[dbennet6]

I have been studying(or considered more reviewing) non stop(2-3 hours after work M-F, probably do 1-2 hours of studying at work as well honestly and then studying for 5+ hours on Saturday with Sunday off) for FAR for the past 3 weeks and my test is on Feb 27. Using Wiley CPA Excel mostly, a week and a half ago I also sprung from the Ninja Notes and Audio…listen to the audio to/from work mostly.

I’ve “finished” 158/277 sections for FAR in Wiley but as I’ve been trying to do 9 sections per day so that the last week I can review as but it feels mostly like I’m throwing spaghetti against the wall…nothing is sticking, Ill review the slides, watch the video, try the questions and get a 40% usually, review the questions and then try them again or just remember answers so that I can keep up the pace and finish sections.

It just seems insane that anyone could grasp the breadth of the material when there really is no talk of what to focus on, ok so Ive heard know bonds and equity method– woop-de-dooo.

It seems like the only reason im studying now is to know what I really dont know and what I should focus on during the last week before my test.

Sounds like I just answered my own question but was anyone else on the same boat and actually passed? I thought I heard the best method was to just study 3 hours a day everyday for 30 days and it should be ok…

FAR - 74, 76!!!!(5/15/15)
AUD - 68,71, 73, 92!!!!(1/11/16)
REG - 68, 71, 78!!(2/22/16)
BEC - 75!!(10/2/15)

[Anonymous]

You're definitely in a tough place. FAR is a friend to no one. But a lot of us have been in your spot and can identify. The answer is always that you can do this. It's not about hours put in but rather your comfort with the material. You will NOT every be 100% comfortable with FAR but you don't need to be to pass.

[Martin]

I have the solution for your problems. The only thing you have to do is study from 10Am to 10Pm on Sat and 10Am to 10Pm on Sunday.O weekdays you should study at least 3 hrs to 4 hrs per day. Very hard to pass FAR with 5 hrs of studying during the weekend and 2 hrs pn weekdays. Only the chosen few could pull it off. This is not a regular test from college where they give you 4 exam of 3 Chapters each. Far is the equivalent of 5 College courses (Intermediate Accounting 1,Intermediate accounting 2,Advance Accounting, Gov Accounting/ NFO accountings, and IFRS) in one exam.

Through God all things can happen!

“You never fail until you stop trying.”
― Albert Einstein
When I was young, I used to admire intelligent people;as I grow older, I admire kind people.
“Just keep swimming, just keep swimming.”

FAR= 72-84
Audit= 73-82
BEC= 74-75
Reg=77

[Anonymous]

Have you taken and, more importantly, passed any portion other than FAR? If so, are you in danger of losing credit for a section?

If this is your first section, there's no right or wrong answer. If you take it now and fail, other than being out the testing fee, you're no better or worse than you were before but you gain the experience of seeing what the actual test looks like. And if you pass, you've just knocked off what many consider to be the hardest of the four tests.

[Anonymous]

I used CPA Excel and Wiley Test Bank the first three times I tested. I don't necessarily believe that I failed those three times due to my study materials. All of the information is in there. It was my approach. Somebody recommended that I try the Ninja notes, and I dove in to the Ninja material. The more I did the Ninja method : more MCQ's , more taking notes, more rewriting notes, more MCQ's, the more confident I felt. Then, I passed in the last two windows. I only used Ninja to prepare for AUD that I took last week and I felt good about the exam.

The problem with traditional materials for me was that I got to the end and had trouble remembering a lot of stuff that I studied in weeks 1-3. I like to watch Blitz videos , read the Ninja notes to get an overview of the material at the widest level. Then I hammer MCQ's from each section one by one. Read and take notes daily, listen to the mp3 files as much as possible and just hammer the MCQ's. I got to the point the last 3 times where I couldn't study anymore a day before the exam and felt like I didn't learn anything. But when I started the exam it all fell into place. Good luck to you.

[dbennet6]

Thanks for the input everyone! This is going to be my first CPA test ever so maybe I was just freaking out about that a bit too, hoping to be in the 15% that actually passes everything on the first go round.

I think I was getting pretty sick of working from 8-5 then coming home every night and studying from 6/7-10/11 and being hunched over a desk aaalll day. I was enjoying doing a good bit of “stretching” and then some good kettlebell work after work before I was totally engulfed in studying and started to skip these activities. The truth that I will never know everything in order to be comfortably prepared made studying priority #1 over the extraneous activities that would actually make me better suited for studying and sanity.

I think I really had to come to terms that, I'm probably going to fail so I shouldn't worry about being perfect, but at least Ill get some sort of experience as to what I'm up against.

FAR - 74, 76!!!!(5/15/15)
AUD - 68,71, 73, 92!!!!(1/11/16)
REG - 68, 71, 78!!(2/22/16)
BEC - 75!!(10/2/15)

[Author]

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