[Josh]

Passed REG, AUD, & BEC from 2015 to 2016 while working crazy public hours but ran down the 18 month clock and missed with FAR with a 74. Section fell off, I gave up to gather myself.

Left public in 2017 for a government FP&A spot, let the test revamp, went back at it in 2018 and passed REG, AUD, and BEC from June to November. Took the holiday to decompress (mistake) and thought I’d knock FAR out in Feb 2019. My house I had turned into a rental went south and suddenly I was working, studying, and doing house repairs all of Jan & Feb. Somehow still pulled a 70 on FAR in Feb. Scheduled retake for June 7th thinking I’d start over fresh and get it done.

House didn’t sell until mid May with me making upgrades and studying every weekend as much as I could balance. So that left me roughly May 17 to June 7 to power through Becker from Ch. 5 to 10 + review (because I went back to page 1 for the retake). So I grabbed myself another 70 last night.

Originally I had blamed being weak on bonds and leases on my not passing and of course the sims. But then this test I had no bond or lease problems and I found myself struggling with early study content (Chapter 1 to 5 concepts). These sims were manageable but again I had forgotten some early concept rules that would have helped push through. I’m always strong with governmental & NFP.

My goal now is to turn this 3rd try into a massive final review and sit July 20. I keep spending the last few weeks in the last few chapters of Becker so I’m just going to quick review those last 5 chapters but spend more time in the front half where I feel like you can easily get lost in the weeds. I’m open to any input about this retake plan, maybe I’m overthinking it, maybe under estimating, or just missing something all together. I’m now open to adding Ninja MCQ to the mix if people think that’ll help introduce a better mix of MCQ.

Thanks all and good luck to you all on your journey!

[Matt]

Hi Josh,

I'm sorry to hear about your experience with FAR. My advice to you is to never focus too hard on just one part of FAR, or certain chapters of Becker. FAR has by far the most material you could be tested on, and depending on the exam you get it could be focused on something you didn't prepare as well for. My advice is to always do a final review week. Yes, it is good to study your weaker areas, but it is just as important to study and refresh on all topics (maybe just not as hard on some you already know well). The final review will leave all topics and material fresh in your mind for the exam.

Hope this helps, and good luck!

-Matt

[chandler]

Hi @Josh, Sorry to hear about life events and the FAR experience. With FAR, there is so much material it's hard to guess what may show up on exam day. While the blueprints provide some guidance (I'm sure you've already seen those), there is still a large range of uncertainty. I think one of the key parts is identifying the weak and weaker areas. I would recommend you take 2 days to diagnose these when you have a good bit of time to study. I suggest practice tests on all 10 sections, that are 100 questions + each. I realize that's pretty long, but you need a good amount of data to analyze patterns. I think often the problem is not that we think we're weak in areas that we're not, but rather that we don't recognize what areas we might actually need improvement in. Maybe this well help a little, good luck on the next go around.

[Recked]

I have talked to several previous CPA candidates who all had repeated FAR failures, and they all ended up devoting the majority of their study time to MCQs and that is the key that got them over the final hump. One candidate did over 4000 MCQs to finally get him across the finish line. I used these experiences to model my study approach/method and encourage other candidates to do the same. I would suggest massive amounts of quality MCQs. Do each batch of MCQs and then thoroughly review each question and EACH answer. You NEED to understand why the right answer is right, and the wrong answer is wrong.
–
I personally did 10 question MCQ quizzes (Roger). The faster I could get through the 10 questions the faster I could get to the review phase, and the less time I spent having to re-read the question trunk to try and grasp the concept from the answers. I also used study mode (Gleim) to immediately show the correct answer, also eliminating extra time needed to re-read the question trunk.
If your course does not have a study mode, I would encourage shorter quizzes to more effectively use your time.

[2bigcpa]

@Josh We are in the same boat. I just checked my score this morning and I got another 70 in FAR.

