Failed FAR with a 68 – Would appreciate advice

  • Creator
    Topic
  • #1312592
    mjbey1s
    Participant

    Hello all,

    I thought I was done but found out last night I failed FAR with a 68. I used Becker and ninja MC. Going to retake in 8 weeks on January 6th. Does anyone have advice on what helped them with a retake? I am planning on reading the entire book and taking notes and doing each section of MC in Becker first, then reviewing and doing all ninja mc.

    Or should I scrap Becker and get a new course? PLEASE HELP. I’m completely devastated

Viewing 15 replies - 1 through 15 (of 15 total)
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  • #1312717
    hasy
    Participant

    I have never used Becker and quite honestly, seeing how they organized the Audit exam, I'm a little hesitant encouraging you to continue with Becker. I did take FAR twice, but what I've found about FAR the second time, is that I didn't FULLY make an effort to understand the concepts the first time.

    I got 72 the first time. The second time, for me, it was still a review, but a VERY high-level one. I went through each chapter from Roger very FINELY, I would not leave the chapter UNLESS I understood the chapter. I would look at your score report and see which areas that were weak. Then I would go to your very last MCQ session you had with FAR review. When I began studying for my retake, I had a VERY good idea of which areas was weak for me. I would think you should have an idea of which areas you also need improvement on.

    The first time, I didn't finish all the questions from NINJA. The second time, I finished Roger's and NINJA, some WTB. Also, something that another NINJA taught me is that I would take the last week before your exam and REVIEW every single topic. The last week of the exam, I did 30 MCQ + a handful of sims from each chapter (Roger has 30 ch), the last 2 days, I did 10 MCQ from each chapter. It helps just reinforce and trigger all those knowledge about all the topics.

    Good luck! You'll get them next time!!

    Character cannot be developed in ease and quiet. Only through experience of trial and suffering can the soul be strengthened, ambition inspired, and success achieved - Helen Keller

    -

    BEC 80 (10/23/15)
    FAR 72 (4/2/15); 83 (7/11/16)
    REG 52 (4/28/15)
    AUD (9/9/16)

    Roger + NINJA MCQ + WTB

    #1312732
    JayJay
    Participant

    Hi,
    I failed FAR the first time. Using Becker, I listened to the lecture, reviewed the book, did practice questions, did final review of book, but did not finish the reviewing. And I got 63.

    Second time I passed. I reviewed the book, making sure I memorized all important concepts and formula. Then, I did practice questions. And did final review of book intensively. And I got 83.

    The difference between faling and passing for me isto memorizing the concepts, formula, journal entires. ANd 2 week intensive review of of textbook just before the exam date.

    #1312757
    CPA2BEE
    Participant

    The first time I took FAR I also got a 68 with Becker. I studied for another 2 months using just Becker again and passed with a 80 the second time. Start from scratch and you'll be amazed at how much more you still learn the second time through, there is a lot of material to know for FAR. Good luck!

    FAR - 80
    AUD - 82
    BEC - 80
    REG - 85

    ETHICS - 90
    EXPERIENCE - COMPLETE
    Application for California license mailed 8/4/2016

    #1312766
    mjbey1s
    Participant

    @CPA2BEE, did you also re-watch all of the lectures in Becker? I think it may be a waste of my time and I might be better off reading and taking notes. What do you think?

    #1312793
    JayJay
    Participant

    DO NOT REWATCH lecture. Waste of time. Review the textbook instead. Make sure you understand EVERY concepts in there.

    #1312864
    Wolfwoodd
    Participant

    My advice: Do every single MQ on the “CPAreviewforfree” site. It's a good resource and completely free, as the name of the site implies. The questions are harder than those on the actual exam and they do a good job of explaining the answers. Take notes as you go. If you can handle those MQ questions, then the exam questions should be easy by comparison.

    After that, use Becker (or some other study guide) to study Governmental Accounting and IFRS more in-depth. After that, you should be solid.

    Disclaimer: I would have done much better on the test if I had bothered to learn IFRS. I refused to learn international standards out of spite.

