[Anonymous]

How many hours a day of studying did you do? What study materials did you use?

[Anonymous]

That's borderline insanity my friend. I don't know anyone who has pulled that off. If you do, congratulations and consider yourself an exception to the rest of the candidates!

[ninjacpa_hck]

you will mostly likely need at least 4 weeks. 3 weeks is not enough.

[Abdulmajid]

if you have a strong accounting base, you can do it! why not

[Missy]

Figure at LEAST 160 hours. If you can do 8 hours a day for every single one of those 20 days it's possible.

Licensed Massachusetts Non Reporting CPA since 2012
Finance/Admin/HR Manager

[neaux]

I studied for FAR for about 17-20 days which would technically be less because I only studied on the weekend before the exam. I studied anywhere from 3-6 hours on days that I did study. I was in an unusual situation in the sense that most people wait until they are working and years after finishing school to take the exam. I chose to study during the summer right while information was still fresh, and didn’t start work until following August.

I don’t recommend that anyone really do what I did, unless you are in a similar situation. No one can recommend you an amount of hours because only you know the full story. You have to evaluate your position in terms of knowledge and experience. If you have absolutely no idea, then you should just go by AICPA recommendation which is at least 120 hours I believe, but I can tell you that most people are very inefficient.

I studied far less than 100 hours. Many people would say that’s insane, but these are people who only listen to other people’s guidance. If you don’t know already, figure out the best way you study (visual, auditory, etc.) and study efficiently rather than highlighting, watching videos, or whatever else that doesn’t complement your style of learning. Don't just go through the motions.

[Jdn9201]

I passed FAR in Feb 2016 after 19 days of studying. I had a personal goal of passing all 4 parts in 6 months which doing thid allowed me to accomplish :). I used only Roger and spent approx 90-100 hours, although i was able to listen to most of my lectures while working. This plan is aggressive and i wouldnt reccomend it to people who havent taken any exams yet but it is doable. I highly reccomend that people use the Coso outline as that was my bible for determining whether i should spend more time on a topic or move on. I believe people thing about FAR incorrectly. One blessing about there being so much material is it is impossible for them to test you on everything. I also think people make a big mistake thinking they have to understand everything because thats also impossible. Going at a fast pace helped me to not get bogged down because i didnt have time to. Also slowing down on mcq helped me to understand why an answer is right. I didnt do all of the mcq in Roger – i think i hit about 750. This is doable – just because other people may not be able to do it doesnt mean you cant.

BEC - 88 8/29/15
REG - 82 11/14/15
AUD - 83 1/8/16
FAR - 80 2/29/16

[Anonymous]

I have a good feeling that I can do it. I just need to put extra focus on GNP as I have a solid understanding of the other concepts. It was a question of how many hours people who accomplished it put in. I wasnt asking for recommendations on whether or not I could do it.

[Author]

Replies