[jeff]

FAR Resources:

Free FAR Notes & Audio – https://www.another71.com/cpa-exam-study-plan

FAR 10 Point Combo: https://www.another71.com/products-page/ten-point-combo

FAR Score Release: https://www.another71.com/cpa-exam-scores-results-release

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

[ZSRizvi]

@IcandoitCA

You would use 5.5 months. Also, if they give you a question where the year end is June 30 and shares are bought back (i.e. treasury shares) on June 23, then you would use weeks. So, you would multiply the treasury shares bought back by 1/52. 🙂

@kels

I know you're asking DJN, but I also bought the test bank along with Becker. What I would recommend is going the Becker lecture, then the Becker questions, and then take a sample of Wiley questions, let's say 30 questions, for each Becker section. The reason why I say it is because you're going to have question-overload and by the time you reach F5, you'll have forgotten all the F1-F4 stuff.

What I did was, I broke it down into sections. I did F1-F3, then went and did the Test Bank questions. Then F4-F6, then Test Bank questions for those AND F1-F3. That way it helps keep things fresh. And now that I'm in my review phase, I'll do it again. Keep in mind I haven't done every single question in the test bank. I just break it down into doable parts. 🙂

BEC (July 2013)
FAR (OCT 2013)
REG (NOV 2013)
AUD (JAN 2014)

The CPA Exam is an opponent that not even the Fellowship of the Ring would want to come across.

I have a long...long...journey ahead of me.

[ZSRizvi]

@IcandoitCA

You would use 5.5 months. Also, if they give you a question where the year end is June 30 and shares are bought back (i.e. treasury shares) on June 23, then you would use weeks. So, you would multiply the treasury shares bought back by 1/52. 🙂

@kels

I know you're asking DJN, but I also bought the test bank along with Becker. What I would recommend is going the Becker lecture, then the Becker questions, and then take a sample of Wiley questions, let's say 30 questions, for each Becker section. The reason why I say it is because you're going to have question-overload and by the time you reach F5, you'll have forgotten all the F1-F4 stuff.

What I did was, I broke it down into sections. I did F1-F3, then went and did the Test Bank questions. Then F4-F6, then Test Bank questions for those AND F1-F3. That way it helps keep things fresh. And now that I'm in my review phase, I'll do it again. Keep in mind I haven't done every single question in the test bank. I just break it down into doable parts. 🙂

BEC (July 2013)
FAR (OCT 2013)
REG (NOV 2013)
AUD (JAN 2014)

The CPA Exam is an opponent that not even the Fellowship of the Ring would want to come across.

I have a long...long...journey ahead of me.

[NYCaccountant]

@ Icandoitcpa Quick point to remember is it depends on how the shares were issued as well. Stock splits and stock dividends are assumed to have occurred at the beginning of the period in question, so the weight average would be for the full 12 months for this.

@ ZSR I have not even booked REG yet, so no idea on when i'm sitting for that. For inter company transaction I usually work from left to right (parent to sub). Eliminate the inter company sales of the parent against the the COGS/inventory of the sub, eliminate the gain on the sale of equipment against the the cost of the equipment on the subs balance sheet. I just finding working from left to right makes it easier.

FAR - 93
REG - 87
BEC - 84!!!!
AUD - 99!!!!!! CPA exam complete.

[NYCaccountant]

@ Icandoitcpa Quick point to remember is it depends on how the shares were issued as well. Stock splits and stock dividends are assumed to have occurred at the beginning of the period in question, so the weight average would be for the full 12 months for this.

@ ZSR I have not even booked REG yet, so no idea on when i'm sitting for that. For inter company transaction I usually work from left to right (parent to sub). Eliminate the inter company sales of the parent against the the COGS/inventory of the sub, eliminate the gain on the sale of equipment against the the cost of the equipment on the subs balance sheet. I just finding working from left to right makes it easier.

FAR - 93
REG - 87
BEC - 84!!!!
AUD - 99!!!!!! CPA exam complete.

[Anonymous]

@kels417 – My method is to do all the Becker questions twice, once at the time I watch the video and then go through them again at the end. Then I go to the WTB and look for any topics that may not have been specifically covered by Becker (for example on REG, the WTB had a section on property and mortgages that I didn't recall from Becker so I did that one). Once I do that, I set up separate practice sessions for any other areas that I want to drill down on more. I also do all of the sims. And finally I set up 200 question practice sessions from the WTB using all the sections (so like a random mix of questions) and just do as many as I possibly can before the test.

