[OneExamAtATime]

…just curious. FAR is my last section, and I’ve been putting off studying for quite a while (I have until May 2013). Am completely burnt out from sifting through dense Becker materials from the other three sections just trying to figure out what I actually need to know and what is filler language. Not looking forward to tackling the 10 sections of Becker’s FAR review.

Anyone had success with just Jeff’s Ninja Notes + practice problems?

[jambueh]

@OneExamAtATime I would suck it up and start hammering MCQs. After taking three sections and passing two and failing one; I can tell you that the more you study the better off you'll be. I spent 2 months for REG and 2 1/2 for FAR. I felt confident after taking the exam and passed on the first try. I blew BEC off because I though it would be much easier than the other exams. I didn't feel as confident after the exam and got a gut wrenching 71. I spent September & October going through the BEC material again and took the time to understand the material. I feel confident that I'll get a passing score. I should receive my score around the 7th (non-NASBA State…gotta love Illinois). If I would have applied myself more; I could have passed BEC on the first attempt. Then I could have been studying for Auditing and I would be finished already. I don't think there are any shortcuts to the CPA exam especially on FAR given the wide swath of material covered. I have been using Becker for all the sections and they haven't let me down yet!

REG 80
BEC 71, 80
FAR 76
AUD 67, 83
I'm done!!

[OneExamAtATime]

@jambueh – That's good advice…I will, in the end, just suck it up and let studying consume my life like I did for the other three sections. It would be great to hear though, even if it's from only 1 person, that he or she studied for some ridiculously small amount of time, like a week, and then nailed FAR. This exam owns so many people…strictly for morale it'd be great to hear about someone instead owning the exam!

[Anonymous]

Minimum amount? I would go hard the first try. It's a lot better than half assing it and THEN studying hard the second time.

[Mike27]

FAR contains a ton of material. Unless you recently graduated college, or you use FAR concepts frequently at your job, I would read the Becker book, do all the MCQs once then redo the incorrect ones. I haven't touched the SIMs so I can't comment on them.

Certain areas, like F1 conceptual framework, are pieces of cake. Others are very computation intensive, and sometimes even the second time around I get them wrong. You got one section left. I would suck it up and study.

[Mike27]

@ OneExamAtATime,

I read an article about a college which graduates students who score below average on the CPA exam. This college implemented a 6 week post graduation program where the students study all 4 sections of the CPA exam and within a certain number of months take all 4 sections of the exam. I can't remember the exact percentage, but I think that more than 90% of the students who completed the program passed every section of the CPA exam on the first attempt.

Hope that helps 🙂

[Da Bears]

@ Mike27

you mean score above average? That school sounds like a CPA boot camp to me haha

FAR- 8/14/12 91
AUD- 10/16/12 88
BEC- 11/07/12 92
REG- 01/05/13 86
NIU CPA Review

[renditt]

No shortcuts in my view. FAR has the most material to cover and probably the most complex as well. Also don't see any topics you could just not look at (as you could with REG, even though I don't recommend it).

BEC - 2/25/12 - 90
FAR - 5/18/12 - 87
AUD - 8/4/12 - 94
REG - 11/27/12 - 91 - done!

[SeePeeAyy]

I put in 180 hours to pass FAR.

Half-Assing it then spending another 150+ hours on a retake? No thanks.

[Synergiex]

Well I havent received my score yet but I am %90 percent confident that I passed. My goal was to pass it in January but I went ahead and scheduled my FAR exam to this window as well… Just to motivate myself to study and see what parts I may need to improve (My other 3 credits will start to expire March 2013).

Also, keep in mind that I have already taken this part once even though it was about 1 year ago and I was not able to study (since I was burnt out too). Anyway my strategy was:

1- I read my 2-3 page notes for each section that I took a year ago which helped me to remind myself all formulas and key points.

2- Answered all becker questions and learned from my mistakes and explanations for that particular question

3- I only read the highlighted sentences within the book.

