[Williams]

I’m sitting for FAR December 9th. I will start studying this weekend which should give me about six months of study time. I plan on putting in 5 hours of study during the week and 10 hours doing the weekend. I have a full time job, before I subject myself to this torture I just wanted to get you guys input on if it’s possible to prepare myself in such a short amount of time. How much time did you guys put in for FAR, I’ve heard some people say they studied for six months. Also I sat for my first exam February 28th and my second on October 7th so i’m making relatively good time, I can always reschedule FAR for January. Any insight would be much appreciated.

[Recked]

Depends on when you got out of school and how much time you need to understand the concepts.
I personally do not think 15 hours a week for 6 weeks will be enough.
I started the end of August and currently have in excess of 130 hours and still have about 18% of the lectures to finish along with the corresponding 4 of 31 sections in the textbook.
I am currently scheduled to sit Nov 9th, but I think I will move it back so I have at least 2 weeks for a final review.

[Ana]

I hate to be the bearer of bad news but I don't think that will cut it. There are candidates that pass that fast and others like me on their 4th try (3 73's and total study time of 11 months). I do think, if you have nothing to lose, take the exam to see what it's like. That will really help you with how to study.

[Anonymous]

At least 200 hours if you want to play it safe. Sure, you can study 150 hours and give it a shot, but I wouldn’t. Everyone that I know put in 200-300+ hours for FAR depending on how many attempts it took them to pass. There is just a lot of material that needs to be covered and constantly reviewed. It takes time and there is no shortcut.

Goodluck.

[Anonymous]

I am currently working full time, putting in about 20 hours a week (7 days a week at this point). I am using Becker which has 10 chapters in the book. My schedule is 1 chapter a week (and it's a lot!) and leaving myself 2.5 weeks for review. I am sitting Nov. 17th and started studying August 20th. 6 weeks for FAR with 15 hours a week is not realistic in my opinion. It's a marathon, not a sprint. You can't cut corners with this material.

[Ana]

I don't know how Becker thinks one chapter can be covered in a week with 15-20 hours. Most of them take 2 weeks. They set up unrealistic expectations.

[Katie]

As others have said, 6 weeks @ 15 hours a week will likely not be enough. I foolishly took literally that FAR would only take 150 hours of study time total, so I gave myself 10 weeks @ 15 hours per week. I realized halfway through that that wasn't near enough. I work full-time and I am currently doing over 20 hours per week. 2 hours in the morning before work, some light review on my lunch hour, 1-2 hours after work, and weekends as needed. My exam is 11/13.

[Anonymous]

Becker and the AICPA grossly understated the needed hours to pass. If candidates knew how many actual hours it takes, then their revenue would decline. Of course there are some candidates who pass in 300-400 hours, but they pass all 4 on their first attempt. You need to be very smart and learn at am exceptional speed to pull that off. Props to anyone who passed all 4 on their first try!!!! 👍

Goodluck everyone! Let’s keep making sacrifices and grinding through the material! WE CAN AND WILL PASS THESE EXAMS! 📚

[krstnam]

I think it really depends on how well you study and your understanding of the material before you begin. For me, with the knowledge I had of FAR when I first started, 15 hours/week at 6 weeks would not be enough, it would have fallen severely short – there were some Becker chapters that took me 3 weeks to get through. I was definitely at a disadvantage.

Now that I have a better basic understanding of the material, I know how to study more efficiently, I would say that your schedule will be doable. Glance through some of the materials and see how you feel about it, or if you can do a 50 question MCQ session over all topics and see what your score is. If it's in the 40%s, you probably have an uphill battle and may need more time. If you're in the high 60's, you're probably at a pretty good starting point.

Good luck!

[Williams]

I think I mistyped but I meant 5 hours every weekday and 10 hours both Saturday and Sunday, 45 hours of study time a week. I've already started, figured the only way to find off if it's possible is to try and do it. Wish me luck everyone, I sit December 9th.

[PNS2CLT]

Everybody wants a one-size-fits-all answer, but there isn't one. The time it's going to take you to complete any section of the exam depends on (1) your existing knowledge of the topics; (2) your academic talent; and (3) the efficiency of your study time. Obviously if you're not far removed from college and did really well in financial accounting (in terms of learning the material, not in terms of grades), you'll spend a lot less time than somebody who's several years removed and didn't learn much (but still got an “A” by doing extra credit, etc.) Obviously if you can learn by attacking endless MCQ, it'll go faster.

One comment: I seriously doubt you'll be able to pull of 45-hour/week of studying while working FT. You might be able to do that your first and last week of studying when the adrenaline's running high, but it's too much. The material is heavy and you'll reach the point of mental fatigue, where you're studying and thinking you're learning… but you realize later nothing stuck. That said, 20-30 hours per week might be sufficient.

[ageis0101]

You've got to be realistic. There's pretty much no way you are going to be able to do 5 hours day + 10/day on the weekends. It'd be impossible to retain all of that, unless not employed. 5-6 weeks of 20 hours/week is enough if you study efficiently. I studied no more than 4 weeks per test, and my timelines were all pretty much identical. M-F I studied 12-14 hours (total), and I took off either Sat or Sun, depending on what was going on, and studied 6 hours on the day that I did study. 20ish hours/week per test, took all 4 tests in 5 months, and even though I didn't kill myself studying and took 3 weeks completely off in the middle, was DONE by my last test.

Whatever you do, good luck

[Author]

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