[g2g4CPA]

Hi all! New to the forum as a poster but a long time reader. Just in need of some advice right now and figured I’d turn to all of you for some tips. So I got a 71 on FAR. I took both Becker practice exams and had around a 75 on both so I felt good going in knowing that most people said they did better on the actual exam. Unfortunately on the exam I didn’t plan my time well and only had 51 minutes for sims. Push comes to shove and I didn’t get to the research question, only filled out account titles on a financial statement and completely screwed up an easy sim by rushing through it in the last 5 minutes. I’m confident that I knew the information to get a good score. I can’t even imagine how many points I threw away by not getting to all the sims. I blew way too much time going back to flagged MC, and honestly I only changed 1 or 2 of them. So I’m going to sign up to retake on Oct 1st while the material is still fresh in my mind. Any tips for reviewing for this retake? I’ve been reworking Becker MC and doing really well, through Chapters 1 2 and 3 I’m getting 80-90%. Maybe I should get the Gleim FAR review just to have fresh questions to work? I believe they offer practice exams too which may be good to work on timing so that I allow more time for sims next time through. Thanks and I’ll be sure to contribute as I go along on the forum. It’s frustrating to fail after putting in plenty of hours, just not executing a good exam strategy.

[Anonymous]

try 50 50 50 90, 50 minutes for the 1-3 testlets, and 90 minutes for the TBS.

For the TBS, do the research question first because that is 7 points there.

[wannabeCPA123]

Rely on mnemonics and other tools to help you instantly remember factoids. That helped me a lot. You want to be able to easily answer the fact-based questions within seconds. if you don't know the answer, just move on to the next question, and if it doesn't come to you by then, Guess…

I finished my first testlet in 15 minutes. Mnemonics helped me a lot.

FAR 78
REG 87
BEC 78
AUD 78
Passed all exams on first try! Good luck to everyone!

[Anonymous]

Believe me, I've been there; missed REG by 3 points the first time because I did not allocate my time correctly and ran out of time on SIMs. Like you, I knew I had the knowledge, just ran out of time.

bb's time suggestion – 50,50,50,90 – is a good strategy for FAR. This is pretty much what I did and had a few minutes left over for review. Also, take a quick peek at all the SIMs and tackle the ones that seem easiest to you first. GL!

[Anonymous]

If you're looking for more practice questions, you can find some by Googling around (for example, I've heard CPAReviewForFree has a fair number of free questions), but if you want more than the free ones, I would highly recommend Wiley Test Bank. I felt like it prepared me very well, and it's cheaper than buying Gleim outright!

And not to contradict what @wannabeCPA said, but just to add to it… Mnemonics work great for some people, but not for others. Don't feel bad if you have trouble with them. I took about 15 minutes for my first testlet, too, and I didn't use a single mnemonic, because they just don't work as well for me! It'd take me 10 times as long to learn the material with mnemonics, without them I can learn and understand better and therefore perform better.

[StephAV]

I did the opposite of what you did. I was halfway through testlet 1 at 30 minutes and FREAKED out. I then rushed the next 15 questions and rushed the whole 2nd testlet, by the time I got to testlet 3 and I realized I messed up. I went on to the sims with 2 hours remaining. I did well on the sims but that wasn't enough to save me. Grr. I had in my head 30-45 minutes per testlet…

I have the Wiley TB and my plan is to do lots of 30 question sets. Some random and some focused on my weaker areas.

FAR - 7/13 - 72, 11/13- 74, 2/14- 82!!! Best score ever (for me)!!!
BEC - 1/14 - 75!!! Perfect score! First Pass! YAY!!!
AUD - 8/14 - 80!!!
REG - 5/14 - 72, 10/14 - 66, 1/15 - 78 - DONE FOREVER!!!
I did 5 of the UNA and CPAExcel classes to earn units.

[Author]

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