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I just took FAR Friday, October 29, 2010.
First a little background. I took FAR and failed twice before but did not put in the requisite study time, so I don’t even like to count those as “tries.” They were half assed attempts. I had the mindset that this test was way too hard and there was no way I could pass. I needed to change gears and study for a different section. I chose BEC because I thought it would be the “easiest.” I studied for and took the exam in the following order: BEC, AUD, and REG and passed each on the first try. I utilized Becker to study. I watched each lecture once, read each chapter once, took notes, and went through each chapter’s questions once. I finally set my mind to it and learned to tell others “no.” I had to put myself first and it worked.
This leads me to this past Friday when I sat for FAR. I knew from past experience, half assed or not, that FAR was a beast. I followed my same study plan as the other sections only this time I took four days off of work right before my exam to review. I even purchased the Becker Final Review (which I was not too impressed with).
Contrary to a couple other posters on this cite the majority of my MC questions were computational problems, not theory. There were probably only 10 or less theory based questions in each testlet. The first testlet was challenging but definitely doable. I actually felt a little happy inside thinking that my studying had paid off. That feeling did not last long. Testlet two was definitely harder and the third testlet was almost impossible. The subject of each MC question was familiar but each question was just so challenging. So much information to process. The majority of the questions were very lengthy. The questions were four, five, or even six lines of verbiage that needed to be read to set up and ask the question. I felt like it was eating up so much time.
Before I walked into the exam I had it worked out that I would take 50 minutes for each MC testlet and 45 minutes for each simulation. I pushed over my limit on the second and third testlets, which made me very nervous as I had less time to work on the simulations.
Next came the simulations. One piece of advice – know your journal entries. I was not comfortable enough with them and I’m sure I will pay for it. The written portion of BOTH simulations was EASY. I have read other posts that said that their written portion was pretty easy too. It was basically explain the difference between X and Y. And both topics were super easy. Almost too easy. I felt like they just gave away an easy 10 points, which I totally needed!
The individual work tabs in the simulations were each on a different topic. Each had a long situation to read through before you did any work. Sometimes I was a little confused as to what exactly they wanted. Again reading so much felt like so much time wasted.
Overall the exam was more difficult than I expected. The MC was really hard and really lengthy. The topics were familiar but most of them had really difficult twists thrown in. Same with the simulations; however, the WC was easy. Walking out of the exam I feel it could go either way. If I had to predict I would say I probably failed but I know from going through this process that you really never know what to expect since the test is curved. I am hoping for the best and stressed with the waiting game.
A few pointers for those taking FAR this quarter:
1. Pay attention to your time on the exam. The questions are so difficult and so wordy that you could easily go over on the MC and not leave enough time for the Sims.
2. Do not underestimate knowing journal entries. I kind of glossed over them in my studies figuring that I could figure it out on the exam. Don’t go this route… study them.
3. Do as many MC problems as possible to prepare for the exam. This is especially important in the FAR section.
Good Luck to everyone testing this quarter!
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