[Lunchboxx]

Hello current and future CPAs!

I am 2 weeks out from taking FAR which will hopefully be the last exam I have to sit for. Having 3 successful CPA exam testing experiences under my belt I thought I would share my test-taking strategy with all of you! Additionally, I would like to get your input and suggestions on how I can further improve my test-taking strategy.

Preparation: I am a master of accountancy student so I always try to schedule classes relevant to the section of the CPA exam that I am about to take. Outside of school, I only use Becker to study for the CPA exam. I make sure that I watch all the lectures, take notes on every section, do all the HW problems at least 2-3 times, do all the simulations twice and take both practice exams. Currently I am 2 weeks out from the exam and just took the first practice exam(weighted average=77). I still have to redo all the HW problems/simulations, master journal entries and take the second practice exam before I feel comfortable to take the FAR exam. (Additionally, I use the calculator tool to get comfortable and work hard to get fast at answering questions)

Before the exam: Get a good night sleep. Wake up about 4 hours before the exam and eat breakfast. Study lightly until lunch. Eat lunch and drive to the testing center. Arrive 1 hour prior to exam time(in case of traffic or etc..) study in the car for 30 mins(the most important topics that I struggle on). Sign in to the Prometrics center about 30 minutes before the exam time(usually, they let me start my exam early).

Testlet 1: This is usually the easiest testlet by far. From what I heard the questions tend to be easier and less lengthy. So I want to allocate approximately 30 minutes to this testlet. I never use the flag tool, I either know how to solve the problem or I don’t, if I am completely clueless, I will take an educated guess, move on and forget about it(don’t a question that you will most-likely miss take up too much time). That being said, never spend more than 2 minutes on a problem unless its calculation heavy and you know you can solve it.

Breaks: I always take breaks between every section! They only takes about 3 minutes plus they clear up your mind to help you regain your focus after each testlet. Not having a clear mind will make you lose focus more often and increase your chances of getting a problem wrong due to an oversight. Trust me, taking a break to clear up your mind will save you time in the long-run and it will increase your focus.

Testlet 2 and 3: These will most-likely be the difficult testlets with very lengthy problems. I will allocate approximately 45 minutes for each of these two testlets since they naturally take much longer to complete. The same rules apply as testlet 1, don’t over-allocate too much time to one problem or let a question discourage you(it could always be a pretest question).

Testlet 4: Now comes the part everyone fears, simulations! My strategy for simulations is to answer the shortest simulations first(to maximize points per minute in case time becomes an issue) since all simulations tend to be weighted the same. I usually start with the research simulations which should not take more than 5 minutes to solve. Then I do the other 6 simulations(shortest to longest) without the authoritative literature. Finally, with all the remaining time that I have left, I use the authoritative literature to double check all of my simulations(starting with the simulation that I am the most unsure about).

There you go everyone, that is my strategy to taking the FAR section of the CPA exam. Let me know if you have any questions for me or any suggestions that can help me improve my strategy!

AUD - 93
REG - 96
BEC - 92
FAR - 90

Done!

[Guti]

The best advice I was able to find for FAR shows below this sentence. I will let you guys know if it works very soon!

Not to brag but I thought I would share my experience. Having to retake a section sucks so hopefully this will help people to do it right the first time.

I got a 69 the first time I took FAR. I think I made the mistake of focusing only on MCQ questions on my first attempt and I didn't have an effective study plan to focus on J/Es or sims–my score report reflected weaker on sims and stronger on everything else. I have seen too many people with a score report that says they were stronger on every section except for sims and too much advice that has told people to ignore having a focused study effort on simulations which really hurt me the first time I took FAR.

So, here is what I would suggest that helped me slay FAR on my second try as well as some other things I wish I had known when I started.

Take FAR as your first exam and follow it with AUD! These two have a lot I was able to roll into AUD right after my miss on FAR and pass it easily. Then I was able to roll back into FAR studying without forgetting too much. I really don't know how people can leave FAR for one of their later exams. If I was going to throw in the towel, I wanted to know early and have the toughest test first! I seriously think FAR was 3-4 times more difficult than AUD so I would have hated to have to do that one later.

