent them maximum time I could allow myself. I had enough time on those testlets to verify I'd picked an answer for each question but not enough to review my answers. I ended up having 1 hour 13 minutes for the sims. I looked at each sim and answered the easier ones saving the toughest one for last. I got most of the sims done in 45 minutes and spent 25 minutes on the last one. I wasn't thrilled with my answer, but I did get everything done.
At a minimum I'd recommend the Wiley test bank. It does a good job preparing you for the type of questions you're likely to see and the format of the test. There were a few I had no clue about, but I think I did well on all the material covered by the books I studied.
I hope this helps. Good luck.
FAR 4/1/11 - 89
AUD 4/15/11 - 85
REG 4/29/11 - 80
BEC 5/13/11 - 85
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