[Anonymous]

I never took any classes about governmental accounting so I was not familiar with it. I sit on July 7th and I am currently doing my second round of review. I am almost finished but stuck with Governmental Accounting.I forget almost everything since the first round of study. There are so many little details and I am frustrated.

I can grasp the big picture(fund structures, government-wide financial statements, etc.), but details are killing me.

Both MC and Sims’ correct rates are around 70%.

Any tips on how to remember those things? Any help is appreciated.

[Sweetie1]

I don't know that I can help you, but I am feeling your same pain. I would be happy with any insight someone can give.
I sit on the 6th.
I haven't taken any other exams before, and I am not sure if Iam more nervous about what to expect, or that I feel like I am not prepared. (Then again I don't know if I will ever FEEL prepared).

I too get the basic concept for govt accounting. However, when I take the quizzes, I am not scoring consistently at all. One time will be 65% the next will be 78%. ???
I don't know if this is from over studying (if there is such a thing) or lack of understanding. (Probably both!) Any last minute advice would be GREATLY appreciated.

Good luck @Carolineee

[Anonymous]

@sweetie1

my friend told me that since the weight of govt Accounting is the lowest, don't be stressed about it. It's better to focus on other weaker areas now. Good luck to you on your exam! We will pass it.

[Anthony]

No other easy way other than pounding the mcq and sims until your eye bleed and after that pound it a bit more. I would not sleep on Gov't nor NFP. Too many people sleep on it because it weighted the lowest and then they take the exam they get bombarded with a lot of Gov't/NFP question or even worse, a few sims on it. Guess what they were doing after the exams? Kicking their own asses thinking they could skip it.

That small weighted of 5-15% could be very much the difference between a 74 or a 75.

[Anonymous]

@Anthony, You are totally right. It could make a huge difference. I decide to spend the last few days pounding questions and make sure I know almost everything about gov't and NFP!

[Fk]

@ Carolinee, I would suggest to buy Ninja Plus for FAR , Bob Monett has really explained well Government accounting.

[nvm5223]

Governmental and Non-Profit are HUGE. You have to know those topics like there's no tomorrow. If you're going to master any topic, it should be those two because you know you're going to get hit with them on the exam whereas you don't know if you're going to get nailed with any other topic.

[Jimmy Dugan]

Can't speak highly enough about the Bob Monnette videos, which are part of the Ninja monthly subscription. Everyone else, including Becker, Roger, and the whole lot do a terrible job explaining governmental. The bisk videos and Farhat's Accounting Lectures (free on Youtube) are what made the difference for me.

Absolutely avoid any advice suggesting you shouldn't focus on governmental too much. It's a big part of the exam.

[AGI]

I personally find government and N4P accounting the easiest in FAR. There's only two possibility question patterns, either it asked about the big picture (account types and reports) etc, or it asks you about a situation and how to properly record the book. The 1st pattern is simply memorizing the answers, and the 2nd pattern always asks about hospital, health care, transportation, school, etc. There's very limited question possibilities.

My suggestion is, if you do MCQs enough and get the feeling, it will be done.

New York - NYC
Passed CPA Exam (11/2014)
In search for a position in NYC that will fulfills the license requirement.

[Biff Tannen]

Not looking forward to NFP and governmental accounting. I’m hoping Becker’s Tim Gearty explains this topic better than my NFP accounting professor. Otherwise, I’m screwed

[Recked]

I remember this being a real challenge for me as well. I remembering watching all the videos one Saturday and feeling like maybe I had it, but then I tried to do some more questions Sunday and it was just all blank in my mind, so I ended up starting over and just rewatching all the videos again.
The second time around it started to sink in. Recommend you try it over again and see if that helps. It's a real struggle.

[say]

In the wiley study material they had a pneumonic DRIP-CEG (pronounced like keg)-PIPPA (Debt service funds, special rev funds, internal service fund, permanaent fund; CEG capital projects fund, enterprise funds, general funds; PIPPA pension trust funds, investment trust fund, private purpose fund, and agency fund.! Knowing the pneumonic to identify the difference between which is a governmental fund and which is business enterprise fund, and fiduciary funds is critical to understanding this part of the material. Knowing the pneumonic helped me bc I knew what each of the 11 type of the funds were and in what category they were (gov, busin, and fid). Know the components of the CAFR. I would do MCQs to test your understanding. I was running out of time when I was studying for the exam. I learned all of this in 2.5 days.

[say]

OMG thank God for Farhat lectures! I wish that was around when I was in college. He really got me through bonds, pension, derivatives, leases, troubled debt. I found him the last 2 weeks leading up to the exam. Wish I would had found him sooner in my studying but Im happy I passed with an 86!

[Author]

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