[Anonymous]

It’s a killer. The first testlet was medium difficulty and I guessed on a few. The second testlet was horrendous with tons of calculations and I guessed on a lot, especially since I was trying to stick to my 50-minute-per-testlet pace. The third testlet was easier than the first ~ perhaps a pity testlet since testlet 2 was weak on my part.

OMG. The SIMS!!!! If I had 90 minutes to complete each sim, I probably could have done it. Not so many tabs or difficult topics, just unrelated, mini-monsters. I knocked the communcations out of the park first. They were not too bad. The first research tab was quick and easy, the second was nowhere! It was such an easy topic, but I could not find it. It drove me crazy and I wasted too much time there because I kept thinking I’d find it. Ended up guessing.

The rest of my simulation tabs were complete guesses. I barely had enough time to pull down an answer in the cell and I just made up numbers where they were required. I just remember someone saying “put something” so that is what I did.

Overall, I don’t feel like crying like I did when I left REG. Maybe it’s because I thought I failed then and I didn’t so I have a false sense of security now. It’s over so all I can do is wait. I gave it my best shot and I can’t beat myself up for not studying.

Good luck to all!

[strider4216]

best of luck skylar, hope you pass and finally get it all over with…my best advice to you is don't stress, start going over bits and pieces from all sections because really anything could appear…also don't make the mistake of skipping governmental/non profit stuff it really is 20% of the exam.

The test isn't going to be that hard question wise, it's just the massive amount of material is what makes it so god damn difficult…if you know the basics of every section with a little more in depth knowledge of the more heavily tested sections you'll be golden.

Oh and allocate your time…I finished with a minute left, as have many others I've read about…I gave myself 45 minutes per MCQ testlet (knowing I'd take less time on the first and more on the last two) and then the last hour and 45 minutes on the two simulations (giving myself 45 minutes for the first so I'd have a full hour of stress free time for the second simulation).

Hope that helps…I just took mine last week and I really don't know how I did…it's always a mystery, best to just not stress

[Anonymous]

Dharana I just saw your post! Glad I give you hope! If I can do it, anyone can!

[Jaywalk]

I just came out of FAR boys and girls and I must say it is beatable. I agree with CapitalGains, that FAR is hard to gauge your score, but I walked out with a feeling like I had a fighting chance. I couldn't really tell if the questions were getting harder, or if I was just getting more questions on the content in which I am weakest.

The recently released AICPA questions were of help and also Becker prepared me well for it. I still forgot how to answer some of the questions during the exam, but it's like me to nail the hard questions and miss the really easy ones.

My time management during FAR was the following:

Testlet:

1 – 45 min

2 – 50 min

3 – 65 min

Sims

1 – 46 min

– 22 min research tab and written section

– 24 min various tabs

2 – 34 min

– 20 min research tab and written section

– 14 min various tabs (ran out of time)

The first testlet was okay, but I felt like the questions were purposefully worded tricky. The third testlet was solvable, but the questions really made me think. None of the calculations took me too long to do, except for maybe one question, which took me 2-3 min in total.

I needed about 5 more minutes to complete the second sim. In retrospect, I wasted too much time going back over questions I couldn't correctly answer in the MCQ section. Also, I should have gotten the easy points on the sim by filling out the tab I knew I could probably answer correctly, instead of trying to score some points with the tabs I probably could not correctly answer. In addition, the research tabs took me a couple minutes longer than I would have liked. The first communication I lucked out and did good. I used the research tab to help me figure out what to say. The second communication, I am not sure what I wrote, but I left about a paragraph in there and forgot to spell-check it.

In short, my study technique was to look at every single Becker lecture in a row (1 through 9), then go back and do the multiple choice for each lecture. If I were to do things different, I would have gone back after doing the MCQ to do the supplemental questions as well (which I did not do). I spent absolutely no study time on the practice sims or writing/research sections.

FAR is my final exam section, so after having taken the others, I'm betting my score will be around 76 to 78, as my performance was satisfactory. The stuff I knew, I knew pretty well. If I didn't pass FAR, the score is bound to be close.

BEC 78 - 11/27/2008 | AUD 84 - 08/10/2009
REG 82 - 11/23/2009 | FAR 84 - 01/19/2010
-| Passed all sections |-

[Anonymous]

Jaywalk, where do I find the recently released AICPA questions? I will be taking FAR on 2/1 and am doing and intense review for the next two weeks.

[Anonymous]

You can get the AICPA released questions with answers from the Becker website. Also you can Google it and find some other places, but Becker has explanations to the answers. The questions are retired but still very helpful to make sure you understand the concepts.

Jaywalk, I left with a so-so feeling after FAR. The next week I really started to really doubt myself when I remembered some off-the-wall questions I guessed at.

For exam prep, I did not do the supplemental questions either and very little sim practice. The sims I got were nothing like Beckers – more like difficult MCQs. We still have another month to see!

[Anonymous]

Thanks CPAWannaBe.

[futurevalue]

I have just returned from the battle of FAR—don't feel too victorious. I felt like I tanked the SIMS—and now I'm feeling even less confident—the posts mentioning “Communication & Writing” on the SIMS, uh oh, did I miss something huge????

I had research lookup—but I don't remember seeing anything asking me to explain or write…there were JE's to populate, but oh my goodness did I do even worse that I thought?

[Anonymous]

“Communication and writing” was on the old FAR secion, they removed that from FAR in 2011, and the SIMS were redone, instead of 2-3 really large SIMS, there were 7 smaller ones.

[Author]

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