[jeff]

Welcome to the Q3 2017 CPA Exam Study Group for FAR. 🙂

Introduce yourselves and let your fellow NINJAs know when you plan to take your FAR exam.

The Five Steps (NINJA Framework): https://www.another71.com/pass-the-cpa-exam/

Jeff Elliott, CPA (KS) | Another71 | NINJA CPA | NINJA CMA | NINJA CPE

[JJK94]

Hi guys can u pls help me with this question:

Kell Corp.'s $95,000 U.S. GAAP net income for the quarter ended September 30, Year 1, included the following after-taxitems:A $60,000 extraordinary gain, realized on April 30, Year 1, was allocated equally to the second, third, and fourthquarters of Year 1.A $16,000 cumulative-effect loss resulting from a change in inventory valuation method was recognized on August 2,Year 1.In addition, Kell paid $48,000 on February 1, Year 1, for Year 1 calendar-year property taxes. Of this amount, $12,000 wasallocated to the third quarter of Year 1.For the quarter ended September 30, Year 1, Kell should report net income of:

a. $91,000
b.$115,000
c.$111,000
d. $103,000
Choice “a” is correct. $91,000 net income for the third quarter ended 9-30-Year 1.
Third quarter income as originally calculated 95,000
Less: 1/3 of second quarter extraordinary gain (20,000)
Sub Total 75,000
Plus: Cumulative effect of accounting change 16,000
Corrected third quarter net income 91,000
Why are we reducing the second quarter gain here…if all the extraordinary income needs to be realized in the period incurred,the entire 60000 would have been recorded in q2,but they allocated it.
I thought of it as the 95000 net income of third quarter include 20000 of q3 allocation only,so we need to now add the fourth quarter allocation of 20000 to 95000,coz extraordinary income needs to be realized in the period incurred,which they didnt do in the second quater.
correct me if im wrong and which concept is used here?

[CoachEmUp]

@sri94 extraordinary gains no longer exist in GAAP. Anytime you see it on a practice question it means it's an old question. Don't worry about those and if you see it on the CPA exam as an answer to a mcq you can automatically eliminate it.

[MZ123]

@francker

I think I retain things best when I study each section for a short amount of time, then go back and study/review the same material again the next day. If I break things up over time and then I go back and review over time, it makes me remember it better. For example, while I am in my review stage, I do a few sections of the flash cards one day and glance through the book if needed, then the next day I do progress tests for each section I reviewed the prior day.

I also read that smell can help you recall things. I bought a new lotion and I put it on when I start studying. Then I will also put it on before my exam.

[BBHYX]

Hey guys — I took FAR yesterday and wanted to share some thoughts.

MCQ – I was a little ticked off at my MCQs, to be honest. There was nothing “out of left-field” persay because everything was covered in becker, but I thought the distribution was not representative of what becker emphasized or what I would have expected. I got tested on some really little details (like one sentence in the entire book), and a few questions on a tiny chapter in becker which got breezed over. It's information that I'd definitely seen in my prep material so nothing was completely foreign, but just not stuff anyone would focus on so that was a little frustrating and I had to take my best guess. Not sure if I would fault becker for it, because it was topics I wouldn't have expected to be tested on either when I think of all the available topics. First testlet look me around 35-40 minutes (had time to check a few calculations), second harder testlet around 50 (still checked some calculations). Overall, I would put the MCQ on-par with prep materials. Some questions are easier, but some will be hard because it's not what the prep materials focused on. NFP/Gov still heavily tested.

I went into sims with around 2.5 hours and used all of it. However, I had time to check my calculations for most of my sims so I used more time than I absolutely needed. Sims were a mixed bag, where some were easy and some made me want to throw up haha. I would say I had 2 easy sims, 3 medium/reasonable sims, and only had 2 sims that were HARD, both in my 3rd testlet. The topic was not foreign, but the sim just had a lot of supporting documents and a lot of moving parts to keep track of all at once. The one DRS sentence replacement sim was also not too bad, just took a lot of time. I did practice some of the becker sims and I think that helped me understand the material, but did not help in my actual performance strictly related to sims. I would recommend doing the becker sims if you have time but skip them and focus on MCQ if you're short on time. I spent a few minutes in the AL on my lastlet but didnt find anything useful.

