[Anonymous]

Congratulations to you all! Very exciting day for many of you.

I am taking FAR in four weeks, and it is my only remaining part. I have basically gone through all ten chapters, but I need to focus on Becker chapters 3, 5 and 6, as I did not put a good amount of time into them due to tax season.

Besides going over those chapters more extensively for me, I would like to pick your brains and see what you did to prepare leading up to the exam for your review. What was your strategy? What did you focus on? How did you prepare for the SIMS (which is worrying me)?

Any advice would be greatly appreciated! Congratulations to you all again!

[Anonymous]

Know your journal entries… they are the root of accounting and help tremendously with all questions, even conceptual ones.

[Anonymous]

Know your journal entries… they are the root of accounting and help tremendously with all questions, even conceptual ones.

[Anonymous]

I studied my notes and answered all the WTB MCQ and the SIMS. The best practice for the SIMS is knowing your concepts and your JEs. Don't forget to search the AL for ALL of your SIMS, not just the research ones. You can do this! Figure out where your weak areas are and drill, drill, drill it into your head until test day. Good luck!!

[Anonymous]

I studied my notes and answered all the WTB MCQ and the SIMS. The best practice for the SIMS is knowing your concepts and your JEs. Don't forget to search the AL for ALL of your SIMS, not just the research ones. You can do this! Figure out where your weak areas are and drill, drill, drill it into your head until test day. Good luck!!

[klink24]

I did all WTB questions, but only a few SIMs, mainly on my weak areas. Like has been said, know those JEs. Know govt and IFRS as best you can. Some concepts may not be tested, but as everyone knows, these will most definitely be tested.

One thing I did, while going through the WTB, was create a spreadsheet where I had a different tab for each section of the WTB. I would make notes on the things I missed or wasn't 100% comfortable with. Much quicker than writing and you could print it when done to study from. Just remember to put the title of the section at the top of each sheet because when you print you'll need to know which page correlates to what section.

I'm trying this out while studying for AUD. Instead of hand-writing notes I'm creating a spreadsheet where each tab contains a section based on CPA Excel's breakout of the material. I found from FAR that hand-writing didn't help me retain it any better. Typing is much faster and more organized.

FAR: 4/19/2014 - 85!
AUD: 5/27/2014 - 90!
REG: 7/18/2014 - 81!
BEC: 8/13/2014 - 84!

4 up, 4 down, in 4 months.

Licensed 9/22 in NC.

[klink24]

I did all WTB questions, but only a few SIMs, mainly on my weak areas. Like has been said, know those JEs. Know govt and IFRS as best you can. Some concepts may not be tested, but as everyone knows, these will most definitely be tested.

One thing I did, while going through the WTB, was create a spreadsheet where I had a different tab for each section of the WTB. I would make notes on the things I missed or wasn't 100% comfortable with. Much quicker than writing and you could print it when done to study from. Just remember to put the title of the section at the top of each sheet because when you print you'll need to know which page correlates to what section.

I'm trying this out while studying for AUD. Instead of hand-writing notes I'm creating a spreadsheet where each tab contains a section based on CPA Excel's breakout of the material. I found from FAR that hand-writing didn't help me retain it any better. Typing is much faster and more organized.

FAR: 4/19/2014 - 85!
AUD: 5/27/2014 - 90!
REG: 7/18/2014 - 81!
BEC: 8/13/2014 - 84!

4 up, 4 down, in 4 months.

Licensed 9/22 in NC.

[Kimboroni]

Mine is in exactly 1 week, and I keep going back and forth between thinking “eeek, it's in only a week” and “cool, I still have a whole week to study.”

I'm having trouble remembering all of the formulas and calculations, but I'm a pretty good last minute memorizer, so I just have to start hitting the formulas hard and make sure I know them. The foundation is there from all of my weeks of working on this, so I just have to top it off with my short term memory work.

I feel like I'm going to need 50 boards that day. I write a lot of stuff down for FAR.

Thanks for starting this thread, Digi, and thanks to the recent FAR passers who are sharing their approach! I really lived vicariously through your passing scores today.

