[Keely]

I realize we have some “worriers” on this board, and I would definitely classify myself in that category, so sorry if this is whiny.

I always have this problem with my exams, and the past three times it’s turned out fine, but FAR is on another level. It’s so much info, and nothing is an “easy” topic. I felt with the other three, at least some things were simple, whereas FAR, everything takes huge amounts of brainpower to master.

My strategy has always been to watch the lecture and immediately do the MCQs without doing any studying. I do this as a little self-assessment to see how much time I really need to spend on the topics. As I go through F1-F3 MCQs first time, I’m ranging anywhere from a dismal 46% (on intercompany transactions) to 85-90%. Mostly I average in the low to mid-70s. The problem is, after I do those, I go and thoroughly read the book, take notes, study and do the questions again. I’m getting better scores, but I honestly don’t feel like the lightbulb went off and it’s like, “Oh I totally understand this now!” Every calculation is a struggle. Sometimes a 5 minute struggle. I’ve never had a time management problem in the past, so I’m not really worried, it’s just discouraging that I don’t feel my hard work of studying increases my understanding very much.

How have the rest of you dealt with FAR? It’s my last exam and I have nightmares where even though I passed the last three on the first attempt, I never pass FAR. Sigh. Just needed to vent, I guess.

BEC: (4/2012) 88
AUD: (5/2012) 91
REG: (8/2012) 82
FAR: (1/2013) 78 🙂

VA CPA #42010

[make_yourself]

FAR is a monster. F2 was the absolute worst section of FAR for me, I was ready to throw my computer at the wall when doing those supplemental questions. In my opinion though, it gets better.

In my experience, everything seems to come together a lot more during the final review. So my advice would be to do your best to power through the sections for the first time, even if you're not getting the highest scores, and follow the first run-through with a thorough review (and possibly a second review of weaker sections if you have the time).

If you're really not understanding a specific topic after a few honest attempts, don't spend an entire day getting frustrated and trying to get it figured out. I did that with taxes in F6 and it was a huge waste of time. Just move on and come back to it later.

Studying in smaller time increments helps me personally because I run into a lot of difficulty focusing for a long time. I usually do half-hour to 45-minute study increments and then step away from the computer for a few minutes.

The BASE account analysis method saved me throughout FAR, it seemed like the answer to 60% of the questions.

There is so much material on this exam that I don't think it's possible to feel fully ready. By the night before my exam I felt like I knew absolutely nothing because I was trying to stuff so much information into my brain. In any case, your prior exam scores look great so I'm sure you'll do fine, just keep powering through those awful Gearty lectures and MCQs!

FAR - 81 (07/24/2012)
BEC - 92 (10/06/2012)
AUD - 92 (11/29/2012)
REG - 88 (02/28/2013)

Ethics - 90

California Licensed CPA - 12/2013

[Anonymous]

@make_yourself you have my attention. What it the BASE account analysis method? Do you know of a good link I could learn about this?

[make_yourself]

The BASE account analysis method is applied to whatever specific account is applicable for the problem. It looks like this:

Beginning balance

Additions

Subtractions

Ending balance

It can be applied to a lot of different problems where you’re given beginning and ending balances and asked to figure out something in-between, or asked to figure out beginning or ending balances themselves. The easiest example I can think of is this:

Say there is a company that has a beginning-of-year A/R balance of $100, and an end-of-year A/R balance of $50. The company had $200 in cash receipts during the year, what amount of revenue did the company book on the accrual basis?

In this case, you would be applying BASE to the A/R account:

B – $100

A – ???

S – ($200)

E – $50

Start with the beginning balance of $100 and the ending balance of $50. You know the company received $200 in cash during the year, and since we’re looking at A/R, the receipt of cash would be a subtraction, since that amount would have to be taken out of the A/R account and moved to a cash account.

