[Bourne]

Hi all,

I’m taking FAR (my first CPA exam) on 10/19. I’m using Wiley Platinum (comes with additional test bank). I’ve been studying for about a month doing approximately 5 hours a day during the week and about 4-5 hours a day on the weekends. I have it planned so that I’ll be done with the Wiley materials about 2.5 weeks before I sit for FAR, in which I will do a million MCQ’s and continue to read over and write out the Ninja Notes. My question is: would it be wise to also purchase the Ninja MCQ’s even though I already have a lot of MCQ’s to practice from Wiley? Also, what do you guys suggest I do a day or two before exam day?

Thanks in advance!

[Bourne]

Also, I've noticed that the test scores for FAR over the past 5-10 years have been the lowest in Q4, does anyone have any speculation on the reasoning for this?

[Anonymous]

I recommend Ninja to everyone-it's a great way to review and just see different questions-you will see overlap, but there will be some that will definitely stump you but you will be better off! Speculation about scores is useless in my opinion….:)

[Defo]

I used Wiley Silver and thought there were more than enough MCQ. I have no idea how everyone finds the time to study with multiple prep courses. If you do think you have the time I can only imagine it helping.

[Bourne]

That kind of what I was getting at. With the insane amount of MCQ's that Wiley has I don't think it's reasonable to get through all of those in addition to another set of MCQ's from Ninja. I'll stick with just the Wiley MCQ's, it seems like they're pretty good as it is.

[Mike J]

Tips?

First and foremost, DO NOT go into the exam with the mindset that you have to MEMORIZE anything.

I'm sorry about the caps, but it's a pet peeve of mine. I failed FAR because I was obsessed with trying to memorize journal entries.

Instead, know COLD whether a given account is normally a debit and credit balance. You want to think about what youre being asked to do. Am I paying cash or receiving it? Am I accruing an expense? Setup the journal entry to solve for x.

Obviously, you have to memorize some things like income recognition rules. So you shouldnt bother trying to memorize formulas.

Next, I would study government and nonprofit accounting. Be comfortable with the differences among the gov accounts. Let the name of each fund or account help. E.g. Agency funds just take and disperse money for others…so as the name implies there won't be fund balance but rather only cash and transfers in and out.

For nonprofit remember that profit is not the key factor as the name implies. You want to tell users of the financial statements you are using donations properly as per your stated mission. So know how to manipulate the three different revenue types. Also, understand that you will have to simultaneously recognize an expense an income at times. e.g. if a CPA (e.g. you) donates his or her services to a food pantry, the food pantry must debit the expense as if they paid for it and credit the FV of the services donated as if they recieved cash. You do this to show users of the fin stmnt what event took place.

In sum, if you just think about what you're being asked logically rather than focus on what memorized formula applies, many of the questions you'll see on FAR will become that much easier.

But that comes with practice and a certain comfort level with the material. You have plenty of time.

Good luck.

[Bourne]

Thank you Mike! Greatly appreciated! I love your bio BTW, very clever. Congrats on passing all four parts!

[Bombblotter]

You may want to think about getting the MCQ, but I'd wait until you start to review all of the MCQ though. If you begin to memorize the Wiley MCQ, then the Ninja may be worthwhile.

I had a TON of MCQ on my exam relative to Gov and Non-Profit, but may just be unique to my experience.

[jcman240]

I only use ninja MCQs, the explanations are thorough and you can learn more from reading them than you can with Wiley.

[Author]

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