[kyle.brown]

Guys i really need some advice on how to handle my retake for FAR. I took the exam at the end of April so it has been a few months but i have Wiley CPAExcel and Ninja Book/Notes/Audio/MCQ. Any advice is appreciated since i am starting to stress out.

FAR - Passed 4/2016
AUD - Passed 11/2015
REG - ?
BEC - 05/28/2016

[FIFOisbetterthanLIFO]

You don't need to go and get a list of JEs. If you understand the balance sheet and the income statement and how they are interrelated you will be able to solve and JE problem. Debits and credits and picking the right account is very simple once you nail down the basics. Memorizing JEs will hardly help on the SIMs.

FAR - Passed (82)
BEC - Passed (76)
AUD - Passed (89)
REG - Passed! (81)
AICPA Ethics

Licensed CPA

[taxycpa2be]

@ FIFO I'm reading through this and I'm actually happy you mentioned this because I always see people saying otherwise. I'm almost done with my review and I feel the same way. I can't just sit there and stare at a list of JEs… If I know the account and the flow, I'm able to determine how to form a JE. Good luck everyone!

AUD: Pass (WTB)
BEC: Pass (Ninja/Becker)
REG: Pass (WTB)
FAR: Pass!!! (Becker/WTB/Ninja)

DONE!! 🙂 It's SO nice to be able to finally write this. GOOD LUCK EVERYONE!!

[Kayla123]

@Kyle.Brown:

I took FAR after studying roughly 3.5 weeks, 8 hours a day 7 days a week. It is completely doable to study and sit for FAR within 5-6 weeks so I definitely wouldn't consider moving it.

I used Becker, and after watching the lectures, I simply re-read each chapter while taking extremely detailed notes, did the 2 final exams they provide you with, did all the multiple choice questions and I did about 20-25 multiple choice quizzes. For me, re-reading and taking notes for FAR was really helpful because I was able to slowly explain the concepts to myself. The MC questions then solidified all the knowledge.

AUD- 99
FAR- 93
BEC- 90
REG- 94

[jenpen]

@UM1868 – I'm glad to hear that someone else feels the same way I do on the Wiley stuff. I purchased the package last year before I was even close to ready to start to studying. Then once I got into it, I absolutely hated it but I've spent so much money on it I had to not use it. I didn't feel confident in what I had learned for AUD, and I know a lot of that was my study approach, but I also felt like the questions and especially SIMs were totally different in the WTB than the exam. I took it again last week using a sort of different study approach, but I have the feeling I will be back for round 3 on that one.

I am currently studying for REG and I believe that I am going to use your approach. I am just hating the use of the Wiley book on this and feel like I am getting nothing out of it. I purchased the NINJA 10 point combo today because I really like the way Jeff's books are set up and how they explain the information. I am hoping this will be more useful to me. I am also listening to the audio like crazy and today I started listening at work as well while I am working in simple tasks. I figure even if it is background noise hopefully that will help me absorb and retain the information.

Anyway, lengthy post and sort of off-topic, but I am glad I saw your input.

AUD - 56 - 68 - 61 - 9/8/16
REG - 75
FAR - 7/15/16
BEC - TBD

Wiley CPAexcel and NINJA 10 Point Combo

[TiredGACandidate]

It sounds like to me that you know what needs to be done. I'd recommend taking it when you have it scheduled and giving it your best shot. Because September is an off month, it means you will be able to take it again in October. If you're taking it in late August, your score should be released around September 10 if I recall correctly. if you don't take it before September, you miss out on an opportunity in the Q3 testing window so you might as well give it a shot and see how you do. If you don't do well, you can always take a few more weeks and try to knock it out in Q4. Cheers!

BEC - 76
REG - 82
FAR - 55, 84
AUD - 72,67, 88
Done!!

[UM1868]

@JenPen4

Yes, Wiley tries to hit on every little specific in the text, reading it is insane. For REG, I went through the slideshows which summed up the key points from the lecture then did questions.

Jeff's material is sort of a better slideshow with questions right after each corresponding section, hitting on key points. As with any test, it has a lot to do with questions and the key words you are looking for in those questions.

We don't need a million words around a topic to do well on the test. You need down to the point, key information. Then, when you have an idea about the topic, you can make educated guesses on the harder questions based on your knowledge.

