[jeff]

SO I know every test is different but does anyone have any insight on what has been heavily tested recently? I take the exam Monday and I need to narrow my focus….Thanks!

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

[Anonymous]

@CPAHopeful

Not sure I understand your question. All of those costs are included in the land so wouldn't that just be a Dr to the Land Asset and Cr to cash?

[Anonymous]

Acme Co.’s accounts payable balance at December 31 was $850,000 before necessary year-end adjustments, if any, related to the following information:

• At December 31, Acme has a $50,000 debit balance in its accounts payable resulting from a payment to a supplier for goods to be manufactured to Acme’s specifications.

• Goods shipped FOB destination on December 20 were received and recorded by Acme on January 2; the invoice cost was $45,000.

In its December 31 balance sheet, what amount should Acme report as accounts payable?

$850,000

$895,000

$900,000

$945,000

$900 This answer is correct. Accounts payable should be equal to $900,000 ($850,000 + $50,000 payment to supplier). The $50,000 payment to supplier represents a deposit (asset) for goods that had not yet been received. The goods shipped FOB destination were accounted for in an appropriate manner.

Why is a payment increasing the payable balance?!

[rosssumner15]

@CPA2014 I believe it increases the payable balance because in order to remove the debit, you must credit A/P and debit the expense.

FAR - 67-85
BEC - 75
REG - 78

[rosssumner15]

I responded without doing much thinking. That JE isn't right, the expense has already been debited. I'm not sure what the entry is but I have had that question before and I just wanted to net the account but that's not the way it should be done. I'm going to have to look this up.

FAR - 67-85
BEC - 75
REG - 78

[Anonymous]

@CPA2014Dream –

I'm thinking of it this way – When a payment was made to the supplier for the deposit on future goods, someone made the wrong entry. They essentially Debited AP $50,000 and credited cash $50,000. The entry should have been to Debit an Asset (Deposits) and Credit Cash.

So to fix the error – you Credit AP for $50,000 (to remove it from AP) and debit the Asset (Deposit) $50,000.

So your total AP balance is credit balance of $850,000 + Credit of $50,000 = $900,000

I hope that helps! 🙂

[rosssumner15]

Does anyone know how heavily they test on pensions? Pensions are killing me. Once I think I got it, I get another question with something I cannot figure out. And it is aggravating since no one even gets a pension anymore!

FAR - 67-85
BEC - 75
REG - 78

[Guti]

I follow the below advice, and was able to go from 71 to 84 without touching the research simulation=

Not to brag but I thought I would share my experience. Having to retake a section sucks so hopefully this will help people to do it right the first time.

I got a 69 the first time I took FAR. I think I made the mistake of focusing only on MCQ questions on my first attempt and I didn't have an effective study plan to focus on J/Es or sims–my score report reflected weaker on sims and stronger on everything else. I have seen too many people with a score report that says they were stronger on every section except for sims and too much advice that has told people to ignore having a focused study effort on simulations which really hurt me the first time I took FAR.

So, here is what I would suggest that helped me slay FAR on my second try as well as some other things I wish I had known when I started.

Take FAR as your first exam and follow it with AUD! These two have a lot I was able to roll into AUD right after my miss on FAR and pass it easily. Then I was able to roll back into FAR studying without forgetting too much. I really don't know how people can leave FAR for one of their later exams. If I was going to throw in the towel, I wanted to know early and have the toughest test first! I seriously think FAR was 3-4 times more difficult than AUD so I would have hated to have to do that one later.

Get the Wiley Test Bank and only answer MCQ questions until you get to about an 80% for each section of FAR, The reporting on this test bank is nice because you can see graphically how you are scoring on all of the sections so you have the proficiency you need. If you are trying to get higher much higher than 80%, you are getting to a point of diminishing returns and you need to divert your attention to studying J/Es and Simulations. Until you are at the point where you are scoring in high 70s or 80s consistently on the MCQs you may not even want to schedule your exam date because you are just wasting your time. Sometimes I wonder if the people who get tons of failures in a row are using the real exam as a diagnostic exam–if you can't score in the 75+ on the test bank, you probably have no business taking that section at all yet.

Also, one thing I notice about people posting about doing MCQ questions is they say they do an ungodly number of MCQ questions during their study sessions and then complaining about not passing. Don't fool yourself about MCQ–the number of questions attempted doesn't translate into a actual learning. Sometimes it would take me hours to get through 20 questions because I was spending a ton of time trying to figure out what I didn't understand in my book. The point is that you shouldn't confuse blowing through a ton of MCQ question with studying–you are just blowing through questions and not learning.