My biggest advice for sims is to leave at least 2 hr 15 min, hopefully 2 hr 30min if possible. You need every minute to digest information because you never know what type of sims you get. When you start a new testlet, you should reallocate your time. A hard sim with a lot of documents will take 20-25 minutes while a easy sim can be knocked out in 10-15. Don't get hung up on one sim and known when to move on.

[DeterminedCPAer]

@xyz107

Thanks for this feedback. It helps a lot! Best of luck and it sounds like you were confident with your answers. That's always good.

Without putting you in a bad spot, I don't want you to break rules, what level where the NFP/Gov questions? Where they basic conceptual? For example: which one of these is on the economic measurement?

Or where they complex where you had to know a lot of details and maybe know JEs?

[CoachEmUp]

@xyz107 thank you very much for the feedback. It's a great point about the miniscule details a MCQ can be. When I get those minute detail one's in Wiley I brush them off because I think “there's no way they'll test me on that” but I think you point out that I should be taking everything seriously.

[alexisle88]

I took my exam on the 10th and I just got recovered from the test. Nothing is out of the ordinary. However, I got hit with a lot of topics that I didn't study really in depth. My test were heavy on NFP/goverment, pension, stocks & bonds and a little bit of everything else.

[Accountingbeans]

@alexisle88 I already asked this is another thread but could you estimate what % of questions were calculation based vs just word based? Thanks

Newbie
BEC- August 31

[mafalo1989]

Just got my ass handed to me by this exam. There's no way I passed. Just a heads up the governmental and NFP stuff is WAY more than the 10-20% of the exam that the AICPA is claiming it to be. It was probably about 40%. It was almost like every other question or so was government or NFP. Absolutely ridiculous. The sad part is they were probably easy questions but when you're expecting it to not be very much based on what the AICPA estimates it and the fact that my Becker study materials included a small amount on the topic compared to everything else you don't study that much for it. Since only a small percentage of accountants actually work in those sectors there should be no reason why it is so heavily tested.

[DeterminedCPAer]

@mafalo1989

What kind of NFP and Gov questions where they asking? Where they conceptual like definitions or statements. Or basic math and JEs?

Don't answer if you feel it breaks the rule but I don't think they would care cause your not stating specific types of questions.

[Anthony]

@mafalo1989 That why I can never trust AICPA blueprint nonsense. AICPA says blah blah blah is this % of the exam and when you take it, it is nothing but majority of the exam. Probably the reason why it's still heavily tested is to screw people over and get more people to fail.

Same thing happens on BEC with IT/COSO and REG and Blaw.

[mafalo1989]

It's bullshit. I don't know where the AICPA thinks I'm getting all this money to retake exams. My employer is only offering to pay the first time and I am severely underpaid. After I pay my portion of rent, bills, and necessities I literally have MAYBE $200 left in the bank. I make $32,000 a year, before I get screwed by taxes, as a tax assistant that supervises my companies portion of the tax business without my CPA, how the hell am I ever supposed to be successful if the AICPA keeps screwing everyone over and I can't afford to keep retaking the exams. There is no winning.

[alexisle88]

i would say 80% calculation and 20% wordings.

[alexisle88]

@mafalo1989
I agree. I have 2 SIMs on NFP/goverment (on JEs) and about 40$ MC on the same topic.

[mafalo1989]

I had about 50/50 with calculations and concepts. I don't think they would have been difficult to answer but I literally started those lectures not even a full week ago so I didn't have time to go through and memorize every single little thing. I had to work quickly and skim over it because I was under the impression that my time would be better spent reviewing some of the concepts that the AICPA weighted a little higher on the blueprints. In general the government and NFP stuff isn't really difficult but it isn't very fair of the AICPA to say it's only 10-20% of the exam when in reality it's more like 30-40% of the exam. Those difficult concepts I wanted to review were definitely still on the exam so I feel good about those but out of the 66 MCQ's I probably had about 10 that I knew I had a good chance of getting right. The TBS were extremely difficult. Much harder then the ones provided by Becker. Either the AICPA needs to tone it down a bit or companies offering study materials need to step up their game A LOT. The Becker TBS did not prepare me at all and I feel if Becker considered Governmental one of their “heavily tested” areas then they should have put that toward the beginning and made more of an emphasis on it so people know they need more than a week to prepare for such a small section of the study materials.

[Author]

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