[Scared-cpa]

Hi guys, I posted on here a while back needing a game plan to study for a FAR retake. I just now received my performance report in the mail and here are my results…

Framework and Standards – Comparable
Financial Statement Accounts – Weaker
Specific Transactions/Events – Stronger
Governmental – Comparable
Not-for-Profit – Stronger

Multiple Choice – Comparable
Simulations – Weaker

After getting this, it confirmed what I thought walking out of Prometric…I would have probably passed if I had not bombed the sims. But here we are…
I just started studying again today and my original plan was to rewatch all lecture videos, take notes, do the MCQs and SIMs per section, and use Ninja MCQ at the same time. But it seems I didn’t do awful on the multiple choice and should maybe focus more on Financial Statement Accounts and JE and just do a heavy review on everything else? Or should I stick with my original plan?

I would like to retake mid-January. I’ve only started restudying today, but it seems like I’m not moving as fast as I should be to go back through all the lectures and take notes like I originally intended. Should I just do this anyway and work harder or should I just hammer mcqs, focus on financial statements and journal entries, and heavily review it all at the same time?

I apologize for another post on tips for review but my performance report suggests to me that I am okay in most areas, so I should just review to keep it all fresh and focus on a few weak areas? Or am I totally wrong and just kidding myself?

I’m using CPAexcel and Ninja MCQ. 4 weeks!

[Anonymous]

I would study for a retake while the material is fresh in your head. Give it a month of studying and take it again. I just took FAR my last section and waiting on the score. Good luck

[sancasuki]

Whatever you do at least save 2 weeks for Ninja MCQs. Not sure how many MCQs you are able to do per day.

If 200 per day, then figure on 9 days of Ninja MCQs and 2 days of Ninja Sims. There are a little over 1700 questions.

[Ginja_CPA]

@scared_cpa, I would study like this is your first time honestly. You need a 75, your prior score doesn't matter as you can't change it. If the videos help you, great, watch them again! I personally can't stand watching videos, so never did, except for my FAR retake, I bought Roger CRAM. Mid-January is very achievable depending on the amount of time you put into the exams.

Work harder, you know which areas you struggled in, but don't just focus on those! I've seen it time and time again on this forum that people feel they only need to study their weak areas, so neglect the rest and end up failing again. I would advise you to study everything, with a bit more emphasis on your weak areas. That is what I did with government, I didn't know it going into my first test, and failed. The next time I restudied EVERYTHING and put more emphasis on government, and passed with an 80.

Besides seeing which areas to emphasize more in your studies, ignore your score report. Practice some SIMs just to understand the format, but you'll probably not see any like what is on your exam. You really need to understand the concepts for SIMs.

Good luck!

REG: 80 (02/19/16)
AUD: 83 (04/11/16)
BEC: 78 (05/28/16)
FAR: ?

[Scared-cpa]

Thanks, Circadian Malfunction. I take your word as the gospel. I planned on starting Ninja MCQs before then…mainly working them all throughout the 4 weeks until I plan on testing. Do you think this is okay or I should reserve Ninja MCQ for last two weeks?

Also, do you think I should just do a heavy review with MCQs and only take notes over financial statement accounts and journal entries like I discussed in my previous thread or do all areas? It just seems like a lot to do now that I have started. I know I need to review everything, of course, but I didn't know if I should go back over everything in detail.

@Ginja_CPA Thanks for your input! I didn't watch the videos the first time around after the first couple topics. I felt that reading the book, watching videos, taking notes, and mcqs was taking too long so I cut them out. But since I am not reading the book again, I thought I would watch the videos as a quick refresher. I don't know if you saw my last thread about this topic, but I know I struggle with journal entries and the accounts that are within each financial statement. So I'm going to specifically emphasize those areas this time around as well as review everything else. I just don't know if I should actually restudy everything else or just review it?

The biggest thing is that I need to cover about 12 sections per day to go back through all of them in time. Each section's video is about 10 minutes long (except the few that are much longer than that) but once I stop the videos to take notes, each video takes about 30-45 minutes. Doing 12 of those a day plus mcqs and sims take up a lot of time, even if that's all I'm doing. So I want to make sure I'm using my time to the best advantage. I just honestly don't know how I should do it.

[sancasuki]

How many questions are you able to do per day? Maybe you should do Ninja MCQ for a full day this week as a test run.

[Scared-cpa]

I don't know how many ninja ones I can do in a day, but in WTB I was completing around 120-180 per day depending on the length of questions/how many notes I was taking over the questions. That was when I was only doing mcqs during final review before I took the exam last time. I'd imagine I can manage the same this time around.

[Ginja_CPA]

If you feel you can get a grasp by just reading it and doing MCQ, I wouldn't watch every video. Just watch the videos over topics you aren't sure about. That way you can get a bit more exposure to it, and maybe hearing an explanation will help more than reading for those areas.

REG: 80 (02/19/16)
AUD: 83 (04/11/16)
BEC: 78 (05/28/16)
FAR: ?