    #1313008
    Ariah
    Participant

    @mjbey1s

    DO NOT RE-WATCH , it's a waste of time. I took FAR 3 times.
    Concentrate on all those topics that you thought were difficult. I hated CAR IN BIG in consolidation, but practiced it so many times that I could solve it in my sleep. Know NFP and Govt well. At the end of the day before you go to bed try to solve/remember concepts without the book. Every morning write down the list of topics that you don't know well and try to learn them by that day.

    With that said, I just got my Far results, scored 88. I am officially done.
    I wish you the very best, try to schedule it before Dec 10th if you can (4 weeks); as such most people can retain only 6 weeks of information.

    #1313041
    mjbey1s
    Participant

    @Ariah,

    I can't retake FAR until January because I took it October 6th. Only allowed once per quarter. I am going to schedule it for January 6, so I will have 8 weeks. Best I could do…

    #1313126
    CPA2BEE
    Participant

    @mjbey1s I did not watch any more lectures when studying for the retake. In fact, I didn't watch another lecture for any exam after that (FAR was my first exam). I realized I was picking up very little from the lectures as I spent all most focus thinking about what word or line Olinto was telling me to highlight or circle. So I'd waste 4+ hours on each chapter doing that, then the real studying began when I started reading what I highlighted and circled. Didn't take long to realize that everything I was highlighting and circling is already provided in the e-book, so I just started skipping lectures and going straight to studying the e-book – saved a lot of time and energy and was effective.

    FAR - 80
    AUD - 82
    BEC - 80
    REG - 85

    ETHICS - 90
    EXPERIENCE - COMPLETE
    Application for California license mailed 8/4/2016

    #1313134
    mjbey1s
    Participant

    @TanK,

    I wanted to thank you for the link above referencing the book. I went and downloaded it during my lunch, and it turn my day upside down. I went from contemplating giving up, to having hope and realizing how bad I want this…thanks a lot again.

    #1313155
    Over_It
    Participant

    It's definitely not Beckers fault. I just passed FAR with an 86 and used nothing but Becker and almost all of the material was new to me. I would watch the videos and work the MC and sims. Then O went back and read the chapters and worked the MC again. The entire time I was doing MC questions from all of the chapters I had completed as to no forget anything. You just can't slack. I put in around 200-250 hours.

    #1313156
    mjbey1s
    Participant

    Yea I am not blaming Becker at all. I have used it for all my other tests and have obviously done pretty well. I believe I am going to see on my score report that the SIMS got me along with maybe doing bad on gov't. Just have to be more prepared in January.

    #1313224
    bhunt815
    Participant

    I passed FAR with only Becker, but I didn't feel very confident leaving the testing center. I still think I might have accidentally got someone else's score. Sorry for the person who received my 50 when they thought they scored an 84.

    I do give tons of credit to the fact that I spent most of the last 2 days burying myself in governmental. I read the chapter and memorized the journal entries, then got a test heavily weighted with governmental.

    FAR 04/11/2016 - 84
    AUD 05/12/2016 - 79
    BEC 07/06/2016 - 81
    REG 08/29/2016

    #1314133
    LIZZ
    Participant

    I made the mistake of taking the FAR exam at the start of the testing window. I hate that i have to wait till Jan 2017 to retake. I used Becker. I feel i have a good understanding of the concepts but need more practice. I am going to use NINJA and kill that exam in January.

    FAR - 05/2015
    AUD - 75,11/2014
    REG - 07/2015
    BEC - 09/2015

    #1314149
    Finally_a_CPA
    Participant

    While I've never used Becker, the first time I took FAR I failed with a 66.After I got my results, I studied for about 4 weeks. I did not want to waste my time reading or watching the lecture videos again. Instead, I did nothing but multiple choice questions. I started out by taking a 25 question quiz for every chapter starting with ch 1. Once I did this all the way through ch 33 (Roger CPA Review), I started taking quizzes that included every single chapter. I think the only lectures I re watched were the one on governmental accounting just because I knew I had done poorly in that section and I honestly didn't get it at all. Those four weeks of ms question paid off and I got an 86 the second time around.

    I guess I must say that I did ran out of time big time the first time around so that could have been why I failed (guess I'll never know) but I honestly did feel a lot more prepared the second time around so I like to think that my strategy served me well.

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