[jeff]

NINJA Study Notes, Flashcards, and Audio: https://www.another71.com/products-page/

Wiley Software: https://www.another71.com/wiley-cpa-software/

Jeff Elliott, CPA (KS) | Another71 | NINJA CPA | NINJA CMA | NINJA CPE

[Anonymous]

Hopefully you still end up passing!

Ya I'm extremely frustrated by R5-R8 right now. It takes forever to get through them even though the questions aren't too bad and theirs so much material [maybe even more than R1-4] yet even in the CSO it says that business law is only at most 20% of the test! I think Becker really dropped the ball with regards to this especially considering they never even really point out the fact that R5-R8 is only at most a fifth of the test. I guess with your advice I'll just finish up R7 and R8 today and tomorrow, and then ONLY focus on R1-R4 on my 2 review days before my test on Thursday.

[Anonymous]

*on Saturday

[Anonymous]

Took the exam yesterday and I must admit there were no surprises. Full of tax stuff (esp SIM), but also some minutia from other chapters. Becker could have been enough for my version of exam. I however did about 700 of Wiley's MCQ and SIMs.

What I struggled with however, was the time management. I planned to leave 1hr 30min for SIMs and ended up with only 1 hr 10min (there were pretty wordy questions in my last testlet that threw off my plan). I ended up not finishing 1 1/2 SIM, so I don't expect to pass. Sometimes, during the last testlet, I was thinking to just put random answers to the last 7-8 MCQ, but I could not resist to not solve them since they were not hard, just wordy. Well, this has been my challenge, throughout my CPA pursuit, not being able to finish the exam. I am not a native English speaker, so I am pretty sure this is part of the problem.

Last advice: study tax.

________________________________

FAR – 71 (did not touch 5 SIMs!!)

AUD – 87

BEC – 82

REG – waiting

[stefiva3]

Just took REG… It was horrible… I mean, really, I wanted to cry (actually I did) after taking the exam. I am sure I will fail.. this is just so frustrating as I have spent so much time studying. I agree with everyone — definitely focus more on R1-R4… I hate to study it all over again, but I guess I have no choice… 🙁

[Anonymous]

Actually I'll reverse my stance on the difficulty of Becker's sims. I had only done the first sims for each of the chapters when I said they were doable. Now I'm going through the 2nd set of simulations for the chapters, and a few of them are just absolutely ridiculous! I just tried one, and when I saw the answer, I didn't even know where they were getting the numbers from! And, I'm getting 90s on the MC, so it's not like I'm lacking the knowledge you would expect an exam candidate to have. Since these really hard sims are on material that just comes out of left field, I feel it's really luck of the draw when it comes to the test. Taking into account what most people say about their sims on the test, I suspect it's ok to bomb a sim or 2 on the test and still pass if you're doing well elsewhere. Hopefully, you get other reasonable sims too though!

[thistooshallpass]

HATE REG! Just started trying some SIMS in Becker…good lord. Just looking at them makes me want to give up forever. I'm still in R1 & 2 , so individual taxation. I will never work in tax…

Maybe once I get my grade for BEC I can find more drive, but right now I want to do ANYTHING but study.

AUD 85 (2/12) Using Becker
FAR 81 (5/12)
BEC 79 (7/13)
REG 85 (10/1)

"It's not the mountain we conquer, but ourselves."

[Anonymous]

I'm having a really hard time remembering when to use basis and when to use FMV for calculating gains and losses (and if you can even have a gain or loss in the first place!). Does anyone have any good tips about how to keep all this straight? I don't think I can straight up memorize all this info!

[Anonymous]

Flash cards make it much easier to memorize it all. Put in the time, and you'll be able to memorize it plus you're just talking about the basics which is the VERY minimum that you need to know just to be functional with the exam. Becker's general rule I would think is appropriate to what you're talking about. If it's taxable, the basis is FMV. If it's not taxable, the basis is NBV. But, I never really used that rule when I was solving the problems. I just memorized how to treat each different transaction.

[Anonymous]

Thanks for your help, cardinal! With those types of scores you have, I'll definitely take any advice you're willing to share 🙂 Hope your test went well today!

[Anonymous]

just got my BEC score. One more to go! REG is going down. I finished all my chapters with 3.5 weeks till test time. Time to hammer out MC!!!!

