Tried it. Fresh out of college, in the middle of the first busy season. I have thought it was like one of the finals in college. Failed in high fifties.
Not quite apples to apples because I did it right out of college back in 2001 or so to get granfathered in before the 150 hour requirement. Pencil and paper all 4 sections over two days. FAR was about 49%. The rest ranged between 45 and 52%.
That was with no simulations.
Later with about 8 weeks of prep, 10-12 hours per week an 84.
The closest experience I have to offer is I took BEC stone cold in May 2014 and made a 74. Don't expect to pass, but anything can happen too. Are you working in accounting, or are you just fresh out of college? If you have several years of solid working experience under your belt, I think definitely helps your cause. I passed FAR after 19 days of studying on the first try, and honestly I relied at least as much on my work experience as the study materials. Just like college in general, the text does a great job at teaching rules, but it does not teach how to approach SIMS that come out of left field. How are you on your AUD studying? Would there be any way you could pivot to FAR for a couple of days before your exam? You'd have to be very careful to not jeapordize your first exam, but just a thought. Even if you don't pass, I think there is still value in doing a real simulation of the exam (provided you plan on retaking FAR before it changes next year). Good luck!
Absolutely! I “Stoned Cold Stunnered” every Prometric worker and cracked open a few beers. But before sitting down for FAR was handcuffed and dragged out by Security.
I should probably clarify that my employer already paid for me to take two sections this window and the NTS is about to expire
I have nothing to lose. My two choices are:
1. Go in relaxed and just take the exam so I can learn what the real thing looks like, and gauge from the score how much I need to learn
2. Sit at home, let it expire, solely to avoid the “black mark” of a low score /failure on my record, which has no bearing as far as I know on my future license or career.
BEC - 87 | 02/28
REG - 70 | 06/10, REMATCH | 08/30
AUD - XX | 09/10
FAR - XX | 12/10
My grad school had these 2 international student tutors in the accounting lab who had taken all the grad level accounting and finance courses available and they both passed all 4 sections of the CPA exam in a week with zero test prep. But like one of our professors said…if you can pass the CPA exam without studying you're too smart to be an accountant.
Why not use these 2 weeks you have to look at some of the material?? Since you have nothing to lose it makes more sense to give yourself better odds of passing ?? Just a thought……
In that case, I might just take it cold since its already paid for. You never know what might happen and even if you do fail, you might get some benefit from it.
The only exam I would take cold is BEC. Not because its easy (I hate this section) but because a large portion of the scoring is MCQ…you could get lucky.
If you do take it, your strategy should be to fly through the multiple-choice questions. Try to narrow them down, but don't take too long on any of them. Leave yourself with as much time as possible for the Sam's, and then just use the AI to answer them the best you can.
.