[rbcpa]

I seriously need help from everyone. I have taken FAR for a total of 4 times now and have yet to pass the beast. I’ve been trending around 73-75% before I go into the exam and my biggest trouble spot is journal entries and sims. Do you think it’s worth getting a tutor?

My scores have been 65,54,72,67

Please help!

BEC - PASSED
AUD - PASSED
REG - PASSED
FAR - PASSED

[Anonymous]

I think there is an element of luck to those who are on the fringe. I got a 73 on my first test and barely studied. It was all because I NAILED the sims. This time around I actually studied and my score dropped.

It may be worth getting a tutor. It's definitely worth looking into new materials. If you have been using the same ones, you may find that other materials are more suited to your particular learning style.

Good luck.

[Anonymous]

I have failed five times and need to change things up as well. I am still kicking myself for failing with a 74 in January.

[005]

Being that it's your last part, now you got me a little nervous (see below) =/

I wish you the best of luck

BEC - ✔
REG - ✔
AUD - ✔
FAR - 11/29/14

CPAExcel, Ninja MCQs, and a sh*t ton of coffee

[rbcpa]

I have becker 2013 + Wiley test bank + ninja MCQ…what other review course do you reccomend?

BEC - PASSED
AUD - PASSED
REG - PASSED
FAR - PASSED

[Guti]

Rbcpa, your trending score on Beckers progress test is 73?

FAR-84
AUD-
REG-
BEC-

[rbcpa]

@Gian yes both on Wiley, and ninja MCQ

BEC - PASSED
AUD - PASSED
REG - PASSED
FAR - PASSED

[CPA soon]

Did you workout every mcq in Wiley before one of those attempts? I think getting through all 1500 mcq in Wiley is the key, and taking notes based on wrong answers while working out questions, or whatever you think is important and that's by going to the reference tab. I write my notes on the printed ninja notes so it's all in one place.

FAR - 71, 68, 74, (8/31/14) 78 ✔
REG - 67, 71, 71, (10/18/14) 78 ✔
BEC - (11/29/14) 86 ✔
AUD - 73, (4/4/15) 86 ✔

I can't believe this is over! 2 years and 3 months..

[TigerWoods]

Write out every possible journal entry and understand the flow of information. Memorizing these will help to an extent, but when you are in a jam on the exam and time is ticking, understanding the material will prove to be the winning strategy. Also, leave more than an hour for sims. For FAR and REG I left over an hour and a half for the sims. The strategy worked.

[Guti]

rbcpa, you should try to increase you MC average to at least 80%. If you are averaging about 80% on all the cummulative MC exam, you should be fine for the MC part of the exam. For the simulations, you should follow the advice below. I will let you know if it works after I get my FAR score.

Not to brag but I thought I would share my experience. Having to retake a section sucks so hopefully this will help people to do it right the first time.

I got a 69 the first time I took FAR. I think I made the mistake of focusing only on MCQ questions on my first attempt and I didn't have an effective study plan to focus on J/Es or sims–my score report reflected weaker on sims and stronger on everything else. I have seen too many people with a score report that says they were stronger on every section except for sims and too much advice that has told people to ignore having a focused study effort on simulations which really hurt me the first time I took FAR.

So, here is what I would suggest that helped me slay FAR on my second try as well as some other things I wish I had known when I started.

Take FAR as your first exam and follow it with AUD! These two have a lot I was able to roll into AUD right after my miss on FAR and pass it easily. Then I was able to roll back into FAR studying without forgetting too much. I really don't know how people can leave FAR for one of their later exams. If I was going to throw in the towel, I wanted to know early and have the toughest test first! I seriously think FAR was 3-4 times more difficult than AUD so I would have hated to have to do that one later.

Get the Wiley Test Bank and only answer MCQ questions until you get to about an 80% for each section of FAR, The reporting on this test bank is nice because you can see graphically how you are scoring on all of the sections so you have the proficiency you need. If you are trying to get higher much higher than 80%, you are getting to a point of diminishing returns and you need to divert your attention to studying J/Es and Simulations. Until you are at the point where you are scoring in high 70s or 80s consistently on the MCQs you may not even want to schedule your exam date because you are just wasting your time. Sometimes I wonder if the people who get tons of failures in a row are using the real exam as a diagnostic exam–if you can't score in the 75+ on the test bank, you probably have no business taking that section at all yet.

Also, one thing I notice about people posting about doing MCQ questions is they say they do an ungodly number of MCQ questions during their study sessions and then complaining about not passing. Don't fool yourself about MCQ–the number of questions attempted doesn't translate into a actual learning. Sometimes it would take me hours to get through 20 questions because I was spending a ton of time trying to figure out what I didn't understand in my book. The point is that you shouldn't confuse blowing through a ton of MCQ question with studying–you are just blowing through questions and not learning.