[Scared-cpa]

Well, I'm not going to reread the book mainly because Wiley's book is around 1,000 pages long. The videos don't cover the section in as great of detail so I will reference the book if I need to, but I'm hoping my knowledge is still fresh enough that the videos will freshen my memory. They just take so long to watch when I'm taking notes. All I know is that I have to take a different approach this time around to yield different (and hopefully better) results than the first time. My biggest problem is that I honestly don't know what way I learn best. So I'm just taking everyone's opinions on here.

[Ginja_CPA]

Check out Ninja Plus, I didn't personally use it, but I heard it is extremely helpful! It is something like $67 for 3 month of access, I think there are some preview videos you can use.

REG: 80 (02/19/16)
AUD: 83 (04/11/16)
BEC: 78 (05/28/16)
FAR: ?

[sancasuki]

Ninja MCQ might take you longer since there are more explanations and links to explanations. Plus the problem that many people have with Ninja being so slow.

Watching all the videos and taking notes on them is going to take forever. Doing the MCQs is more helpful than taking notes.

[RE2PECT]

I'm debating the same thing for my REG retake. I just took it on 11/26 and only took a few days off from studying. I was stronger on mcq's and weaker on sims so I purchased Gleim's test bank so I could practice more sims.

I scheduled my exam for 1/17 and it would take me forever to go back and start over. I was going to just keep hammering Gleim for the next few weeks and switch to Ninja for the last 10 days or so. I'll try and rewrite some notes on the more important topics and read the Ninja notes as much as I can.

Does that seem like a good idea or should I just start from scratch and push back my exam if I have to? I prefer to be part of the first score release for some reason.

EDIT: I've heard good things about Ninja Plus for FAR. I watched a few of the cost accounting videos for BEC and I believe it's the same instructor for most of the FAR videos. He did a good job at simplifying the topics. Either that or I'd consider Roger's cram course. I have his full course and he was awesome for FAR.

FAR: 75 Roger & Ninja (notes/flashcards/audio/MCQ)
AUD: 73, 81
BEC: 71, retake 8/29
REG:

[Scared-cpa]

Circadian Malfunction, you think I should STOP watching videos and taking notes over them? I'm just now getting to the different financial statements sections which I think I will watch because that's one of the areas I'm weak on. I'm just afraid that doing mcqs (Wiley and Ninja) will only lead me to fail again? Failing two times in a row really freaks me out and I don't want to do that because I foolishly paid for AUD when I first signed up for the exam back in August. That runs out the beginning of April. So if I don't pass FAR this time, I'm switching to AUD and then I will come back to FAR.

The absolute very latest I can retake is the 16th of January because my classes start back the 17th. And while Ninja Plus sounds good, I'm not going to buy it. Between paying for this exam, Christmas presents, and coughing up well over seven grand for my spring classes, I'm flat broke.

I just need to be told exactly what to do to pass and I will do it haha. If I knew what would make me pass, I wouldn't be on here. This just worries me because I want to make sure I'm using the month to actually learn and grasp the material so I can pass.

@RE2PECT It's good to see someone in the same boat as me since I got a 67. I don't want to give you advice myself since I obviously failed the only exam I've taken thus far, but your other scores look like you know what you're doing. Circadian Malfunction won't steer you wrong! S/he is fabulous! What did you do to bump up your BEC score?

[mtaylo24]

Whats up retakers???? I'm about to get my BEC on (again). If you have Gleim, take advantage of the adaptive learning. It actually works pretty good, your incorrect questions will automatically be baked into your next session . Do about 4 or 5 sets of 20 per study unit and you will shocked how fast you learn. Its pretty embarrassing that I've been using Gleim for years and just now discovered this!

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)

[RE2PECT]

@scared_cpa- The first two times I took BEC, my exams had a ton of IT questions on topics I never came across. The third time there weren't as many surprises and I felt comfortable with most of it. People underestimate BEC, but so far it's been the hardest one for me to study for because everything is so random. This exam is just as much about the luck of the draw as it is about knowing the material.

@mtaylo24- How did FAR go? I'm getting crushed with Gleim lol. Only averaging 65 after 750+ mcq's smh. You think I should just keep working through Gleim and all the tax sims or start over from scratch? I don't think I can read through the book they sent me. I feel like it'll just confuse me more because they get into too much detail.

Is the adaptive learning similar to Ninja? I get too many repeats when I do it on Ninja.

FAR: 75 Roger & Ninja (notes/flashcards/audio/MCQ)
AUD: 73, 81
BEC: 71, retake 8/29
REG:

[mtaylo24]

Im scared to comment on FAR, didn't think it was too bad, but that might be a bad thing.

Definitely keep hitting those tax sims. Did u get the Gleim package with the audios and the audiovisual presentation? It's the same as the book. What I winded up doing was download the audio package (a zip file) and 2x speed it in Windows Media player, while following along in the book. That made it a little bit better. Oh yeah, the “knowledge transfer outline” in Gleim online is the book in PDF format. And the “summary of core concepts” were also helpful, since it is just a condensed summary of the knowledge transfer outline. You probably can make it through the 20 summaries in a day. The book isn't that bad tho, it's not Wiley 😂

The adaptive in Gleim is better imho, because they only repeat wrong answers first, not the same questions over and over like Ninja. I'm mad I haven't been using this function! I would just try to do the whole test Bank in order. This go round, I'm thinking adaptive in sets of 20 for 2 chapters a day.

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)

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