That worked out well for BEC, but for REG I made the mistake of saving the WTB for too close to the end of my studying and I did come across a couple of new things. That frustrated me to no end because I didn't want to be “learning new stuff” the day before the test. This time for FAR I am going to stop the WTB two days before the exam and do the two Becker practice tests. Then, I'll just spend the last day in deep review on anything I'm still not 100% on.

As I mentioned in a earlier post for AUD, I didn't really use the WTB for that exam.

This is probably way more information than you wanted, LOL!

[Anonymous]

@kels417 – My method is to do all the Becker questions twice, once at the time I watch the video and then go through them again at the end. Then I go to the WTB and look for any topics that may not have been specifically covered by Becker (for example on REG, the WTB had a section on property and mortgages that I didn't recall from Becker so I did that one). Once I do that, I set up separate practice sessions for any other areas that I want to drill down on more. I also do all of the sims. And finally I set up 200 question practice sessions from the WTB using all the sections (so like a random mix of questions) and just do as many as I possibly can before the test.

That worked out well for BEC, but for REG I made the mistake of saving the WTB for too close to the end of my studying and I did come across a couple of new things. That frustrated me to no end because I didn't want to be “learning new stuff” the day before the test. This time for FAR I am going to stop the WTB two days before the exam and do the two Becker practice tests. Then, I'll just spend the last day in deep review on anything I'm still not 100% on.

As I mentioned in a earlier post for AUD, I didn't really use the WTB for that exam.

This is probably way more information than you wanted, LOL!

[nbad311]

Maybe I am totally stupid, but anyone else have issues understanding % of completion problems? I just don't f*cking understand. I've looked at this section like 3 times in the past 2 months. I do the examples in the chapter text and it makes sense, but when I see a question in a MCQ or simulation, I forget literally how to do everything.

REG - 65, 70, 80!
BEC - 35, 62, 79!
AUD - 73, 75!
FAR - 65, 73, 70, 75! DONE.

[nbad311]

Maybe I am totally stupid, but anyone else have issues understanding % of completion problems? I just don't f*cking understand. I've looked at this section like 3 times in the past 2 months. I do the examples in the chapter text and it makes sense, but when I see a question in a MCQ or simulation, I forget literally how to do everything.

REG - 65, 70, 80!
BEC - 35, 62, 79!
AUD - 73, 75!
FAR - 65, 73, 70, 75! DONE.

[Anonymous]

@nbad311…perhaps this will help. When computing % of completion, there are three main accounts that you will deal with, total contract price, actual cost incurred and estimated cost to complete. Say for example after the first year the contract = 100,000, actual costs = 30,000 and estimated cost to complete = 50,000. First, dertermine total estimated costs for the project (which equals costs incurred + est. cost to complete) 30,000+50,000=80,000. With a contract price of 100,000, that would provide a total profit of 20,000. However, you only recognize a profit = to the amount of work done in that period. So we determine the % completed for the period (actaul costs/total project cost which is the 80,000 previously computed) 30,000/80,000=38% complete. So we take the total profit and multiply it by % complete 20,000*.38=7,600.

Assume period in the second year we incurred actual costs of 20,000 and estimated cost to complete was 20,000. Total project cost would be 30,000(year 1 costs)+20,000(year 2 costs)+20,000(est. cost to complete)=70,000. Now our estimated total profit changes to 30,000. We have completed 50,000 of the work so our comlpete % is 50,000/70,000=71%. Now multiply est. total profit by the % complete, 30,000*.71=21,300. So a total of 21,300 should be recognized, however we have to subtract the 7,600 recognized in year 1 so profit for year 2 is 21,300-7,600=13,700. You then continue this until the project is complete.

Remeber, are recognizing the % of total profit = the percentage of total work done for that period. Also, if a loss situation occurs, 100% of the loss is recognized in the current period. Hope this helps.