As for the actual exam, though, you need to move through the MCQ questions like lethal Ninja from Shinobi–30 minutes per section should be your goal. I was at 30 minutes, 40 minutes, 40 minutes for mine because the testlets got harder. Your 80% on the test bank should give you confidence to know you are prepared to tackle them quickly. Start chopping off heads of the MCQ questions as quickly as possible and keep moving like you are in a Bin Laden compound or something. If a couple of foot soldier MCQ questions get away with just a flesh wound DON'T spend time chasing them. Remember you are there for the BOSS at the end of the level AKA the sims. Whenever the test tricks you to spend too much time on an obscure MCQ, think of Arnold Schwartzenegger or some other action star saying…”GET OUT..GET OUT NOW” with whatever movie scene you can think of where some dumbass is trying to get everyone killed because they freeze when the grenade is in the foxhole! LOL

You MUST, MUST, MUST go through and write down every journal entry entry in your FAR book and you have to do try to work through every FAR sim in your book. You will have to do it on pencil and paper because the Wiley test bank isn't good enough to prepare you for the sims based on what is in the software. For my final review, I completely ignored doing multiple choice questions since I already had an 80% on all sections and only focused on sims and journal entries. Of all the stuff I said before this is the ONLY thing that improved my score so much. Even if you can't predict the sims that will show up, having confidence in how to tackle that type of problem will pay dividends. Furthermore, you will better learn the more advanced content that you will see in the MCQ questions. This is the area where I was able to improve my score.

40% of the scoring on the exam is sims so you have to spend time preparing for them. Trying to increase your score marginally by continuing to pound MCQ questions after you have gained proficiency at 80% isn't going to translate into a lot more points on your exam. The amount of effort for the amount of marginal increase in score isn't worth it. However, if you can take your sim score from a 50% to a 75% by putting in a little more effort on preparation will make a huge difference in your final score.

If you have just failed with a high 60s or low 70s, I wanted to give you my experience how I raised my score to help, if possible. To summarize here is the gameplan…80% on all sections of Wiley, schedule your exam, spend your last 40 hours of prep time doing nothing but journal entries, extended examples, and sims from your book on pencil and paper. (mine was a gleim book).

FAR-84
AUD-
REG-
BEC-

[Michelle Hsiao]

@Gian

Thank you for sharing your experience. This is going to be my first time to take FAR, I just started it this week.

[Guti]

Michelle Hsiao, I took FAR twice, and just by following the above advice, I was able to finally get a passing score. Good Luck!

FAR-84
AUD-
REG-
BEC-

[Me.]

Hey Gian; Thanks for your advice, I just failed FAR for a second time and I like your strategy, I am going to apply it this time. Thanks for sharing.

REG - 50, 64, 73, 76
FAR - 67, 65, 67 Ugh!!!
BEC - 65
AUD - November 30

"You just can't beat the person who never gives up." -Babe Ruth

[Guti]

FormerCaliGirl, good luck!

Good luck to all of you guys, and don’t forget that MC is not 70% of the grade like it was before 2011. Simulations are equally important and the reason why most of us have failed before.

FAR-84
AUD-
REG-
BEC-

[Anonymous]

so hypothetical here for everybody.. if you are purchasing a co and 100% of the company in a business combination in return for a $200,000 note payable and common stock $10 par and $30 fmv at date of purchase. and say you are given information regarding the balance sheet of the company for all account and stockholders equity info retained earnings APIC etc. and then there is additional information regarding the fmv of assets exceeding book value listed. just in a quick summary and you don't have to list everything out but how would this journal entry work if you were to do an entry on the date of purchase and to record everything on their books?

[zkaraca2012]

@dsteele139:

Your key is “CAR-IN-BIG”

Based on your facts:

DR: CAR (Common stock+APIC+Retained Earnings, or total book value assets-liabilities, or as you mentioned,it is given)

CR: Investment in investee (consideration given = common stock issued + cash paid + loan issued)

Noncontrolling interest (zero as 100% acquired)

DR: Balance sheet fair value adjustment : Excess of fair value

Intangibles identified : zero (based on your fact sheet)

Goodwill (if there is a debit item) or CR: Gain (If you need a balance at credit to balance this j/e out)

AUD 78 Lost Credit, retake after FAR rematch
BEC 83 (Expires 2015-02-28)
FAR 71 Failed (2014-09-09), retake in Q4'14
REG 80 (Expires 2015-11-30)

[Anonymous]

im scared!

[zkaraca2012]

@CPAHOPEFUL11 on Land question:

$$ paid for land: 100

Cost of razing old building: 20

Sale of scrap: 10

Land rec = 100+20-10 = 110

J/E:

DR: Land $110

CR: Gain on sale of scrap $10

CR: Cash (paid for land) $100

I see the cost incurred to prepare the land as an addition to land, and not necessarily a cash generating/outflowing activity. So I am not sure it will even hit the books of the entity, so I dumped it into the value of land above.

AUD 78 Lost Credit, retake after FAR rematch
BEC 83 (Expires 2015-02-28)
FAR 71 Failed (2014-09-09), retake in Q4'14
REG 80 (Expires 2015-11-30)

[Author]

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