[Wannafree]

Hi FAR Gurus
I am retaking FAR after a fiasco in March and going through Becker’s review and Ninja MCQ.I know everyone is different but still want to know from others which FAR chapter/chapters you feel is/are difficult and I must know.
Earlier (till Q1 ) most people were suggesting GOVT/NFP as must know chapters but as per new CSO it’s percentage is reduced to 8-10% .
Your inputs are really appreciated.

[Snickets]

Yeah no problem. Studying for FAR you get side tracked doing the BIG sections and basic things.

Those particular topics would blindside me so bad. Important to know the JEs for all of those and it can help fill in those misc areas.

Bonds/Notes receivable for some reason would blow my mind because it is the opposite of what I was used to and my prep materials hardly touched on it.

AUD 84
FAR. 78(expired/retake 5/9/16)
BEC 77
REG 76

[SallyCPA]

@I_want2B_free How are you doing the review for FAR? I am using becker and Ninja as well but its hard to do progress tests with previous material just because there is so much material to keep learning…additionally Ninja only has 4 sections while Becker has 10 so its hard to know what to select from..

[Cruzer]

They are all pretty damn hard but I think if I had to narrow it down I would say investments, consolidations, stockholder’s equity. Bonds I thought were hard until I drew out this chart that simply explains it all in one little picture.

Is anyone else currently studying directly off of the CPA exam blueprints like I am? Literally feels like they are going to test JE’s like crazy. The memorizing and understanding questions will be not too hard at all and someone on here has it projected to be 20 of those and 44 of application. Really need to write JE’s out multiple times and know any and every single way they can ask you to solve in a problem

[SallyCPA]

J/E for what topics exactly? There are so many topics with J/E in FAR….

[Wannafree]

@SallyCpa,I understand what you are saying ,two reviews chapters never match and hence you can't read one chapter from becker's and try doing MCQ from Ninja on same chapters.Yes I have faced the same problem.What I have done now ,listed all the topics in a word doc and reading topics ,testing that topic on freeCPAreviews as they have the question topic wise.My main focus is improve my speed hence doing practice , like trying to see how fast I can prepare the Cash flow statements or calculate the amortization of tangible under GAAP and IFRS.I am doing repetition.Earlier my approach was to finish chapters Becker's but it didn't work in FAR so changed to topics.I am also making notes on topics.
Let me share the list of topics.Currently I am trying to cover 5 topics a day and latter I wish to do 7-8 topics a day.I asked the people here on forum some questions on FAR and got convinced that repetition (practice ) or not forgetting the earlier chapters of FAR topics is the key.This focusing on topic has worked for me in AUD and trying again in FAR.This way I am not having problem of forgetting the earlier read chapters.
The Financial Reporting Environment
2: Financial Statements
3: Income Statement Items
4: Financial Statement Disclosure
5: Cash and Investments
6: Receivables
7: Inventories
8: Property, Plant, Equipment, and Depletable Resources
9: Intangible Assets and Other Capitalization Issues
10: Payable and Taxes
11: Employee Benefits
12: Non current Liabilities
13: Leases and Contingencies
14: Equity
15: Business Combinations and Consolidated Financial Reporting
16: Derivatives, Hedging, and Other Topics
17: Statement of Cash Flows
18: Governmental Accounting
19: Governmental Reporting
20: Not-for-Profit Accounting and Reporting

[M123]

FAR exam is like golf. You win golf on the short game. Everyone likes to crush the ball down the fairway, but the best score comes from the little shots.

The parts of FAR that are notorious are Leases, bonds and possibly gov. After a few dozen lease/bond questions it gets pretty easy, but the IFRS , Gov and Non-Prof questions they throw in are pretty esoteric. The best play is to get a good foundation with videos and notes then do as many MCQ as possible of all types.

Incidentally, I only did 1200 out of about 2000 mcq and was able to pass but the skin of my teeth. More MCQ would be even better.