[Anonymous]

hey guys quick question, about to kick off my REG studying today, do you think with 15 hours a week of studying between now and october 3, would i get a good grasp of the material? I am using only Becker Self Study.

Update:

I have two choices. Originally, I was planning to take REG by October 3, then trying to study straight through for BEC by exam date November 30. I am starting to think that REG by october 3 may be pushing it (8 chapters in 8 weeks), so then i was thinking I could do BEC by October 3, then go for REG by January 13 (over three months study time), when my NTS expires. I am leaning more towards the second choice, but my issue with that is that if i fail REG on january 13, i would have to wait until April to retake.

Any thoughts on what would we better?

[Sgt_Bilbo]

@edfeldLFC

Based on my experience, 8 weeks isn't enough time to really master all of the topics in REG, but it is certainly enough time for BEC. I would suggest working through BEC for your 10/3 test date, then focus your energies on REG. REG has become the more problematic section of the exam, so I would highly suggest taking your time with REG, because trying to sprint through it could be extremely problematic to your passing the section.

AUD - 86
BEC - 79
REG - 66, 85
FAR - 89

I AM OFFICIALLY DONE! 8/21/2012

[futuremdcpa]

I just saw my score today, and thought I would finally give some insight on how to best prepare for REG. I really predicted a 47. I walked into the exam thinking I was fully prepared over the 7 weeks I had, full time (many days I did nothing though). I walked out feeling CRUSHED. 3 out of the 5 SIM's I guessed. GUESSED. I am positive one was a pre-test since it was the longest, and nothing I'd even heard of before. I nailed the research question within 2 minutes.

I took about 40-45 minutes for ALL 3 MCQ testlets. Yes you read that right. 40-45 minutes. I spent about 20-60 secs max on each question. I felt that they never became harder, and they were 1-3 lined questions, basic calculations. I automatically assumed I did horribly on testlet 1, since testlet 2 was the same, as well as 3. By then I lost all hope, and rushed through everything because I could not stand being in the testing room anymore.

Then came the SIM's…. boy oh boy, they were not hard, they were actually okay, however, becker spent a very SMALL amount of time on them.. literally 15 minutes. I had a lot of questions on this specific topic however, in the sims & mcqs. I did my best, tried to use the research function but nothing was helpful. Its either you know it or you dont. I made educated guesses on everything.. I was planning to retake it after tax season.. I was convinced I failed…

I scored 62,79,71 on the final exam #1.. I did not think Becker even prepared me for the exam.. I had to make sure I was taking the right exam even.. But nonetheless I walked out feeling defeated.

So today, I wake up and see my score… at first glance I was sure it said 65, and was a bit disappointed, but expected it.. Then I zoomed in (using iPhone while driving.. bad I know), and saw an 85.. I yelled while driving…. nothing for the longest time has made me as happy as when I saw my score.

I scored stronger in everything, except SIM's which was comparable.. I still have no idea how I scored stronger .. It just goes to show you.. you never know.

Good luck to everyone!

REG: PASS || BEC: PASS || AUD: PASS || F: SCORE PENDING..

[MinSeokYi]

I'm aware the whole topic on whether property law is still tested or not has been discussed before, however, I just wanted to know if the Ninja notes on this topic was “good enough” come test day……….

BEC: Passed
REG: Passed
FAR: Almost Past (lol)
AUD: I thought I passed with flying colors, but I wasn't close!

[holmea52]

@futuremdcpa, I've been using Becker for my review as well. I took the classes and would always schedule my exam about two weeks after the class ended. It has worked for me so far. With REG, though, I had it scheduled for May 26th and had to reschedule because I had a lot of other things going on at the time. I'm concerned because I'm now going back to the material for a second time but without the classes.

For the first three exams I took, I would go to class during the week then would go over Tim and Peter's lectures on the weekend before doing the homework. So I'd always go through the lecture twice then do the multiple choice at least twice before exam day. I know a lot of people who have taken these exams who feel that REG is the most strenuous. Do you think what I'm doing will be enough to pass? How did you prepare?

F - PASSED (11/26/11)
A - PASSED (1/14/12)
B - PASSED (7/14/12)
R - PASSED (8/31/12)
Ethics Exam - 95 %

Just waiting to be able to put those three little letters behind my name...

[Author]

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