Ninja seems to do this. Becker would be next. Wiley is just words threw on a page.

Bec-76 (7/14)
Aud-81 (8/14)
Reg-82 (7/15)
Far- 82 (10/15)

Moral of the story, don't do your CPA while working in Big 4 Public Accounting.

[Anonymous]

As far as Journal Entries goes, there are a few you want to know for sure.

For sure I'd know the following journal entries:

Bonds

Non-Monetary Exchanges

A rough idea of Government JEs

The Consolidation Entry

Installment Sales

Long Term Construction (Completed and Percentage)

Things like your basic A/R, A/P, Deprecation and so on you should already know.

[kyle.brown]

Thanks guys this really does help me a lot. @UM1868 i started going through the first part of the Ninja Book and was referencing CPAExcel text if i needed some more clarification of wrote down the page in the book that topic was on. Are you taking any notes while doing this or using Ninja Notes as your Notes?

FAR - Passed 4/2016
AUD - Passed 11/2015
REG - ?
BEC - 05/28/2016

[str6116]

@Angelwatch Haven't taken FAR yet but think it's also important to know Pension, DTA/DTL and stockholder's equity JE's as well? Lots of little stockholder's equity concepts like cost vs par method, stock dividends, retiring t-stock, stock options…

I think you could argue pensions JE's are some of the trickiest ones to get with the whole concept of journalizing items into OCI, removing items from AOCI into the I/S, accounting for the related deferred tax benefit/deferred tax expense, and so on.

For Becker, I'm not a big fan of going through the Sims, but there are some sims with examples of JE's for some of these concepts that seem to help. The book doesn't even show % of completion JE's but there is a very long sim related to it.

FAR-82 (7/27/15)
AUD-74 (8/31/15), 92 (1/4/16)
REG-65 (10/28/15), 70 (6/9/16), 80 (7/18/16)
BEC-86 (11/28/15)

DONE

...and that's all the people need to know.

[Anonymous]

I think it's more important to know the pension concepts than the actual journal entries. I'll also fully admit that pensions were one of my weak spots and was very happy with the number of pension related questions I saw on the actual exam…

Deferred Taxes is similar. The concepts are more important. Once you know the concepts the JE's are a bit more intuitive.

Stockholder's equity it doesn't hurt to know the JE's but, again, the concepts are more important. Becker and NINJA focus on questions like “Bob owns X % of Big Company's stock record on his books at $Z. The following events took place: Income, Dividends, etc. What is the value of this stock at the end of the year?” So it's important to watch dates and the % owned since that will determine which method of accounting to use. And, again, if you understand those concepts the JE's come easy.

[str6116]

I hear ya. Agree on pensions. It's kinda strange because the way I learned pensions in my Intermediate II class was through the worksheet format, which Becker doesn't even mention. Didn't really have any problems on the subject in that class, but that's because we weren't really asked any weird multiple choice questions on it like the CPA does… just kinda had to do the worksheet.

I tried watching a bit of a video on YouTube (Allen Mursau, who does have some helpful vids… like one on capitalized interest which I thought Becker didn't explain too well) that had it in that format and it just looked like a mess and confused me even more.

As for the SE stuff, makes sense. Being able to prepare journal entries can help with some MCQ's. Like if you're being asked the balance of APIC for a few transactions under cost method, doing the JE's and deriving the balance from them is a good way to do it if you can.

FAR-82 (7/27/15)
AUD-74 (8/31/15), 92 (1/4/16)
REG-65 (10/28/15), 70 (6/9/16), 80 (7/18/16)
BEC-86 (11/28/15)

DONE

...and that's all the people need to know.

[Jamessemma]

@ARCPA2B yes my simulations were very rough and a lot of work problems. What i don't understand about the simulations is, they say to put in 0 (zeros) in the cells that are not used. But i don't understand if you put in the zeros or not, do they add or deduct points from your grade, or does not change your score

BEC: 82
FAR: 80
REG: 81
AUD: Last exam, end of may 2016.

Key to passing the exam is understanding the topic chapter and sections, not just memorizing what you read. The more you practice multiple choice, the greater chance you have to passing the exam.

[Anonymous]

from what I understand, you're not penalized for wrong answers, you get credit for right answers. So if you put in zeros, there's a chance it could be right.

[Author]

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