As for the actual exam, though, you need to move through the MCQ questions like lethal Ninja from Shinobi–30 minutes per section should be your goal. I was at 30 minutes, 40 minutes, 40 minutes for mine because the testlets got harder. Your 80% on the test bank should give you confidence to know you are prepared to tackle them quickly. Start chopping off heads of the MCQ questions as quickly as possible and keep moving like you are in a Bin Laden compound or something. If a couple of foot soldier MCQ questions get away with just a flesh wound DON'T spend time chasing them. Remember you are there for the BOSS at the end of the level AKA the sims. Whenever the test tricks you to spend too much time on an obscure MCQ, think of Arnold Schwartzenegger or some other action star saying…”GET OUT..GET OUT NOW” with whatever movie scene you can think of where some dumbass is trying to get everyone killed because they freeze when the grenade is in the foxhole! LOL

You MUST, MUST, MUST go through and write down every journal entry entry in your FAR book and you have to do try to work through every FAR sim in your book. You will have to do it on pencil and paper because the Wiley test bank isn't good enough to prepare you for the sims based on what is in the software. For my final review, I completely ignored doing multiple choice questions since I already had an 80% on all sections and only focused on sims and journal entries. Of all the stuff I said before this is the ONLY thing that improved my score so much. Even if you can't predict the sims that will show up, having confidence in how to tackle that type of problem will pay dividends. Furthermore, you will better learn the more advanced content that you will see in the MCQ questions. This is the area where I was able to improve my score.

40% of the scoring on the exam is sims so you have to spend time preparing for them. Trying to increase your score marginally by continuing to pound MCQ questions after you have gained proficiency at 80% isn't going to translate into a lot more points on your exam. The amount of effort for the amount of marginal increase in score isn't worth it. However, if you can take your sim score from a 50% to a 75% by putting in a little more effort on preparation will make a huge difference in your final score.

If you have just failed with a high 60s or low 70s, I wanted to give you my experience how I raised my score to help, if possible. To summarize here is the gameplan…80% on all sections of Wiley, schedule your exam, spend your last 40 hours of prep time doing nothing but journal entries, extended examples, and sims from your book on pencil and paper. (mine was a gleim book).

I will let you know if it works after I get my FAR score.

FAR-84
AUD-
REG-
BEC-

[MrCPA511]

When I was studying for FAR and I got stuck on a concept, I would need to journalize the information to understand it fully as it tells you exactly where they will show up for reporting purposes. Without journal entries I would be lost. So if you can think of it this way rather than trying to memorize the entries then everything will come a lot easier. It will help you visualize what's happening on the I/S and the B/S.

Also, for myself, I made a “problem sheet” for each section of ONLY the types of calculation problems that are hard or ones that I keep missing. So I basically had up to 20 sheets with about 10-15 HARD problems on each sheet. I would go through every sheet on a weekly basis in addition to the normal problems. It takes time to make it but if you keep going through a bunch of MCQs you are going to get a lot of problems that are easy and waste time. By focusing on ONLY the hard ones of each section, the easier ones will just come naturally. Every time I come across a problem that was tricky or something I felt I may not remember, I would put it on that sheet. I put the answers to each problem on a separate sheet to avoid cheating and kept repeating this process. The hard concepts ended up being my best subjects when I was done with them.

You should make some sheets based on your own strengths and weaknesses. Since you've already taken this exam a few times, questions on the conceptual framework, inventory, and revenue recognition should be questions that you breeze through in seconds.

FAR - 86 7/2014
AUD - 95 10/2014
REG - 87 1/22/15
BEC - 84 7/2015

[rbcpa]

Wow, thank you to everyone contributing and helping me find a way to tackle this beast. does anyone know if there is a book on journal entries?

Also, my AUD credit expires on 11/30/2014 so I have one more shot at FAR before I lose credit for AUD and REG is set to expire 02/28/2015. How long would you study again?

I am so shattered inside. ugh =(

BEC - PASSED
AUD - PASSED
REG - PASSED
FAR - PASSED

[Anonymous]

Gian, really good advise, thanks for sharing. When do you get your score?

DM

[MrCPA511]

I used my intermediate accounting textbook for the bulk of the journal entries. If you are looking for journal entries on consolidations, governmental or not for profit, then you may need to use an advanced accounting textbook. You should be able to find some cheap used ones on ebay or older editions on amazon.

Come to think of it, my Becker book provided me with most of the journal entries I needed so you should see if this is provided with whatever prep course you are using.

FAR - 86 7/2014
AUD - 95 10/2014
REG - 87 1/22/15
BEC - 84 7/2015

[Tony]

Read my post and look at my signature. Take a shit ton of notes, and make sure you are ready to take the test. Dont take it until you are 150% ready

BEC: 73,78 79
AUD: 60, 60, 70, 80
FAR: 49, 64, 71, 82
REG: 68, 68, 73, 78

DONE.... OMGFG DONE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Well 2 ethics tests to take.

[Tony]

Don't over think the journal entries. Use your knowledge and write the JE out… I dont even know 100% of the journal entries, but talking it over, and writing it down helps me. Use T accounts to o

BEC: 73,78 79
AUD: 60, 60, 70, 80
FAR: 49, 64, 71, 82
REG: 68, 68, 73, 78

DONE.... OMGFG DONE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Well 2 ethics tests to take.

[Author]

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