AUD 84 (1/9/14-Wiley books/TB + free materials)
FAR 83 (5/21/14-the above + NINJA 10 Pt Combo Lite)
REG 84 (7/9/14-Wiley books/TB + NINJA Audio/FC/Notes)
BEC 76 (10/5/14-Wiley books/TB + NINJA Audio/FC)

Disclaimer: My ninja avatar is not meant to imply that I have any affiliation with this site other than being a forum member. That's a pic of a T-shirt that my daughter gave me for my birthday. 🙂

[Kimboroni]

Mine is in exactly 1 week, and I keep going back and forth between thinking “eeek, it's in only a week” and “cool, I still have a whole week to study.”

I'm having trouble remembering all of the formulas and calculations, but I'm a pretty good last minute memorizer, so I just have to start hitting the formulas hard and make sure I know them. The foundation is there from all of my weeks of working on this, so I just have to top it off with my short term memory work.

I feel like I'm going to need 50 boards that day. I write a lot of stuff down for FAR.

Thanks for starting this thread, Digi, and thanks to the recent FAR passers who are sharing their approach! I really lived vicariously through your passing scores today.

AUD 84 (1/9/14-Wiley books/TB + free materials)
FAR 83 (5/21/14-the above + NINJA 10 Pt Combo Lite)
REG 84 (7/9/14-Wiley books/TB + NINJA Audio/FC/Notes)
BEC 76 (10/5/14-Wiley books/TB + NINJA Audio/FC)

Disclaimer: My ninja avatar is not meant to imply that I have any affiliation with this site other than being a forum member. That's a pic of a T-shirt that my daughter gave me for my birthday. 🙂

[Anonymous]

If at all possible, lock yourself in your home for the next four weeks. And I am serious when I say this. The ONLY reasons you should venture out is for work, food, church. And even when you do have to venture out, you should still have a means of studying such as the NINJA audio or an audio you have created yourself. Do MC questions until you are about to puke, clean up and do more. Memorize every formula, journal entry, balance sheet, IS, etc. WRITING formulas and JE's should be emphasized and not typing them. Something about putting the pencil to the paper vs typing that made the information stick. Working over 4000 MC for FAR alone (the third time I took it) helped tremendously for the SIMS. And make sure you practice over and over the research questions.

Good luck!.

[Anonymous]

If at all possible, lock yourself in your home for the next four weeks. And I am serious when I say this. The ONLY reasons you should venture out is for work, food, church. And even when you do have to venture out, you should still have a means of studying such as the NINJA audio or an audio you have created yourself. Do MC questions until you are about to puke, clean up and do more. Memorize every formula, journal entry, balance sheet, IS, etc. WRITING formulas and JE's should be emphasized and not typing them. Something about putting the pencil to the paper vs typing that made the information stick. Working over 4000 MC for FAR alone (the third time I took it) helped tremendously for the SIMS. And make sure you practice over and over the research questions.

Good luck!.

[Anonymous]

No problem kimboroni, yeah i have far in less than four weeks and need to do a THOROUGH review. This could be my last test, and I am ready to be done with this journey, so I need to do everything in my power to make that happen.

Congrats again CPAmommy, and thanks for the tips. Did you find that using the AL helped you on all the FAR sims? I know it helped when I took Audit, but did you find it helped for multiple far sims?

[Anonymous]

No problem kimboroni, yeah i have far in less than four weeks and need to do a THOROUGH review. This could be my last test, and I am ready to be done with this journey, so I need to do everything in my power to make that happen.

Congrats again CPAmommy, and thanks for the tips. Did you find that using the AL helped you on all the FAR sims? I know it helped when I took Audit, but did you find it helped for multiple far sims?

[Anonymous]

I found things that were helpful for FAR, whereas in AUD I found exact answers. For FAR I looked up everything and changed a couple of answers based on explanations in the AL. If I had more time I would have looked up more just to be on the safe side, but I still used the entire 2 hours that I had left for SIMS.

[Anonymous]

I found things that were helpful for FAR, whereas in AUD I found exact answers. For FAR I looked up everything and changed a couple of answers based on explanations in the AL. If I had more time I would have looked up more just to be on the safe side, but I still used the entire 2 hours that I had left for SIMS.

[Author]

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