[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

[Anonymous]

I'm so excited! I won NINJA MCQ raffle! Thanks Jeff. You're the man!!

[CoachEmUp]

Took FAR yesterday. Here are my assortment of thoughts:

1. As many others have mentioned study governmental and NFP accounting. I spent a majority of my review on this area and I think it paid off.
2. Another one others have mentioned: Time management is crucial. I finished the MCQ's with 2 hours and 37 minutes to go. In testlet 3 I had a research SIM and another SIM that didn't take long. I took my break with about 2 hours and ~20 minutes left to do the last 6 SIMS. I finished with 4 minutes left. Now I definitely took my time and pondered over some things longer than I might have if I was up against the clock, but still, I would highly recommend getting through the MCQ in your first 90-95 minutes of the test. It'll make your life easier.
3. In a sick and twisted way it was kind of fun to take the test. I felt over-prepared and was just interested to see the kind of curveball questions they would throw in there. One of my SIMS was something Wiley didn't cover at all, and I had only seen in intermediate accounting. I have to imagine that was the pre-test SIM, but I'll never know. Some of the multiple choice questions were also not covered in Wiley and I could only take an educated guess. Again, I can only imagine they were pre-test questions but I'll never know.
4. This was my first CPA test. The testing center in downtown Chicago was an awesome experience. Check in was quick, everyone was very friendly, and overall I felt that it was a really good environment to test in. It was good to get it under my belt and when I go back next month for Auditing I won't have any “unknown” parts about the testing center.
5. After taking the first test I can safely say that one of the biggest keys for people on here is to simply not over think things on the test. Most people are here are putting in a great effort of studying. You guys know the material. When test day comes just be calm and don't get in your head.

[DeterminedCPAer]

Hey @coachemup

Sounds like you did well. I hope you pass. I hope we all pass! Thanks for the notes on your exam. How detailed were the MCQs if you don't mind me asking?

Where they on the basics of topics or did they ask questions on the nitty gritty detail? Same question for NFP and Government. I hope you didn't get a governmental wide reconciliation type MCQ or SIM.

I'm giving myself 1.5 minutes per MCQ on my Becker progress tests. I do 33 at a time and most of the time I have about 10 minutes left so really pushing to get all MCQs done in 90 minutes. Some questions take more time because they're more detailed.

Hence why I was asking how detailed the MCQs were on your exam. A few have said that the actual questions on exam are not as hard as Becker.

[CoachEmUp]

@determined I would just keep doing practice questions and you'll be fine. Most of the questions were of similar nature to what you'd see when taking a review courses practice questions. IMO if you only have 2 hours and 20 minutes left then you're pushing it a bit to get done with all of the SIMS. Try to do those 66 MCQ's in 90 minutes.

[Anonymous]

@DeterminedCPAer

I can't say it better than most people have commented in this thread:
https://www.another71.com/cpa-exam-forum/topic/far-exam-today-1st-attempt/

I will say that time management is definitely key. MC questions were doable in 90 min, and I spent 2 hours on the 3 TBS testlets. I was done with 30 min left, but I'm a pretty decisive test-taker – either I know it or I don't.

My method of studying was to do half the MC in each section before moving on to another one, regardless of how many I initially got correct. I then went back through the sections doing the same thing until I eventually got them all correct (I think it took 3 complete passes). This allowed me to keep any of the sections from getting stale, which I think is a really big problem when it comes to a test with this much different material. I also took copious notes that I kept in OneNote and would have it open to refer to as I did the MC questions and then later the progress tests as random assortments of questions.

Take that with a grain of salt, since I don't know how I scored on FAR, but I did the same thing with REG and BEC and it worked well for me.

Good luck!

[Accountingbeans]

@CoachEmUp In terms of governmental/NFP, did it seem like most of the problems were conceptual/qualitative? It seems like most of the Becker material regarding those topics don't really have calculations for the most part, did that ring true for the actual exam? Thanks

Newbie
BEC- August 31

[Accountingbeans]

@CoachEmUP and as a follow up actually: What % of questions did you feel were qualitative (no calculations) vs quantitative (calculations) as a whole?

Newbie
BEC- August 31

[yari_cookie]

@James Thanks for the advise… I think that I was really mentally blocked and frustrated and definitely needed a break… But I was able to understand like 80% of it… I'm still having problem with the non interest bearing notes payable hence in the example of Wiley its a Non interest payable note payable but only for one year… I would like to see how to use the PV factor for a non interest bearing note payable. If some one has a MCQ regarding a Non interest bearing note payable to share that would be great.

Best of luck to everyone!

Yari 🙂

[CoachEmUp]

@accounting I can't disclose that kind of stuff per the agreement. The best I can say it is to keep practicing the MCQ and it should be sufficient to what you'll see on the exam. Sorry I can't offer more, but those are the rules.

[Accountingbeans]

@CoachEmUp sorry, didn't realize I was asking outside of the disclosure agreements, no problem I understand

Newbie
BEC- August 31

[Anonymous]

@coachemup congrats! Sounds like you passed the exam. Tomorrow is my term. I was exhausted by the F/S consolidation section today. Try to pick up what I studied month ago. Well, the content still seems to be very complex to me. 🙁
I will do more MCQs this afternoon and plan take tomorrow off before the exam in the afternoon. Just too exhausted.

Generally speaking, are the MCQs you did in the exam were harder or similar or easier than the ones Wiley provides? Thank you!

Good luck to myself!

[CoachEmUp]

@another81 Wiley's was pretty much on par with what I saw. Yes, there was definitely some that were harder than what was on Wiley, but overall I felt very prepared. I went through every single MCQ on Wiley's FAR bank (probably 1700 MCQ's or so) and went over one's I missed.

[Cruzer]

I left about 2 hours and 20 minutes for TBS's and that seemed to be ample time. The 3rd testlet took 50 mins though but I was able to make up for it in 4th testlet and 5th because I only left myself 1:34 for testlet 4 & 5. I spent a lot of time on testlet 3 but that's because I thought both TBS's were doable with 75-100% correct if I spent the time. I had 4 enhanced SIM's and 1 DRS. Tons of docs to review but overall it wasn't too bad.

[nickbogle]

Hello everyone, just joining the group.

I am scheduled to take the FAR section on October 18th.

[hamada]

HIII
What difference between DRS and search question in Far exam
and is simulation simple like ninja and wiley in actual exam

[Author]

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