I find the info on percentage mix of questions only marginally useful. If you think section x is not a risk because it's only 12% (or whatever) of the score – they will find a way to trip you up – and it may be more than 12% on the test! That could be the diff with a win or lose.

[SallyCPA]

Thank you @I_want2B_free and @M123 for the advice!!

[mtaylo24]

My current most hated are leases and pensions…I remember driving to prometric this last sitting thinking about how much time I didnt spend with those two topics and sure enough…WHAM! There it was smiling me in the face on the actual test, all three testlets and I got sims on both! Going through leases today and nothing is different, I still hate them. I'm starting to realize that I stuggle with A/R and A/P as well. I guess if you put all of your time in bonds/equity/inventory/govt/nfp, its easy to forget about the “cake” chapters.

AUD - 1st - 60 (12/12), 61 (2/13), 61 (8/13), 78! (11/15)
REG - 55 (2/16) 69 (5/16) Retake(8/16)
BEC - 71(5/16) Retake (9/16)
FAR - (8/16)

[Anonymous]

Pensions and leases were the topics I spent the most time studying, but I was able to develop a problem-solving strategy for the calculations and journal entries that made them more rote and tedious than difficult.

I would also put accounting for construction contracts up there on the list of things that took a lot of time for me to fully grasp.

And I would agree with those who've said it depends heavily on your work experience. I spent most of my career in insurance, so I had tons of bond/investment accounting experience when I took FAR and did not struggle with that at all, but a lot of people find debt and equity accounting to be very challenging, so keep that in mind as you read through people's responses.

[lou]

Non-montary exchanges, troubled debt, dollar value LIFO, government, pensions and then leases/bonds to a degree – it really depends… Just took my first of 2 mock exams about 10 days out – Netted a 70% w/ the sims but only went 40/66 on the MCQ's – during my review of the exam I counted 4-5 MCQ questions that were gimmies that I simply didn't read 100% or didn't fully think through, maybe even 6-7… which would take me from a 70 to a 75 easy enough.

I've come to grips with I won't know everything on exam day, but have an individual strategy on how to attack problems to give yourself a 50/50 chance rather then a 25% chance.

For me my last 9 days or so will be on the items I listed above in addition to MCQ banks to keep my brain moving.

[M123]

I resonate with the JE part. I'm shocked at how there isn't an entire chapter dedicated to every kind of JE in every prep material. There are great sites that show JEs – try to know a few of them.

The ones that I had the most challenge with are Gov budgetary as related to actual transactions.

This is one area where Becker makes it far more complicated than it has to be. They make a huge stink about a relatively simple JE (“carinbig”) when if they divided that time into more variety of the types of questions we WILL get – it would be far more effective. I'm not a fan of mnemonics.

The few JE samples in the books are less than satisfactory.

This site was gold to me: https://www.principlesofaccounting.com/illustrative%20entries/entrieslist.htm

[SallyCPA]

@M123 Did you just print out all of the JEs from that website or did you write them all down? Trying to figure out what would be better..

[Wannafree]

@SallyCPA , I made a list of JE going through Roger's each chapters , some entries I made through Gleim too.It is better you compile the list yourself , I learned lot while just going through these JE. Roger's is best for JE.

[M123]

SallyCPA, I made a list of the ones I had trouble with that included bonds, gov and a few others. Then I poured though that site and others to try to find JEs. Then used Evernote (can you tell I like it 🙂 ) to copy the JE then annotate it – what is it actually doing in English.

Two techniques:

1. Think of all the transactions that occur. For instance Bonds – issue, interest accrual, buy back, conversion to stock, etc. The “prep materials” ahem will likely have questions on different transactions in addition to the issue or first transaction.

2. JE's in questions that require them. Becker has an excellent technique for questions relating to beginning/adds/subtractions/ending (BASE) – but those weird questions with seemingly unrelated facts – they are usually a JE. So the practice is to turn it into a JE. Questions of “what is the cogs” – just start chipping away at a JE until it balances and makes sense. Those require practice but a good knowledge of natural balances in the COA is helpful.

[Author]

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