[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

[mafalo1989]

When I say tone it down I mean my TBS were literally impossible to complete accurately with the time given. I got through all the MCQ's in probably an hour or less so then I had the remainder of the time to do the TBS and I had barely enough time to do it. All of mine except for 1 had multiple pages of information I needed to sift through. It isn't possible to get the exam done and be accurate when you have to rush through tons of information to get what you need for one small part. One of my TBS had 10 pages of information I had to go through and the others had between 5-8. That's an example of the difficulty of the TBS for FAR. I studied for 4 months and have real world experience in some of those areas tested and it was extremely difficult. Not everyone's test is set up the same but my TBS were all extremely difficult, had multiple parts, and very time consuming. I feel like if the AICPA is going to do that to candidates they need to prepare them a little better by giving more clear guidelines or more time or making them a little less complicated. The TBS were much more difficult and complex than what I worked through with the Becker materials. The point of the CPA exam is to test basic knowledge of future CPA's (that is a quote from information put out by NASBA and the AICPA) not to test them on the most complex information out there, we aren't supposed to be experts yet. Just think of the worst TBS you had to work through while studying, I got stuck with all my TBS being that awful except for one.

[CoachEmUp]

@wannafree thank you! Yes… that is what I was trying to remember. Always good to start having dreams about the material.

[Anthony]

Sims has and will always be a biggest crapshoot. Probably the reason why BEC have or will use to have such the highest pass rate because it use to be just 85% on just MCQ!

I agree you shouldn't need to be an expert to complete a TBS, but I wish that was the case in real life. TBS can easily test a mile deep of information and mixed with the mile wide of information you need know, it makes it almost unbearable at times.

[Accountingbeans]

Question to help me with my current scenario:

I'm going to have about 1.5-2 weeks to do almost solely MC (I'll have done all Becker SIMs and reviewed the text).

If you were me, what method would you use to do this? I was originally thinking of just doing a bunch of Becker progress tests, 33 questions each (plus the practice tests as it gets closer).

OR should I get NINJA MCQ and just try to do as many NINJA questions as possible? I'd probably be able to do more considering I could see the answers right away.

I've been on the fence about whether or not I should use NINJA MCQ for a while now, and soon I'll have to make my decision on how to most effectively practice MC before test day. Thanks

Newbie
BEC- August 31

[QueenCPA]

FAR FAR FAR 🙁

[Anonymous]

@jwalk

I just took my second Becker final exam. 77 on the first one, 82 on the second. Not doing nearly as well on the MC as the SIMs, which is the opposite of how I scored on the finals for REG and BEC, and now I'm reading that everyone considers the SIMs to be not difficult enough compared to the test, so that's concerning.

For reference, I averaged 68-70 on the REG and BEC finals and scored ~19 pts higher on the actual exams, but I feel like I knew those subjects better by this point.

I take FAR on 7/25, so just going to keep working on the problem areas. I echo someone above that the sheer amount of material and topics is overwhelming and you just can't memorize it all.

[jwalk]

@emsmith06

I did not do very well on my first mock. I only got a 68. Rushed through it and had an hour left. I get anxious before tests (even these mock exams). I am going to retake it and see how I do again. Not going to look at what I missed specifically but going to review the topics it said that I missed. I am hoping that after more intense review I will do better. I am reviewing now things I struggle with and going to leave other things until the last week and just touch on them. Can't know everything but big things, leases, bonds, depreciation, derivatives, etc. with a lot of math, I am going to focus on. I feel like on concepts especially for MCQ I can at least narrow it down if I REALLY don't know the answer. Don't get me wrong, going to review a ton but focusing heavily on math intensive topics and concepts that require deeper understanding and lend themselves well to TBS.

I am concerned about the TBS also…hopefully it isn't as bad as it sounds haha But then again, maybe everyone will do bad and in turn we all do good!

[CoachEmUp]

I know this gets asked a lot, but is there a one-stop shop with all of the major differences between IFRS and US GAAP?

Also, for those that have previously taken a FAR exam… is this typically just a “question here or there” type of thing, or can it be somewhat more significant than that? I'm just trying to prioritize if I should try to remember those minor differences in terminology or whatever in my last week of studying.

[ImJeremy12345]

Took FAR on Friday. Thought I did well on the MCQ and felt the SIMS were challenging. Used Becker the entire way – god speed to everyone prepping.

[Anthony]

@CoachEmUp Depends…all of it is fair game. For all you know you could have got a IFRS sim on exam day or even worst, they bombard you with IFRS mcq questions. Old Becker books were pretty good with a whole laundry list on 3-5 pages of IFRS/GAAP difference. Not sure if the new ones has it.

[Wannafree]

@CoachEmUp in old Becker's it used to be list on 10th chapter ,very good table.In new they have mixed it.

[Andria – Another71]

AUD Test Your Might – Be sure to answer in the thread to be eligible to win a freebie!

[CoachEmUp]

I took Practice Exam A in Wiley this afternoon: 78. Overall I'll take it given how jacked up the SIMS are. I was fortunate and got 2 research questions though which are gold in Wiley for SIMS because the other one's are nearly impossible w no partial credit.

I scored out: 85% testlet 1 (33 MCQ), 76% testlet 2 (33 MCQ), 66% testlet 3, 63% testlet 4, 100% testlet 5 (2 research Q's and a DRS that I was familiar with).

Gotta keep grinding this week! To all those with the test upcoming… we can do this!!!

[BBHYX]

@emsmith06 regarding your comment on the becker sims not being as difficult, I would say that it's not necessarily the actual sims are HARDER, they're just LONGER.

For example, out of the 7 non-research sims, you will most likely find that 2-3 about the same size and difficulty as what you see in becker. Maybe 2-3 others are similar in difficulty to becker, but are just longer and take more time (more boxes to fill, more JEs to do, more parts to the question). You will probably only see 2 that seem harder than becker ones (due to topic difficulty/complexity/weirdly worded questions/unclear instructions, etc). Overall, I would say for the most part, becker sims can still kind of be used to benchmark your progress as long as you finished with plenty of time. For example, if you took 2.5 hours on the becker sims, I would be very concerned because you will 100% run out of time on the actual exam. If you finished the becker sims in ~1.5 hours or so, I think you will be fine on the actual sims because you will have time to work on the longer sims that show up in the actual exam.

[Sean]

Hi everyone,
Sorry if someone already asked this but does anyone have any input on whether reading/watching becker book and lectures are worth the time? Just started F6 and not sure that I'm getting much out of it. Test is scheduled for Sept 8. Thanks for your replies and help!

[Author]

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