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A few members (cough, kmcg4k and SIMSLAYER cough 😛 ) have asked, very politely I might add, for me to post my advice. I suppose I did pass, and though I do not consider myself brilliant I suppose I could spare 10 minutes… (cracking knuckles)
Exam Order
Perhaps the lease important topic, so I’ll start here. Some say easiest to hardest while others say the opposite. I say as long as you take AUD after FAR (since AUD seems to have some FAR-looking stuff in sims) you are fine. Ideally, a gap between FAR and REG may be nice as well since they cover some similar topics with different rules which may be confusing to some. I took them side by side and did fine, go figure. Overall, the order shouldn’t matter much. Moving along..
Best Exam Materials
I used Becker. Becker iz gud. My Big 4 firm paid for Becker so I took it. I didn’t exactly weight options or really think another course would be much better. Overall, study course shouldn’t matter much as long as you do everything they say.
The Good Stuff–The Exam!
MC: Read, practice, read some more, and practice some more. Lather, rinse, repeat. Any review course that licenses some problems from AICPA probably also does a good job writing their own practice MC. Pick your poison. Regardless, below was my method for Becker. Watch all lectures for a chapter (e.g. B1, F2…). Then go back and skim over a subchapter, and do the MC for it. Next subchapter, next MC group. On and on. I wouldn’t waste time trying to understanding everything completely before doing MC, since you learn a lot through doing MC, getting them wrong, and reading AND understanding the explanations.
Sims: I did maybe 3-4 practice sims per section I took. In my humble and possibly inaccurate opinion, sims are nuts! It may be effective to do all the sims in the software, but it would be very INEFFICIENT. You could get anything on test day. Point for point, you are better off reading through the book and practicing MC. People complain about sims. I did not like them myself, but I believe they separate the bulimics (those who can only eat and subsequently regurgitate information) from the chefs (take raw information and put spells on it and give it back to the AICPA in different forms when asked on the exam). Sims test your logic on top of your memory. No need to continue here. UNDERSTAND the material, and strong sims will follow.
Other: I personally did not touch a flashcard. I have good memory and the book itself was my giant flashcard. Use them or not, up to you. Full disclosure-I never used flashcards in school either. I think they are girly, lol–no hate mail for this please. Plus, I have bad handwriting and don’t like to carry things around besides my laptop and book. Also, I hate the way the Becker elves word things. I prefer my own words.
Final Review: I spent no more than 3 days after I finished reviewing things for the first time. (BEC-2, FAR-3, REG-1.5, AUD-1.5) This was mostly a function of my exam schedule. If I had more time I would have used it. Obviously. I believe my key for this was to rewrite a study guide of my own at the end AFTER having done all the MC for the whole course and while reading through each chapter carefully. The study guide should NOT be copying your notes. Copying helps no one. You must force yourself to write seriously condensed notes. I write small and would write all over a page. My longest study guide was REG at 7 pages (3.5 sheets of paper). Copying requires no brain power. Summarizing forces you to understand what you are writing so it makes you think about everything as you write it down. More effective + more efficient (low beta and alpha risk.. lol to my AUD peeps).
Other stuff
If I had more time, I definitely would have used it. This process was tough for me. I was in school this semester and I often got behind due to school exams, papers, etc. Plan ahead and plan for the unexpected. Give yourself a cushion. I typically scored in the 70s on MC the first time through (very few in the 60s, and some in the 80s). This was a factor of me not worrying so much on ?’s that I wasn’t sure about since I learn a lot through reading explanations.
Other other stuff
Eat, stay hydrated, sleep, exercise as best you can. Keeping your mind able to hold info is just as important as feeding it info to pass this exam.
My rant is over. I truly hope this helps. Worked for me (see scores below). If I had longer study periods and wasn’t such a procrastinator, who knows perhaps I could have been in the low 90s? Not that I care unless I was trying for Watt Sells. Anyway, good luck to all!
May the force be with you.
BEC 86 (08/30/11)
FAR 84 (10/13/11)
REG 88 (11/08/11)
AUD 86 (11/29/11)Exam prep - Becker self-study
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