Get the Wiley Test Bank and only answer MCQ questions until you get to about an 80% for each section of FAR, The reporting on this test bank is nice because you can see graphically how you are scoring on all of the sections so you have the proficiency you need. If you are trying to get higher much higher than 80%, you are getting to a point of diminishing returns and you need to divert your attention to studying J/Es and Simulations. Until you are at the point where you are scoring in high 70s or 80s consistently on the MCQs you may not even want to schedule your exam date because you are just wasting your time. Sometimes I wonder if the people who get tons of failures in a row are using the real exam as a diagnostic exam–if you can't score in the 75+ on the test bank, you probably have no business taking that section at all yet.

Also, one thing I notice about people posting about doing MCQ questions is they say they do an ungodly number of MCQ questions during their study sessions and then complaining about not passing. Don't fool yourself about MCQ–the number of questions attempted doesn't translate into a actual learning. Sometimes it would take me hours to get through 20 questions because I was spending a ton of time trying to figure out what I didn't understand in my book. The point is that you shouldn't confuse blowing through a ton of MCQ question with studying–you are just blowing through questions and not learning.

As for the actual exam, though, you need to move through the MCQ questions like lethal Ninja from Shinobi–30 minutes per section should be your goal. I was at 30 minutes, 40 minutes, 40 minutes for mine because the testlets got harder. Your 80% on the test bank should give you confidence to know you are prepared to tackle them quickly. Start chopping off heads of the MCQ questions as quickly as possible and keep moving like you are in a Bin Laden compound or something. If a couple of foot soldier MCQ questions get away with just a flesh wound DON'T spend time chasing them. Remember you are there for the BOSS at the end of the level AKA the sims. Whenever the test tricks you to spend too much time on an obscure MCQ, think of Arnold Schwartzenegger or some other action star saying…”GET OUT..GET OUT NOW” with whatever movie scene you can think of where some dumbass is trying to get everyone killed because they freeze when the grenade is in the foxhole! LOL

You MUST, MUST, MUST go through and write down every journal entry entry in your FAR book and you have to do try to work through every FAR sim in your book. You will have to do it on pencil and paper because the Wiley test bank isn't good enough to prepare you for the sims based on what is in the software. For my final review, I completely ignored doing multiple choice questions since I already had an 80% on all sections and only focused on sims and journal entries. Of all the stuff I said before this is the ONLY thing that improved my score so much. Even if you can't predict the sims that will show up, having confidence in how to tackle that type of problem will pay dividends. Furthermore, you will better learn the more advanced content that you will see in the MCQ questions. This is the area where I was able to improve my score.

40% of the scoring on the exam is sims so you have to spend time preparing for them. Trying to increase your score marginally by continuing to pound MCQ questions after you have gained proficiency at 80% isn't going to translate into a lot more points on your exam. The amount of effort for the amount of marginal increase in score isn't worth it. However, if you can take your sim score from a 50% to a 75% by putting in a little more effort on preparation will make a huge difference in your final score.

If you have just failed with a high 60s or low 70s, I wanted to give you my experience how I raised my score to help, if possible. To summarize here is the gameplan…80% on all sections of Wiley, schedule your exam, spend your last 40 hours of prep time doing nothing but journal entries, extended examples, and sims from your book on pencil and paper. (mine was a gleim book).

FAR-84
AUD-
REG-
BEC-

[Kimboroni]

On weighting of sims, someone here wrote to them and got an answer, and basically each answer box (the research question counts as 1

AUD 84 (1/9/14-Wiley books/TB + free materials)
FAR 83 (5/21/14-the above + NINJA 10 Pt Combo Lite)
REG 84 (7/9/14-Wiley books/TB + NINJA Audio/FC/Notes)
BEC 76 (10/5/14-Wiley books/TB + NINJA Audio/FC)

Disclaimer: My ninja avatar is not meant to imply that I have any affiliation with this site other than being a forum member. That's a pic of a T-shirt that my daughter gave me for my birthday. 🙂

[Kimboroni]

On weighting of sims, someone here wrote to them and got a response, and basically each answer box (the research question counts as 1 answer) is equally weighted, so a sim with lots of answer boxes would be worth more than a sim with only a few answer boxes.

AUD 84 (1/9/14-Wiley books/TB + free materials)
FAR 83 (5/21/14-the above + NINJA 10 Pt Combo Lite)
REG 84 (7/9/14-Wiley books/TB + NINJA Audio/FC/Notes)
BEC 76 (10/5/14-Wiley books/TB + NINJA Audio/FC)

Disclaimer: My ninja avatar is not meant to imply that I have any affiliation with this site other than being a forum member. That's a pic of a T-shirt that my daughter gave me for my birthday. 🙂

[Author]

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