4- Reworked on questions that I missed at the first time.

Last 5 days

5- Went over flashcards (which took 2-3 hours for all sections). Separated the ones that I think key(formulas, mnemonics etc.)

6- Did both final exams and reviewed my mistakes.

7- Worked on all previously released AICPA questions for last 5-6 years which helped me to boost my confidentce after Becker final exams.

8- Reviewed my own notes again as well as flashcards that I saved for my final review.

I work full time in one of those big 4 firms and I really don't have much time to study. When I come home, I am just not able to focus on studying. So I only had 4 weekends to study(8 days) + additional 3 weekdays due to thanksgiving holiday.

But once again keep in mind that I already took this test once and I had a good starting point at the first place.

Long story short if you have limited time don't try to watch videos or read the whole book. It will save a lot of time.

B - 7/1/2011 ---------> 85
R - 7/28/2011 ---------> 77!!!
A - 10/30/2011---------> 83
F - 11/26/2012 --------> 85

[OneExamAtATime]

ok, ok, I'm sensing some common themes here: there are no shortcuts, suck it up, and put in the time. I guess there's really only one way to get through it 😉 It's at least motivational to hear it from other people rather than trying to convince myself to work harder.

@Syngeriex – Thanks a lot for sharing your study plan and the advice. Those are great tips for streamlining the whole studying process. I'm also currently working full-time and find it nearly impossible most nights to re-focus my mind for studying after a day of work.

[Anonymous]

Haha umm well I studied for about 3.5 weeks for FAR. Probably about 70 hours (I was teaching and getting my Macc at the time). So I guess you could say I didn't study a ton for FAR. I used only Becker as well.

[msgolds]

I wouldn't say I performed a minimal amount of studying… but definitely less than I had planned on doing.

BEC - 90 PASSED
FAR - 84 PASSED
AUD - 93 PASSED
REG - 84 PASSED

I DID IT!!!!

Using Becker Self-Study

"If we were put here to carry a great weight, then the very things we hate are here to build those muscles."

[sarah210]

I'll bite. The amount of studying I did was not entirely minimal, and it was my second try, so I had at least seen the material once already (though it was 6 months prior). But…

This time, I was so burned out from back to back REG and BEC, that while my studying was not minimal, it was certainly not my A-game, if I'm going to be honest. I watched all the Becker lectures and did all the problems once (or until I had 100% on all homework, which was more than once for the problems I got wrong). I rewrote all the FAR ninja notes. I also made a study guide with all the journal entries in the book. But honestly, I was not that focused, and had many many study days when I thought “if I fail this, it will be my fault.”

That said, I do NOT recommend this tactic for your last section. The 18 month window goes by faster than you think. And “until May 2013” means “only two tries” in reality.

REG- 53, 91
BEC- 88
FAR- 62, 85
AUD- 85

Ethics- 93

[Jstanothercpa]

I took REG back in August and had planned to put in 150 hours but was unable to motivate myself to study the Gleim books. I purchased Ninja notes and Wiley Test Bank and put in about 80 hours total of studying. I read through the Ninja Notes once a day and did MCQ's and Sims the rest of the time. I skipped over all of the legal and ethics stuff because I was already familar with most of that from law school. I also had jsut finished to tax classes in my MPA program back in May.

My average through all of my wiley MCQs was a 68 but the last few practice tests I did were closer to 75 with several strong areas and two pretty weak ones. II passed with a 78 but it was not a comfortable experience. I felt unprepared going in and bombed one of the sims though I think it may have been a pretest.

Due to unforseen circumstances involving a computer crash and hard drive failure and issues with wiley for the AUD and BEC exam I probbly put in 90 hours for AUD and 40 for BEC. Will let you know how that worked out but I would be thrilled if I passed one.

It can be done but if you have the time it is definitely worth it to study more.

REG - 78
AUD - 80
BEC - 80
FAR - TBD

[Author]

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