[Josh]

@Matt I appreciate that and you're right, FAR is a mile wide but an inch deep and I tend to want to go scuba diving down into granular detail with everything. Auditor brain perhaps? Possibly just overthinking it.

@Chandler and @Recked thank you both for the input, I really wish I could pin a lot of the posts you two have shared. I adopted Chandler's text + MCQ method last year which is how I shimmied through AUD & BEC quickly this go around. I've also thought I might eventually put all my tax knowledge to work in my own firm and keep following your journey Recked. What you're both suggesting is what I failed to do this time which is practice tests to both refresh and evaluate. Looks like I've got a lot of quality time with the Becker Practice Test feature ahead.

@2bigcpa We've got it this time, we've practiced enough and we're ready to celebrate so let's just make it 3 and done.

[Hank Scorpio]

You are close. There are likely a few areas you are weak in. Looks like you are using Becker and you should be able to get stronger in those areas. I hated consolidations and governmental and told myself I could just skip those and still pass. I finally buckled down and passed. Get stronger in the weaker areas but don't forget the other areas. FAR is a beast. Good luck. Get back on that horse. You got this.

FAR - 10/3/16
BEC - 69 - 10/31/16
AUD - November 2016
REG - December 2016

[jenpen]

I got back to back 69s before pulling out my passing score. Like @Recked suggested, MCQs were key for me. I would hit the MCQs for a few days and then beef up on my weak areas by reading the book, and then hit questions on only those areas. I would take notes on all of my missed questions as I went through. I primarily used Ninja, and I would just do a ton of 10 question sets (that was the amount that worked for me), and I would change them up every so often to only be new questions, so that I could make sure I was seeing as much content as I could. I only did anything in “study mode” so that I would always get the correct answer immediately after I submitted. I didn't spend any time on full-on practice tests because I felt like they were a waste of time. I just spent as much time as I could in the test banks.

AUD - 56 - 68 - 61 - 9/8/16
REG - 75
FAR - 7/15/16
BEC - TBD

Wiley CPAexcel and NINJA 10 Point Combo

[krstnam]

Hang in there!
I didn’t bust out a bunch of MCQs to pass FAR. I did more reading and re-reading. With MCQs, I still did quite a few but I also tried to conceptualize everything I would try to think about how each question affects the financial statements, how it affects the different ratios and so forth. I’d analyze the wrong answers and see if I could remember what the wrong selection actually should have gone to. I just tried being more thorough.
Good luck!

[Josh]

@hankscorpio – Becker has been great to me thus far and I've certainly not taken advantage of the skillmaster videos for the sims so I'm going to watch a few of those this time around with any struggle items. Thank you, I hope July 20 will be a day to celebrate.

@Jennifer – I very much followed that same format with Becker for the other sections. Lots of mini MCQ drills through each chapter at 20 at a time starting about 7 days out from the exam. Worked well, I just let the mass of FAR overwhelm me and didn't apply the same approach. I started gathering data like Chandler suggested above yesterday and that's been eye opening for sure. I'll be moving back into drills once I have my areas mapped out. I keep psyching myself out that this is the one test I've never passed and I have to pass it and I only have 2 quarters left before I lose a section and so on…. Just have to get out of my head. Congrats to you and thank you for sharing your experience!

@Krstnam – That does make sense, I've found myself going back to read a couple of sections, mostly things that have updated or changed during my testing. Thank you for that insight.

I really appreciate all of you, thank you for the awesome feedback. I'm going to power though to July 20th and hopefully all of the above helps anyone else struggling to get over the hump.

[Jimmy Dugan]

IMO, the best thing you can possibly do is eat a heavy diet of Ninja MCQ, taking quizzes from the entire body of knowledge. Work up 300 or so questions and then use the reports to show you where you are weak. Study those areas hard in Becker and keep knocking out random MCQ's from the whole book. Feel good about it if you can get to 75%+ trending score.

With governmental being your strength, you should crush this exam if you find and address your weak areas.

[Author]

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