[Anonymous]

@nbad311…perhaps this will help. When computing % of completion, there are three main accounts that you will deal with, total contract price, actual cost incurred and estimated cost to complete. Say for example after the first year the contract = 100,000, actual costs = 30,000 and estimated cost to complete = 50,000. First, dertermine total estimated costs for the project (which equals costs incurred + est. cost to complete) 30,000+50,000=80,000. With a contract price of 100,000, that would provide a total profit of 20,000. However, you only recognize a profit = to the amount of work done in that period. So we determine the % completed for the period (actaul costs/total project cost which is the 80,000 previously computed) 30,000/80,000=38% complete. So we take the total profit and multiply it by % complete 20,000*.38=7,600.

Assume period in the second year we incurred actual costs of 20,000 and estimated cost to complete was 20,000. Total project cost would be 30,000(year 1 costs)+20,000(year 2 costs)+20,000(est. cost to complete)=70,000. Now our estimated total profit changes to 30,000. We have completed 50,000 of the work so our comlpete % is 50,000/70,000=71%. Now multiply est. total profit by the % complete, 30,000*.71=21,300. So a total of 21,300 should be recognized, however we have to subtract the 7,600 recognized in year 1 so profit for year 2 is 21,300-7,600=13,700. You then continue this until the project is complete.

Remeber, are recognizing the % of total profit = the percentage of total work done for that period. Also, if a loss situation occurs, 100% of the loss is recognized in the current period. Hope this helps.

[SJKirk]

I have a question about JE's and how the exam is graded (not sure if anyone knows for sure though…)

On my Becker SIMS, the answer may include 2 debits or credits to the same account. Example:

Inventory 1,000

A/P 1,000

Fixed Assets 1,000

A/P 1,000

But I always write the JE entry this way:

Inventory 1,000

Fixed Assets 1,000

A/P 2,000

Does any one know if the latter would be wrong on the exam? Is it wrong to “group” the same account together in a journal entry and include the total or the net, rather than listing each transaction separately?

[SJKirk]

I have a question about JE's and how the exam is graded (not sure if anyone knows for sure though…)

On my Becker SIMS, the answer may include 2 debits or credits to the same account. Example:

Inventory 1,000

A/P 1,000

Fixed Assets 1,000

A/P 1,000

But I always write the JE entry this way:

Inventory 1,000

Fixed Assets 1,000

A/P 2,000

Does any one know if the latter would be wrong on the exam? Is it wrong to “group” the same account together in a journal entry and include the total or the net, rather than listing each transaction separately?

[kels417]

@DJN – haha. Nope, just the kind of response I was hoping for! I've already been through the Becker questions around 3 times due to the fact that I've already taken this beast of an exam twice. So I think I'll go through them once more and then work through Wiley. I also have Gleim, which I supplemented for REG and it helped. May try to sneak some of its questions in also. So many questions, so little time! Thanks for your reply!

Illinois
Becker self study | Becker flashcards | Gleim | self written notes | WTB

AUD - 74, 75 Passed! (Expires 1/2/2014)
BEC - 78 Passed! (Expires 2/6/2014)
REG - 70, 70, 72, 74, 76 Passed!!
FAR - 72, 66, 69, 67

[kels417]

@DJN – haha. Nope, just the kind of response I was hoping for! I've already been through the Becker questions around 3 times due to the fact that I've already taken this beast of an exam twice. So I think I'll go through them once more and then work through Wiley. I also have Gleim, which I supplemented for REG and it helped. May try to sneak some of its questions in also. So many questions, so little time! Thanks for your reply!

Illinois
Becker self study | Becker flashcards | Gleim | self written notes | WTB

AUD - 74, 75 Passed! (Expires 1/2/2014)
BEC - 78 Passed! (Expires 2/6/2014)
REG - 70, 70, 72, 74, 76 Passed!!
FAR - 72, 66, 69, 67

[kels417]

@SJKirk – like you said, nobody knows for sure, but I don't think it matters how you enter the JE as long as the debits and credits are correct, both account and amount. I've also heard that you get partial credit if you have the right account, but wrong amount and vice versa. Hope this helps!

Illinois
Becker self study | Becker flashcards | Gleim | self written notes | WTB

AUD - 74, 75 Passed! (Expires 1/2/2014)
BEC - 78 Passed! (Expires 2/6/2014)
REG - 70, 70, 72, 74, 76 Passed!!
FAR - 72, 66, 69, 67

[Author]

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