That leaves you with one missing variable, the accrual revenue booked during the year, which would have to be an addition to the A/R account (credit revenue, debit A/R), since we would assume that we didn’t receive the cash at the same time that we booked the revenue.

Now you have three out of four variables, and you use those three to solve for the fourth. So in this case the accrual revenue booked during the year would have been $150 [$100 + $150 – $200 = $50].

Hope that helps!

FAR - 81 (07/24/2012)
BEC - 92 (10/06/2012)
AUD - 92 (11/29/2012)
REG - 88 (02/28/2013)

Ethics - 90

California Licensed CPA - 12/2013

[G35]

This sounds very familiar. I had a freak out moment a week before the exam when I started to review the earlier chapters and realized that I forgot half of the material. There is just too much. Take it chapter at a time. If you have time, do not move on to the next chapter until you're comfortable with the material.

I don't know about others, but the BASE formula did nothing for me. I'm more of a visual learner, so I did T accounts for everything.

Good luck!

AUD 88 | FAR 79 | BEC 81 | REG 82 |

[Anonymous]

Same boat. FAR's my last exam, 2 weeks from today, and it feels SO much worse than all the others. Because it is. I've gone through all of Becker once and am 160 hours into studying. Unfortunately, that studying has been spread out since AUGUST so now that I'm reviewing, I've forgotten SO MUCH. I'm in my review of the abysmal F2 right now and I don't know whether to laugh or cry.

I'm actually HOPING that the majority of my test is NFP/Gov't stuff, because apparently that's all I'm really solid on remembering. This F2/math/details+minutia/exceptions stuff is just NOPE.

[Anonymous]

@Keely, Like I said in your previous post, It doesn't start to click for me until I read through all of the material and take notes. The reading, along with the lecture “insights” puts it all together. I will say that some parts of F3 made me feel the way you do mostly because I took Advanced accounting in college and the way becker teaches that section is different than the way I remember learing it. So I was beating myself up trying to figure out those differences instead of just letting becker do it's thing.

The questions seem to be more of a pain because of all the tricks. Figuring those out is its own form of study for me.

Good luck

[Anonymous]

thanks for the BASE method tip @make_yourself

I have rescheduled for 12/6 . . . but still nervous that FAR will get me again

[mmcgrad1]

I think FAR seems overwhelming until you're done with it. Personally, I pushed FAR back from the end of May twice to the beginning of August. It was a horrible decision. Yes, I did very well on the FAR exam but I wasted so much time not studying and worrying. I made the exam out to be much more difficult than it actually turned out to be for me.

I think the key to FAR is that you can't memorize like in the other sections. You have to learn the concepts behind the accounting and it makes remembering the material much easier. I think you just need to stop worrying, buckle down, and just take the exam. If you study diligently, then you will be surprised how much you know.

NIU CPA Review Correspondence is awesome!

I passed all four sections on the first attempt

[Keely]

Thanks for the advice, everybody. I am trying to stay positive and just power through. With regard to the BASE mnemonic, I usually put it into algebraic form with an “x” for the unknown variable. I find it to be a foolproof way to not screw up the math. I always do the equation horizontally instead of vertically like Becker. It sounds trivial, but I think it really helps.

I am just so looking forward to the end of this journey. Good luck to all of you taking exams soon!

BEC: (4/2012) 88
AUD: (5/2012) 91
REG: (8/2012) 82
FAR: (1/2013) 78 🙂

VA CPA #42010

[junpark]

@Keeley,

I just made sure I had a good pace everyday. Even if it's just one section, one homework a day, I made sure I worked those problems and stuck to the schedule. As for me, if I deviate from my schedule (like I did with regulation), I find it harder to come back to the material. Kinda explains my current situation with Reg. It's been 2 months since I promised to start studying, about 3 weeks ago, I started review process and I just took my reg final exam on becker. Not so surprisingly, but definitely discouragingly, received 67% overall. How was your becker final exam score on reg?

[Author]

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